bracing their children. They asked only the permission to receive their last sighs.' "Before the gate stood the goaler, the prætor's exccutioner, the terror and death of the citizens, in a word,' vulgar magistrate, the name of the laws is but a chimera, and their protection but a delusion. I may be told of the private virtues of the Duke of Richmond-those virtues may be exemplary and instructive, yet they are only valuable on his hearth-store, or in his nurse-the fictor Sestius (Jemmy O'Brien), ry, they are confined to his household who drew a tribute from all the tears gods and his children, they afford me no they shed. To go in you must give so shield, for the laws are suspended when' much; to carry food so much-noI seek their protection, and the man body refused--but what will you give who dares to abuse them in my person, me to kill your son at one blow ?— possesses not only the confidence of the that he may not suffer long? that he house of Lenox, but is actually living in may not receive many strokes, that he Dublin Castle, the seat of the sove- may lose his life without feeling pain? reign's representative, and from it is al. The lictor (Jemmy O'Brien) was paid lowed to proscribe me, without any form even for this fatal service! O'inconceivof law but the direction of his disorder- able pain! O situation the most cruc! ed head, or studied malignity. and unheard of! Fathers were compel Sicily, like Ireland, had its Majors led to give money, not to save the lives and like Ireland its inhabitants were tor. of their sons, but to hasten their deaths, tured and condemned. Major Verres, and the sons themselves negociated with like other Majors, had his riding-houses, Sestius (Jemmy O'Brien) the favour of Prevots, and his Jemmy O'Briens, and a single blow; as the last proof of their at the same time was distinguished as a tenderness, they entreated their parents virtuoso. He was passionately fond of to render their executioner more tractable paintings, gold lamps, gold cups, sta- by money, and to diminish their tortues, vases, tapestry, &c. and his cha- ments. Here is without doubt much tiracter is so masterly drawn by Cicero, gour exercised towards these unfortu that I cannot forbear transcribing part nate fathers, but may the death of their of it to embellish this epistle; it is a sons at last, be the last...............Nó! real picture of a riding-house, and we it will not be the last...........Can crumay naturally suppose that your friend elty extend beyond this life?-Meabs Beresford and Co. erected their estab-will still be found, for after their chillishment on the plan of that described by the Roman orator, "with the exception of the boiling cauldron of pitch which is undoubtedly a mode in machine in the History of Torture."" The unhappy persons he (Major Verres) had condemned, were shut up in a prison; preparations were made for their punishment, and their parents were tormented before hand, by depriving them of the consolation of seeing their children, of supplying them with nourishment and other comforts they stood in need of.Fathers and mothers lay at the doors of the prison, where they passed, whole nights. being refused the liberty of em I "ดู" dren shall be executed, their bodies will be exposed to wild beasts. If this be the completion of a father's grief, let him purchase at least with money the liberty of bestowing sepulture upon his child." You must admit this document relating to the procunsulate of Major Verres, is well given. I do not want your gentle nature to revolt at the description, because I know you will not, you cannot. You have undertaken to punish any man who dare to hand me meat or drink, and in the temper I am in at such treatment, and from the knowledge I have of modern Majors, I will never undertake undertake to recall absent sensations by such delineations, as Cicero has here depicted, for it appears that Major Verres himself, before the Conscript Fathers, depended more on his gold than on his honesty or contrition, to prevent a con, viction. I thought however offensive I might appear by the crime of lese Major, that I had some reasonable chance of escape, ing punishment by the dissolution of the Triumvirate, and the re-establishment of the Statute Law, but, I find by your se vere interdiction, though the Triumvira have been appointed to different provin ces one starves in Lucan, another bullies at the Custom-house, and the third legislates at the Castle, the authority of the three is given to one. While Lepidus and Anthony are insulting and plundering the provinces, Octavius is wast ing Rome, My condition, and that of the coun try, are anticipated by the following words of the Marquis de Mirabeau: "If there should one day be established overseers of justice, of the police, and of the finances, these men, like the missi dominici of the Emperors, who destroyed all order in the Roman empire, and prepared its downfall, by driving the people in the provinces into despair, will become every thing in the state, and thirty-two men only will be sufficient to govern the kingdom." Your friend and patron, Lord Castlereagh, with a degree of effrontery characteristic of the man who betrayed his country, tells the British people, that torture never was used under his authority in Ireland; you or your present patron may assert the same, that it never was applied in the administration of the Wellesleys, or you will say, that putting me out of the pale of eating and drinking is less than torture, that punishing a family by the extinction of their property, for selling me a necessary of life, is notan aggravation of all the tortures under which we so profusely agonized, ཁལ་ If my existence gives such pain to authority, policy should direct my oppressors by a less dangerous experiment 4 than one that tends to involve their characters. A