THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



and jibes and jeers for the momentary music of a 

 partisan applause has been too strong for him. 

 Vainly seeking some compensating comfort for its 

 inevitable evil, we find insults and exasperating 

 words in abundance ; the most hideous crimes laid 

 indiscriminately at the door of a whole people, and 

 proposals for legislation made in jest, apparently for 

 no other reason than because the mere mention of 

 them is likely to arouse resentment and bitterness 

 such things are fit only for a selfish and reckless 

 chief of political bandits." 



(10.) Lord Dalhousie, in a speech at Liverpool in 

 February, 1886, said : " By our half-conquest of the 

 country and our failure to assimilate and unite the 

 Irish people with ourselves, and to give them a full 

 measure of National life, as well as by our violent 

 and spasmodic interference in their affairs, we pre- 

 vented, during a long period of centuries, the normal 

 growth and development of the Irish character. Is 

 it, then, I ask, a wonderful thing that they should 

 hate us to-day, when we not merely prevented their 

 material progress, but defrauded them of the due 

 development of what is to a nation of incomparably 

 greater value, namely, the moral and intellectual 

 qualities that go to make up the fabric of a sterling 

 national character? For nearly a century the laws 



