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O'Rourke, John

"With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines"

He (Mr.
O'Connell) called upon the House to make their choice between the two.
Now was the time for the choice. The country had arrived at a state when
something must be done."
This is what Mr. D'Israeli calls "a panegyric of Ulster."
"Are you," he concluded, "desirous of putting an end to these murders?
Then it must be by removing the cause of the murder. You could not
destroy the effect without taking away the cause. I repeat, the
tranquillity of Ulster is owing to the enjoyment of tenant right; when
that right was taken away, the people were trodden under foot, and, in
the words of Lord Clare, 'ground to powder.'"
This is what Mr. D'Israeli calls "a patriotic quotation from Lord
Clare."
It would seem to me that any impartial reader of the Liberator's speech
on this occasion would regard it as an iteration of the whole policy of
his career, rather than an abnegation of it; but smooth and kind as Mr.
D'Israeli's words appear, it is manifest he did not forget their ancient
feud, and he therefore adroitly tries to give a parting stab, ungenerous
as it was false, to the expiring lion.
That portion of the Tory party which remained faithful to Protection,
being deserted by their leaders, rallied round Lord George Bentinck, and
in some sense forced him to become their champion against their late
chief, the Premier, and his policy.


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