Ireland and the Home Rule MovementMcDonnell, Michael, Sir
History
Ireland and the Home Rule Movement
McDonnell, Michael, Sir
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland
That hostility is evinced by large sections of Irishmen to England, as
well as by Englishmen to Ireland, and that much sympathy was felt, as it
was by the most distinguished of the members of the present Cabinet, for
the South African Republics, which Irishmen regarded as struggling
nationalities like their own, I am not concerned to deny. The same
feeling of hostility, as I have already said, was rampant at the time of
the Crimean war, and may be expected to continue till the end of the
present system of government arrives; but to those who, for party
purposes, declare that they see a risk that possible European
complications would be accentuated for Great Britain to the point of
danger by the proximity of an Ireland with a Parliament in Dublin, the
answer is, that it is difficult to conceive a state of affairs more
fraught with danger to England than would be found in the existence
during a great war of an adjacent island which has been haughtily denied
that mode of government which she claims, and which in the troubles of
the other country will see an opportunity of extracting by threats and
from fear in an hour of peril that which she was unable to secure by
other means in the day of prosperity. One may well ask whether this
prospect is one to which Great Britain can look forward with calmness,
that she should have to legislate at fever heat to cope with the
contingencies of the moment with no well-ordered scheme of things; not
that way lies an end by which she will secure peace conceived in the
spirit of peace.
CHAPTER IX
IRELAND AND GREAT BRITAIN
"In reason all government without the consent of the governed
is the very definition of slavery; but in fact eleven men well
armed will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt....
Those who have used to cramp liberty have gone so far as to
resent even the liberty of complaining, although a man upon
the rack was never known to be refused the liberty of roaring
as loud as he thought fit."--JONATHAN SWIFT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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