The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-29 00:00:00

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creatures, without clothes upon their reeks—n4tedf
as if they hid been stript for etecodon--neked, al
'if they halYbeen Wide(' from their mothets, con
'dielted to the Nobtc Genera! at the nelonett of thei.•
'bi;th—no part of there coterezi but their Chins, ;,
if natarilsed stuck a be rd upon them in &retire) ci
their destiny. Such (said he) has been the cotecet
such the adverse forces--sacs tun, tiles far 64 re-.
suit--but (said he) i told you that the contest was
more value than the victory, that if it did not Aiy..
you trininpho it would give you wisdom. And to
Iteep this promise, I must carry back your reflectiou
"to times that hate pissed us. And I must do that to
chew you that ill our miseries and degradation info
sprung from a-disunion, cruelly ettid *Welly fehri,
Cited by a foreign country, for the base puttroSe of
driving as to suicide, .and tasking ue the trtstruthent
of our destruction" Mr. Curren here gave a rapid
sketch of the first dawn of dissension in Ireland—
the conqueror and conquered—a conquest toe, ob-
tained, like all the victories over Ireland, by the
triumph of guilt over innocence. Thor 'di‘eeetiou,
followed up by the natural hatred of the spoiler aed
the despoiled—this dissension followed up f.frthc'r by
tho absurd antipathies of the religious teat dis.
sensiou still followed farther by the rivalries of trade,.
The creel tyrants of Ireland dreading* that, if Irish
industry had not her hands tied behind her hack, see
might become impatient of servitude, and these halide
might stork her deliverance. Vaster this sad court.
lion of confederating diseensione, muted and fo.
' merited by the poky of Itttgdold, this' devoted Couto•
try has continued to languish, with small &mita•
tione of national destiny, from the invasion of the
lieeend Beery, to the preseut thee.—" And here,"
Wier " iitxaebe jest, while I oat indispient ; let -
me candidly own, to the noble examples of 'British
virtue, to theeplendid exertions of British courage,
to their splendid sacrifices, rim I probably indebted
for my feelings as an Irishman, and !try devotion to
.my country. They thought it madness to trust them.
selves to the influence of any foreign country ; they
thought the circulation of the political blood conid
be carried on only by the action of the heart within the
body, and field not be inflicted from without; events
have shewn you that what they thought was just—and
that what they did was indispensable—they thoterlit
, they ought to govern themselves—they thought that at
'every hazard they ought to nathe the effort—thee
thought it more eligible to perish than to fail—and to
the GOD of Heaven, I pray, that the authority of se
splendid an example may not be lost uport Ireland."
He continued; in adverting to the state of Ireland,
from the Revolution to the year 1782—" A sad
continuing spectacle of Ireland, disgraced and op..
pressed, and plundered by two emeses—ilest, she
was too enfeeble] by dissension to • resist--tare se-
cond!y, she continued the abject victim of the Ser-
i did,' insatiable, and implacable tyranny of a foreieta
country—at length, in 1782, a noble effort ens
' made, and deathless ought to be t e name of nix
that made it, and deathless ought to brittle gratitude
' of the country for which it wal made—the indeirm.
dunce of Ireland was acknowlodged. Linder • this
System of asserted independence, our progrese in
prosperity was much more rapid than could have
' been expected. When we remember the conduct of
a very leading noble person upon that occasion :
• never was s more generous mind, or a purer heart ;
tose his mind hrt.4.more pertty Thaeretteegth; he had
all that belonged to taste, and courtesy, and Fertile-
ment ; hut the graudyni the sublitne of national re-
! form, were compose of colours too strong for his
eye, and comprised a horizon too outstretched for
his vision. The Catholics of Ireland were i:t fact
excleded from the asserted independence of their
• country.—Thus far the result comes to thii, that
wherever perfect union is net found, complete re•
dress must be sought in vain."
Mr. Curran proceeded to the fatal measure o" fez
Union, " the last and mortal blow to the exi:terce
;of Ireland as a Nation ; and that a eeasimmatio., f
our destruction achieved, by that perpetual instru-
ment of our ruin, our own disseaaions. • The while
history of ma,ikittti records no !Attester of any IP,.
tile Cabinet, perhaps of any even internal Ciltinet,
actuated by the principles of honour, or of shame =•
The Irish Cathel:c errs therefore tretget .to belicie,
that if he surrendered nis country. he cease t.)
he a slave. The Irish Prreestaitt ..vas cajoled into
the belief, that if be concurred in the nntkretuter;• Ite
would be placed. upon the ne,et of a hoe tile factiorte-e
wretched dupe. You might as Wel!' perisalie 'the
gaoler, that he Is less a prisoner thin the teptitee he
locks tip, merely, because he etaißes the key 4f` the
prison in his pocket.—By that reciprocal-animosity,
however, Ireland was surrendered—the guilt of the
surrender was most atrocious—the consequences tlf
the crime most tremendous and exemplary. We pier
ourselves into a condition of the most untemlifikl
servitude—we sold our country, and we levied upon
ourselves the price of the purchase—we gave up the
right of diiposing of our property—we yielded to a
foreign legislature to decide, whether the funds no.
cessary to their projects, or their profligacy, should
be extracted from us, or be furnished by themselves
—the consequence has been, our scanty means hare
I been squandered in hor internal corruption, as pro..
fusely as our best blood has been wasted in the mad..
ness of her aggressions, or the feeble folly of her
resistance— our debt has, accordingly, been increlsed
more than ten-fold—t:-.e common comforts of life
have been vanishing—we are sinking into beggary--
our poor People have been worried by cruel and une
principled prosecutions—and the instruments' of our
Government hare alurbst been simplified into the
tax-gatherer and the l'angmau. At length, after this
long eight of suffering, the morning star of our re.
demption casts its light upon us—the mist was d;t...
solved, and all men perceived that those weom they
had been blindly attacking In the dark, were, in
reality, their fellow-sufferers and their friends ; WO
have made a discovery of the grand principle its poll.
.tics, that the tyrant is hi every instance the creature
of the slave—that he is a cowardly and a competing
animal--and tit*, in every instance, he caleulates
between the tetpenditure to he made, and tee ade
vantage to be acquired. And i, therefore, do not
hesitate to say, that if the wretched Island of Man,
that refughtus paireSorum, heti sense end spirit to Fee
the force of this troth, sha could not be enslaved by
the whole power of Bnglrusd; the oppressor would see
that the nemmaill eripeadlture, In %ships, and chains,
and gibbetsl weeld iuti9itoly countervail the ulti.
mate valve if the acquisition; and It is owing to the