I have turned aside from the course of direct narrative to dedicate a page to the memory of this much-maligned statesman. It is deemed a duty obligatory, because there is a tendency, even among Irish nationalists, to offer him as a sacrifice on the altar of conciliation. Truth may be unpalatable, but it is always wholesome, and without due reverence for it, there will be no incentive to do and suffer for noble ends. The religious martyr finds his reward above, but the patriot's reward is the blessing of posterity, and history should never divert a people's heart from those who labored for their good, albeit their efforts were unsuccessful. Richard Talbot, Duke of Tyrconnell, is a name to be on the tongue of every Irish child, and his deeds a memory in the heart of every Irish patriot. He survived the battle of Aughrim, at which he was present, but a short time; and he should have died there, and gone to rest on that mournfully historic field, where rest some of the best and bravest that Ireland ever nurtured on her bosom. His character would then be complete. He labored for them through life; they were worthy of his companionship in death. Of the parliament which he assembled in Dublin, after the removal of religious disabilities, the majority in the lower house were of the Catholic faith, and as the measures which were introduced during that session afford ample testimony that they were keenly alive to the higher duties of legislation, a brief outline of them is here submitted in the order of their political importance: First.--An act removing all political disabilities from the natives of Ireland. Second.--An act against removing writs of error from the Irish to the English courts. Third.--An act of indemnity to Catholics who had been declared innocent by the Court of Claims. Fourth.--An act to encourage strangers to settle and plant in the kingdom of Ireland. Fifth.--An act investing in his majesty the goods of absentees. Sixth.--An act for the advancement and improvement of trade, and the encouragement of ship-building. Seventh.--An act declaring that the Parliament of England cannot bind Ireland. The last was a virtual repeal of "Poyning's Law," an act passed during the reign of Henry VII. in a parliament convoked at Drogheda by Sir Edward Poyning, in 1494, and which provided "that no parliament could be held in Ireland until the chief governor and council had first certified to the king under the great seal of the land, as well the causes and considerations, as the acts designed to pass, and until the same should be approved by the king and council of England."