that a
time when we had scarcely a regular soldier for our defence--when the
old and young were alarmed and terrified with apprehensions of a
descent upon our coasts--that Providence seemed to have worked a sort of
miracle in our favor. You saw a band of armed men at the great call of
nature, of honor, and their country; you saw men of the greatest wealth
and rank; you saw every class of the community give up its members, and
send them armed into the field to protect the public and private
tranquility of Ireland; it is impossible for any man to turn back to
that period, without reviving those sentiments of tenderness and
gratitude which then beat in the public bosom; to recollect amidst what
applause, what tears, what prayers, what benedictions, they walked forth
amongst spectators, agitated by the mingled sensations of terror and of
reliance, of danger and of protection, imploring the blessings of Heaven
upon their heads, and its conquest upon their swords. That illustrious,
and adored and abused body of men stood forward and assumed the title,
which I trust the ingratitude of their country will never blot from its
history--the Volunteers of Ireland."

He thus speaks of the national representation of the people;

"Gentlemen, the representation of our people is the vital principle of
their political existence; without it, they are dead, or they live only
to servitude; without it, there are two estates acting upon and against
the third, instead of acting in co-operation with it; without it, if the
people are oppressed by their judges, where is the tribunal to which the
offender shall be amenable?--without it, if they are trampled upon and
plundered by a minister, where is the tribunal to which the offender
shall be amenable?--without it, where is the ear to hear, or the heart
to feel, or the hand to redress their sufferings? Shall they be found,
let me ask you, in the accursed bands of imps and minions that bask in
their disgrace, and fatten upon their spoils, and flourish upon their
ruin? But let me not put this to you as a merely speculative question:
it is a plain question of fact. Rely on it, physical man is everywhere
the same: it is only the various operation of moral causes that gives
variety to the social or individual character or condition. How
otherwise happens it, that modern slavery looks quietly at the despot on
the very spot where Leonidas expired? The answer is, Sparta has not
changed her climate, but sh