The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-30 00:00:00

IRISH RAILWAYS BILL-
VII LATE DANIEL O'CONNELL.
The following speech was delivered by Mr. She( it in
the House of Commons on Monday evening :
Mr. SPEAsza,—l am not unconcerned, I ackno-vvle dge,
in the Great Southern and Western Railway,which runs
in close contiguity with the property with which lam
connected in the county of Tipperary; but I am con-
fident that I shall be believed when I say that I am 'far
less influenced by any personal consideration than by
the persuasion that great benefit will arise from the
adoption of the measure in which the Government h aye,
in my mind, wisely and rightfully persevered.—(B ear,
hear.) It is hardly necessary that I should insist ; on
the advantages which will arise from bringing Wt ater-
ford, and Kilkenny, and Cork, and Dublin, and Bel fast,
into contact. My Hon. Friend the Member for -Bath
said that the advantage of a railroad was indisput able;
that a railroad would be useful in New Zealand, and that
they were dealers in truisms who expatiated of t the
utility of railroads. But, he added, that you shoal dbe
just to England before you were liberal to Ireland, and
use a phrase so strong as " rapacity," in spealting of
those who were to profit by the loan proposed to be ad-
vanced. Now, Sir, I think that it can be proved that
justice to one country is perfectly compatible with.
liberality to the other. In this instance no matey is 'to
be given to Ireland; money is to be lent on the most .in-
disputable security—upon lines which are alr eadv in
the process of construction, and which have soh se more
substantial existence than the lucrative enthu sir.sm of
an imaginative engineer.—(llear, hear.) But su rely this
everlasting distinction between the interests of England
and of Ireland, which are brought into compe &ion by
Englishmen when it meets their purpose, ough . to be
deprecated.—(Loud cheers.) As long as we continue
united our interests ought not to be made the stitjects of
contrast. Those interests, in this instance at km st, are
the same. Let those who tell us that the indristi I and
the commerce of England ongbt not to be sacrificed to
the acquisition of a spurious Irish popularity bear in
mind that to the products of English manufac/ ;nre Ire-
land affords the best, because it is the largest, s zrd near-
est, and safest market; for Porter, in his value ble work,
in chapter 7, headed " Trade between Great Bi stain and
Ireland," states that the value of exports from England
to Ireland, in 1801, was 3,270,3501.; in 1821, it was
5,338,898/ ; and in 1825, it was 7,048,9361. 75[13 adds,
that there is no return of exports `3 Ireland fr can Eng-
land since 1825. But that there is a return of the num.
ber of ships which cleared outwards from E ragland to
Ireland; and that " if we compare the amor wit of the
tonnage employed in 1801 with that of 1844, we shall
find that it bears the proportion of 100 to 305, .showing
an increase of 205 per cent." It is, I think, vats exag-
geration to say that England now annually exports to
Ireland 10,000,0001. of her manufactures. Most as-
suredly, then. England is a great gainer in her transac-
tions with Ireland; and it is manifest that every measure
which contributes to the development of the re-
sources of Ireland—to the fertilization of her soil—to
the reclamation of the morass and of the motintain—to
the soviet °emcee:eta.e or the people—to the. establish-
ment of a higher standard of comfort—in one word, to
the increased consumption of British produce—must be
essentially ancillary to the prosperity of England.—
(Loud cheers.) I admit that you have given great
largesses to Ireland; but you were bound to do so. The
calamity which has befallen us is not a provincial one.—
(Hear, hear.) After all, a war of six months w.auld cost
you far mere than a famine of two years, an a yet to-
morrow, if there were need, you would rush- into en-
counter with your proudest rind most formidable anta-
gonist.. But if to the cost of glory you wonld be recon-
ciled by your sense of English honour, in the w,t of
mercy you should be taught, by the noblest of yd. na-
tional characteristics, to acquiesce.—(Loud cheers.) But
although there are gentlemen in this House whose na-
tural benevolenc.) has been overcome by their austere
political economy, who speak as if it was our fault—as
f Irishmen were to blame because the destroying angel
has descended, and blighted a great island in a night,
yet I firmly believe that the great mass of the people
of this country deeply sympathise with the suf-
ferings which we have endured ; the minds of
men of all parties in this House have met in a pure con-
fluence in which the sentiment of the people of England is
faithfully reflected; 'and although in Ireland some of the
measures adopted by the Government have been the
subject of stricture, yet no doubt is entertained that the
great body of Englishmen is actuated by a feeling of
munificent commiseration in our regard. I am Cunfi-
dent that Irish thankfulness will be commensurate with
English generosity, and if it shall be so, if the events
which li ye befallen shall be conducive to the CrAtion
of a kind international sentiment, without reference to
political considerations, I for one shall think that from
a great calamity, good, great and lasting, may, with the
blessing of Providence, be at last deduced. Sir, this is
not only to be considered merely in a fiscal view ; I
shall rejoice
. if the Parliament, which is about to termi-
nate its ex; eence, shall make a testamentary manifes-
tation of good-will to the Irish people, indicative of the
policy which ought to be pursued, and by which the
Noble Lerd who has had the courage to undertake the
government of Ireland may be assisted and sus-
tained. That able and sagacious statesman will have
great difficulties to contend with, which will be en-
hanced by the loss which Ireland has sustained by the
death of that celebrated man, to whom the Noble Lord
opposite (Lord George Bentinck) has alluded, who has
conferred upon his country incalculable obligations,
and to whom, when the prejudices and the passions,
the antipathies and predilections of the hour, shall
have passed away, in the impartial adjudication of
those by whom he shall be succeeded, the attributes
of
greatness, political and intellectual, will be hereafter be-
yond doubt assigned.—(Hear, hear.) Whatever opinion
may be entertained of his title to the veneration of his
country, in an assembly composed like that which I am
now addressing, it must be admitted, by those who were
in the sternest antagonism to him while he lived, that
that renowned Irishman effected his achievements by a
great mental instrumentality; and I trust that the time
will never arrive when English statesmen will have
cause to lament that the voice is heard no more by
which millions were at once excited and controlled, and
that the accents on which a nation hung in rapture and
a senate with admiration are hushed in the grave for
ever. I would that he had been spared to us; I would
that he had lived to behold the seat of that ancient and
perpetual faith in which he was an humble believer,
and of
which he was the proud and chivalrous champion—that
he had lived to behold the eternal city, that he had knelt
at the altars of that temple, the noblest that was ever
raised by the hands of man, and worthy of
pur-
poses, the high and holy ones, to which it is devoted—and
adthat through the marble balls of the Vatican the venera-
ble—n man, though with a feeble and tottering step, bad
found his way, amidst the array of sacerdotal ps
and received the sanctifying salutation of the greatP°m
pon-
tifical reformer who has ascended the chairofS Peter
amidst the acclamations of the world ; and I would that
after he had performed that pilgrimage he bad returned
to the country of his birth, and which he set free, in
order that he might renew the injunction never to in-
fringe the principles upon which he acted during the
entire of his illustrious life, and of whose violation he
never was legitimately accused. lam conscious that I
have departed from the more immediate question before
the House, but I who now have so seldom a justification
for interfering in your discussions, shall be pardoned if I
have availed myself of this the
first occasion which has
presented itself to me, to offer a mournful but unavailing
tribute of commemoration to the memory of the, with whom t • man
wasfor so many years politically associated and whose departure from the great scene in which he performed a part which attracted the attention
kind, I regard as a disaster, which it willliiorpf great
wisdom and fortitude, and the spirit of co:
which the policy on which this measure is lfounded,tati byto
countervail.—(Cheers.)