THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



4. 







CHAPTER I. 



THE IRISH PEOPLE PERSISTENTLY LIBELLED. 



A. The prevalence of libels on the Irish people 

 will appear from the following statements and pro- 

 tests : 



(1.) DEAN SWIFT says : "I have seen the grossest 

 suppositions passed upon the English, such as that 

 the wild Irish were taken in toils, but in some time 

 would grow so tame as to eat out of your hand ; and 

 upon the arrival of an Irishman in a country town I 

 have known crowds coming about him wondering to 

 see him look so much better than themselves."* 



(2.} In the early part of this century calumnies 

 were so often uttered against the Irish Catholic 

 peasantry as to call for indignant protests from Irish 

 Protestant members of both Houses of Parliament. 



* Swift's Works, vol. viii., p. 135. 