lingering death, like hunger, may rouse the public mind, and my condtion may reach the throne. The odious age of torture revived, may create a sympathy or a shame even with the plunderes of Hindostan, and I may be snatched from the hands of a Verres, that, the character of an entire nation may not be stigmatized by the destruction of only one individual, If I am to perish, as it appears to be decreed by the Statute of TANKARD18M, let me die in the usual and more summary forms, let the Gospels he once more steeped in innocent blood, and let the antiquated foppery of Form send me solemnly to the gibbet. Until this last merciful operation takes place, borrowing the termination of an unpublished letter to another great man, I remain,' With sentiments of equal terror and admiration, Yours, WALTER Cox. November, 1810. This is dated from Windsor, on the 17th of October; it directs that a Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving be prepared to the Almighty, for the superabundant harvest. Every person who shares what heaven intends for our solace and comfort, would feel a duty which he owes to Divine Majesty for his bounty and mercy. The authors of this proclamation must be ignorant of the condition of the people of this unfortunate country, when they invite us to offer up our thanks for what we never partake of It is a melancholy fact, that three millions of the people of this island, whose labour Jabour Contributes fo much to this Bus bould a I generation. It is a duty you owe to hu- ̈ ̈ manity itself Abufe no longer that fine affection of the foul. Shall we allow pofterity to call us their political parri- cide? Any crime against pofterityinoffending posterity is enormous, and if not repaired in time, inexpicable: but a crime against their Liberty, that faireft form among the natural or focial privileges, laughs to fcorn the whole nervth of oratory. A crime like this mocks all the defcription of the pen. Shall a crime like this pall the native enamel of the Irish name? What! thall Irishmen inflict the deep wound of flavery on their lateft pofterity? Millions yet unborn fhall call themselves your defcendants. They fhall reproach you for your criminal indblence-nay (if you' do not prevent it) to live in this age fhall be a reproach. Irifhmen! you wage a war even with your brothers !!! Fa vourites of Fortune! stoop-to behold your brothers! The ragged peasant the starving mechanic! even they ate your brothers! The babe born in the very womb of poverty- born to the inherit ance of poverty and bondage-even he is your brother. The orphans that creep along our ftreets--orphans whofe only bed is the earth you trample on, whofe only covering (becaufe they have no home is the concave of heaven, are all of the fame fiefh and blood as yourselves all ftarving becaufe of the Unioni Can Irifhmen now be filent? Irishmen cf the nineteenth century, it was in your time the Union was effected. Remember it was the Union that invited Starvation to the land. Remember you have it in your power to repeal it. Think it not enough to feel-no, you must also ACT. You have honour-you have humanity Fellow Countrymen,TM We'naturally deteft a tyrant, There is a fomething even in the name revolt ing to human nature. The foul poffeffed of true sensibility ftartles at the fourd, and what nation,, what realm, what empire, what quarter of the habitable world can boaft fo much fenfibility, fo much genuine philofophic feeling as this little inland? Yes-Irishmen muft ever hold a tyrant in peculiar abhorrence; for, indeed, Irishmen are men of feel ing refined and exquifite, and it is then only that the foul recoils not at the name of tyrant, when she is fteeled against all the fine philofophy of the feelings. You all feel for your country's diftrefs: Some of you even weep; but, my Country-mancipation at a period like this. is it men, it is not unusual to pay the tribu- becaufe you are not emancipated, that tary tear to the memory of your depar. you hear through the land the heavy ·ted nation. No-you must wipe the murmur of unpitied affliction? Is it be tear from the eye of the most diftant caufe you ass not emancipated that your Meet then, and repeal the death-warrant of your country. Talk not of E ears ring with the deep thriek of phrenzied anguish? Is it becaufe forfooth) a Catholic brother is not raifed to judicial dignity, nor made a general of the army that the eye of our country fwins in tears? No furely. How many Proreft ants, who, before the Union were independent and happy, are now (becaufe of the Union) craving the crumb of charity through the land? Every honeft patriotic Proteftant pours his malediction on that day which marks the renovation of Irish mifery. Yet furely Pro teftants want not emancipation. Surely Sir James Riddal is not denied accesfibility to all the communicable bleffings of the constitution-yet he has publicly decried the fatal meafure, and thereby fhall his name live while there is an Irishman. Countrymen, beloved Countrymen, you are ill advised. You are not diftref fed, you are not defpifed, because you are not emancipated. Remember the days of your parliament were you then defpifed as a nation? No. Do you (Ca tholics) complain, becaufe your religion is defpifed and cramped? Yes. For you now complain that you are not admitted to the free participation of all the bleflings of the English conftitution, in fhorty that you are not emancipated. What is Emancipation but a freedom from the hackles with which a Protell ant government loaded the Catholic fubjects of Great Britain. Therefore you are unhappy because your religion is hackled. The nation is a Catholic nation, though Proteftantifm be the religion of its government. The nation's happiness is leffened fince the Union therefore the Catholic body is lefs happy fince that accurfed meafure. But the Catholic body is