Abhor the sword and stigmatize the sword? No;
for in the cragged passes of the Tyrol it cut in pieces the banner of
the Bavarian, and won an immortality for the peasant of Innspruck. Abhor
the sword and stigmatize the sword? No; for at its blow a giant nation
sprung up from the waters of the far Atlantic, and by its redeeming
magic the fettered colony became a daring free Republic. Abhor the
sword and stigmatize the sword? No; for it scourged the Dutch marauders
out of the fine old towns of Belgium back into their own phlegmatic
swamps, and knocked their flag, and laws, and sceptre, and bayonets into
the sluggish waters of the Scheldt. I learned that it was the right of a
nation to govern itself, not in this Hall, but upon the ramparts of
Antwerp. I learned the first article of a nation's creed upon those
ramparts, where freedom was justly estimated, and where the possession
of the precious gift was purchased by the effusion of generous blood. I
admire the Belgians, I honour the Belgians, for their courage and their
daring; and I will not stigmatize the means by which they obtained a
citizen king, a Chamber of Deputies." Here Mr. John O'Connell rose to
order.
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