rs belong exclusively to the tomb,--the natural and
only period of human inconstancy, with regard either to desert or to
opinion: for they are the very same hands which erect, that very
frequently (and sometimes with reason enough) pluck down the statue. Had
such an unmerited and unlooked-for compliment been paid to me two years
ago, the fragments of the piece might at this hour have the advantage of
seeing actual service, while they were moving, according to the law of
projectiles, to the windows of the Attorney-General, or of my old
friend, Monk Mason.

To speak seriously,--let me assure you, my dear Sir, that, though I am
not permitted to rejoice at _all_ its effects, there is not one man on
your side of the water more pleased to see the situation of Ireland so
prosperous as that she can afford to throw away her friends. She has
obtained, solely by her own efforts, the fruits of a great victory,
which I am very ready to allow that the best efforts of her best
well-wishers here could not have done for her so effectually in a great
number of years, and perhaps could not have done at all. I could wish,
however, merely for the sake of her own dignity, that, in turning her
poor relations and antiquated friends out of doors, (though one of the
most common effects of new prosperity,) she had thought proper to
dismiss us with fewer tokens of unkindness. It is true that there is no
sort of danger in affronting men who are not of importance enough to
have any trust of ministerial, of royal, or of national honor to
surrender. The unforced and unbought services of humble men, who have no
medium of influence in great assemblies, but through the precarious
force of reason, must be looked upon with contempt by those who by their
wisdom and spirit have improved the critical moment of their fortune,
and have debated with authority against pusillanimous dissent and
ungracious compliance, at the head of forty thousand men.

Such feeble auxiliaries (as I talk of) to such a force, employed
against such resistance, I must own, in the present moment, very little
worthy of your attention. Yet, if one were to look forward, it scarcely
seems altogether politic to bestow so much liberality of invective on
the Whigs of this kingdom as I find has been the fashion to do both in
and out of Parliament. That you should pay compliments, in some tone or
other, whether ironical or serious, to the minister from whose
imbecility you have extorted what y