Smith O'Brien was right, then, when he said he
could not see the utility of continually assuring England that, under no
circumstances whatever, would Ireland have recourse to any but peaceable
means to right her wrongs, quoting at the same time Davis's happy
definition of moral force--
"When Grattan rose, none dared oppose
The claim he made for freedom;
They knew our swords to back his words
Were ready, did he need them."
Had Mr. O'Brien and his friends stopped here, all would have been well;
but they did not. The two parties in the Repeal Association, having the
same object in view--the good of Ireland--chose different and diverging
routes for arriving at it; and every day saw them further and further
from each other. The Young Ireland party, to the sorrow of their best
friends, and, exposing themselves to the sneers of their enemies,
drifted rapidly into an armed outbreak, feeble and ill-planned, if
planned at all, and ending in miserable disaster. The Old Ireland
agitation went on; but the hand of death was upon the mighty spirit who
alone could sustain it, and it may be said to have expired with him.
Moral force, with physical force in the not too dim perspective behind
it, was a giant power in the hands of O'Connell, and it won
emancipation; physical force by itself, when brought to the test,
eventuated in ridiculous failure.
Pages:
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267