lefs fhackled fince the Union. Therefore the Catholic body (to argue from your notion is the lefs happy the lefs it is fhackled. The cry of "Emancipation" fhould, according to your idea, drown the cry of " Legiflative Independence," therefore the fhackles on Religion give you more trouble than the hackles on Social Freedom. Therefore (according to you), Emancipation must be fought for before the Repeal of Union. Therefore (to argue ftill from your notion) the Catho lic is to feek for more unhappiness.But furely the Catholic religion was never unhappy because it was defpifed. Nay more, did it not then glow with a nobler flame when tried in the very crucible of perfecution? A whole nation cannot but know this. Therefore a whole nation cannot be fo aggrieved as Ireland at this period feels herself becaufe their emancipation is not completed. Ireland, my Countrymen, is not cramped in her religious fentiment, or her religious exercifes. Be not fo en amoured with this word Emancipation. I maintain it to be rafh prefumption for a limited understanding like ours to pronounce Ireland happier if at prefent emancipated. Say not that emancipation fhall fave the realm. Believe not that it is the "key-ftone of the arch of Hibernia's glory." Before the Union Irish Commerce was in his vigour, yet before that time the Catholics were lefs countenanced by government than at prefent. Since, that athletic fon of Hibernia has drooped to nervelefs impotence Yes, fince the Union Erin's genius has Fallen from his high estate." Believe me, my countrymen, it was the Union alone that fettered the arms of our nation. It is Repeal alone that can fave the land. Yet ftill are you retreating from your country-till do you deny a "helping hand to falling commerce. If we are ever to obtain emancipation, it will be by degrees. An ab rupt admiffion of the Irish Catholics into all the privileges of the conftitution, is by Government thought dangerous. You may petition for years without optaining a direct or fatisfactory answer. The queftion of Repeal is decided in an instant -in an inftant the Union is broken or fealed. If broken, then have you proved in behalf of humanity your political confequence; if the Union be not then repealed, you have at leaft relieved your country from the reprobation of inhumanity; if you do not fucceed why then hope for better days. tions fuffering the intrufive hand of corruption to plunder the fanctuary of their focial rights, enter into a barbarous and unnatural league against the whole œconomy of moral virtues. Irish people! if you have not confented to the Union, who has dared to deprive you of your Parliament? The wretches that could The Parliament that was ftolen from without your confent unhinge the fyllem you was your birthright or it was not. of your policy, deferve not furely to live If not would Pitt have befitated at dif- under Erin's heaven. Say then, my folving peremptorily the Irish Parliament, Countrymen, that you have not confenhad he not known that Legiflative In- ted, fay it in the true tone of constitu dependence was engrafted in the very tional firmnefs and the Union is brovitals of the nation? Would that avow- ken. It is then indeed you emancipate ed enemy of Ireland have helitated, who the unhired mechanic ;-yes; Repeal fpurning the check of confcience, that is his only Emancipation. Who are the God-like administrator of the moral distressed in the land? Is it the Cathoworld, could have hired from his native lic who might ambition a poft of envied hell the monster, whofe ruthlefs arm was dignity? Are they the Grandees of the to burst the bonds of national confiften- realm? No, my Countrymen ; it is the cy, and waste the verdant foil of Irish PEOPLE that are aggrieved-nay, the Independence? Neyer-never. Why very hame is difrefpected. But was it did he ftoop to that mean adulation hot with the People that Empire itself that foul treachery-that base hypocri- originated? Yes. Who invited man to fy that characterizes the whole proce the throne and fceptre? The People. dure of the Union Act? Because he Therefore the People should be honorknew well it was your birthright. I then ed. He that disrespects them is a rebe! 'call upon you, in the name of your coun- to sovereignty. Yet what a degraded try, to affert it. Are you still filent?-body is the Irish People. The day is Then fhall 1 fpeak the very conviction of my foul, I feel it my bounden duty, as an Irishman, to fpeak. Yes; I fhall declare aloud my fentiments, and thereby fhall I redeem the name of Camoens from the catalogue of Irish infamy. "Hear me then; for I will speak," Your neglect of this important obligation is a direct outrage on natural juftiee. It is not with nations as it is with individuals. The latter can and fome times ought to cede to their rights and privileges. Nations NEVER can, with out fpurning the higher principles of the natural law. Individuals yielding up their rights may not injure a fingle fellowcreature or outrage a fingle virtue. Na * Athing impossible, if Repeal were constitutionaly demanded by a whole people. gone by when merit was looked for amongst the People. Merit is not now looked for amongit the fow conditions* of mortality-yet hiflory informs us, that empires owe their deliverance from the jaws of deftruction, to the talents that were found in the humble fpheres of life. So true is the maxim of the Chinese philofopher-" The Grandees of a kingdom are not always the great men of the flate." Who knows, at this moment, but the means of Ireland's, of Great Britain's falvation, are centered within the breaft of the unhired mecha nic or unheeded artilt !!! Yet they alone are truly aggrieved. Yes. Let any thing be devifed, but the restoration of Parliament, and Ireland asks no more.Without that, Ireland is a flave. Yes, the Protestants themselves are slaves. for |