my
right honourable friend the Member for Dungarvon, and of my honourable
friends the Members for Kildare, for Roscommon, and for the city of
Waterford, that they had the moral courage to attend the service of this
House, and to give us the very valuable assistance which they are, in
various ways, so well qualified to afford. But what am I to say now? How
can I any longer deny that the place where an Irish gentleman may best
serve his country is Conciliation Hall? How can I expect that any Irish
Roman Catholic can be very sorry to learn that our foreign relations are
in an alarming state, or can rejoice to hear that all danger of war has
blown over? I appeal to the Conservative Members of this House. I ask
them whither we are hastening? I ask them what is to be the end of a
policy of which it is the principle to give nothing to justice,
and everything to fear? We have been accused of truckling to Irish
agitators. But I defy you to show us that we ever made or are now making
to Ireland a single concession which was not in strict conformity with
our known principles. You may therefore trust us, when we tell you
that there is a point where we will stop. Our language to the Irish is
this:--"You ask for emancipation: it was agreeable to our principles
that you should have it; and we assisted you to obtain it. You wished
for a municipal system, as popular as that which exists in England: we
thought your wish reasonable, and did all in our power to gratify it.
This grant to Maynooth is, in our opinion, proper; and we will do our
best to obtain it for you, though it should cost us our popularity and
our seats in Parliament. The Established Church in your island, as now
constituted, is a grievance of which you justly complain. We will strive
to redress that grievance. The Repeal of the Union we regard as fatal to
the empire: and we never will consent to it; never, though the country
should be surrounded by dangers as great as those which threatened her
when her American colonies, and France, and Spain, and Holland, were
leagued against her, and when the armed neutrality of the Baltic
disputed her maritime rights; never, though another Bonaparte should
pitch his camp in sight of Dover Castle; never, till all has been staked
and lost; never, till the four quarters of the world have been convulsed
by the last struggle of the great English people for their place
among the nations." This, Sir, is the true policy. When you give, give