PRACTICABILITY OF IMPROVING IRELAND, 191 



great statesman, Sir John Davies, an Englishman, who resided in 

 Ireland for upwards of sixteen years ; and was, perhaps, the only 

 Englishman, of ability, who took TIME to learn the Irish character; 

 he says of that people that " They give a willing ear to all lessons 

 fitted for their improvement in morals, whenever they know that their 

 governors can and will protect them." (page 199.) "When their 

 governors can and will protect them" How remarkable and how 

 perfectly agreeable to experience is the concluding part of this sentence : 

 and the coercion bill of a late date, in its effects, fully verifies the 

 remarkable words of this great man ; for the larger bulk of the people 

 were glad of the act ; and when their agitators, in other words their 

 most persecuting tyrants, were kept in awe, the poor bewildered pea- 

 sant was glad to be freed from his unwilling yoke; and here again 

 we perceive the deep inquiry into the Irish character by this masterly 

 statesman : he says, " In time of peace the Irish are more fearful to 

 offend the law than the English or any other nation whatever." (page 

 201.) A long experience in the arduous office of the King's attorney 

 General of Ireland enabled him to pronounce that " There is no na- 

 tion of people under the sun that doth love equal and indifferent 

 justice better than the Irish, or will rest better satisfied with the exe- 

 cution thereof, although it be against themselves so as they may 

 have the protection and benefit of the laws when upon just cause 

 they do desire it." (page 213.) May we not take the word of this 

 great and experienced statesman, himself an Englishman, in preference 

 to the unskilful persons who, totally ignorant of Irish character and 

 feeling, and Irish sufferings, would excommunicate the whole nation 

 and consign the people and the country to an immersion in the At- 

 lantic, in order to get what they call a happy riddance of those they 

 will not learn how to govern. 



But who are these same degenerate Irish who ought to be stigma- 

 tized as the most worthless of the human race ? I hope it will not 

 shock any of us when I mention what Sir J. Davies says of their an- 

 cestors ; his words are these. " If the people in Ireland were to be 

 numbered by the pole, such as are descended of English race would 

 be found more in number than the ancient natives." (page 2.) And 

 again, Davies says of our English ancestors who settled in Ireland, 

 "These English families became more mortal enemies to England 

 than the mere Irish." (pp. 137, 138.) So that we find it is English 

 blood not Irish immortality ; that our own English ancestors, and 

 not the mere Irish, have produced all the evil which requires the 

 moral drain. So far for the authority of Sir J. Davies. 



