Sentence:  Skin-the-Goat, assuming he was he, evidently with an axe to grind, was airing his grievances in a forcible-feeble <WSD>philippic</WSD> anent the natural resources of Ireland, or something of that sort, which he described in his lengthy dissertation as the richest country bar none on the face of God's earth, far and away superior to England 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Any tirade or declamation full of bitter condemnation.