359 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



STATE OF WARFARE. 



How came such an immense difference to exist be- 

 tween two islands close together, and to all appearance 

 subject to the same laws : one, and that the least fer- 

 tile of the two, paying rents of 25s. per acre, heavy 

 taxes, a considerable profit and high wages, maintain- 

 ing also a larger population in a greater degree of 

 comfort ; while the other, more fertile, with a smaller 

 population, paid lower rents, profits and taxes lower 

 still, and inadequate wages ? The cause of so strange 

 an anomaly is comprised in one word the oppression of 

 Ireland. Having witnessed both in England and in 

 Scotland the beneficial effects of liberty, we now see in 

 Ireland the results of a contrary state. The two sides 

 of the same picture will thus have been presented to 

 our view. 



To escape this responsibility, the English contend that 

 the Irish character has peculiar failings, which under 

 any circumstances would have arrested their rise as a 

 nation. I am willing to believe that the Celtic race has 

 not the same degree of energy as the Anglo-Saxon, but the 

 difference does not appear to me sufficient to account for 

 everything. More than one instance, both in ancient 

 and modern history, proves that the Irish possess emi- 

 nent qualities. If Ireland, in spite of its fearful disor- 



