The Irish standard., 1894-09-08
STIRRING EPOCH.
Continued from First Pace.

wholly engrossed the correspondence
had been long honored, delighted and
instructed by,with your venerable father,
as it drew near its lamentable close.
with him have ever considered it as
the most deadly blow ever aimed land
many have been aimed) at the vitals OF
this injured, this prosecuted country
by sister kingdom, which was rarely
merited to be considered by US but in a
hostile light, and by minister whose
rancor and malice seem implacable.
with the commercial part Of the ques-
tion I meddle but little. The benefits
to result from the momentous measure
in this respect are problemsticaL aand
the chance to be purchased by surren
der, not of some of our rights, but the
whole OF our constitution. The evil, and
it is of the utmost magnitude, would be
certain, the advantages precarious; or
were this equally certain, it would be no
sort of compensation for much inferior
sacrifice than we are called upon to make.
Or commerce and manufactures we have,
Or under the present system will have,
enough. Britain has great deal too
much, as Holland once had, so much as
to swallow in it's vortex all public spirit
and almost all private virtue; substitut-
ing in place Of the first Unsuitable corrup-
tion, avarice and ambition; in the room
Of the latter. unbounded luxury and prof
ligacy among the higher and opulent
orders, and vices OF still more atrocious
cast. among the miserable victims of bad
example, of penury and distress.
"Even here, with such restricted COM
merce as we possess, these mischiefs are
too much felt, and those of the last men
toned class likely to be much more so
before the people have struggled
through the trying season whose ap-
proaches are SO gloomy and alarming.
Well, and in character, did the apostate
Windham exclaim: Perish commerce,
but live the constitution
II have scarcely, however, adverted
to the subject but in a constitutional
point of view; and even with regard to
| the first question which meets one at the
very threshold-vlz., the right and COM
potency of Parliament to annihilate it,
self and disfranchise the people {for say
! what they will, it amounts to annihila-
tion and disfranchisemert) ,netwithstand-
ing all / have read, which was good
deal, though far short of all that was
written, Tor / grew tired Of the 'crambe
repitita,' / hold ''Junius' doctrine to be
irrefragable: The power of the king.
lords and commons is not an absolute
power. They are the trustees not the
owners, of the estate, the fee simple is in
us. They cannot slienate; they cannot
waste This position at the time it was
so we'll and strongly stated, was never
attempted to be controverted.
Gas for the arguments derived from
the corruption and subserviency OF our
Parliament, they apply equally to that
of Britain, nay, more forcibly. There
is not an instance Of the latter's reject
ing any measure of the present minister,
which he had seriously at heart. Not so
here; our Parliament has successfully
withstood many of his favorlte measures;
it is sufficient to mention the last mem
orial instance, this his darling favorite,
the union.
.
"It is true we have had too much rea-
son to condemn our Legislature for many
OF their doings; but we have also had
reason to commend, and be grateful to
them, on many important occasions; at
any rate, Is it not wiser to bear those
ills we have than Ay to others which We
know not OFF especially when the prob.
ability is that these will be Of greater
magnitude and irremediable?
sit is impolitic in the pro-writers to
bid us turn our eyes to Scotland, what
they got in point of trade, we already
possess; and we have much better
constitution to give up than they had;
now, that we have got rid Of our lords of
articles, the prlvy council"
"They bid us look to the last advances
in prosperity Scotland has made since
the union; but post hoe ergo propter hoe
is false deduction; and what progress
has not Ireland made since that period
without one?
"They do not indeed bid US look at the
political consequence of that union; for
we should see the whole Scotch repre-
sentative dead weight thrown into the
regal or ministerial scale, not one mem
Der, either peer or commoner, having
been returned to the present Parliament
from that country but on the minister's
list, except Sir. J. Sinclaire, who had it
in his power to secure his own election.
And such would be, though possibly
not at the outset, the case OF our Irish
deputies to the British Parliament.
Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula
cautum.'
Separated as these islands are by a