way in which the Irish tenant is oppressed, _not by individuals_, for
there are many landlords in Ireland devoted to their tenantry, but by a
system. There are, however, it cannot be denied, cases of individual
oppression, which, if they occurred in any part of Great Britain, and
were publicly known, would raise a storm, from the Land's End to John o'
Groat's House, that would take something more than revolvers to settle.
As one of the great objects of studying the history of our own country,
is to enable us to understand and to enact such regulations as shall be
best suited to the genius of each race and their peculiar circumstances,
I believe it to be my duty as an historian, on however humble a scale,
not only to show how our present history is affected by the past, but
also to give you such a knowledge of our present history as may enable
you to judge how much the country is still suffering from _present
grievances_, occasioned by past maladministration. Englishmen are quite
aware that thousands of Irishmen leave their homes every year for a
foreign country; but they have little idea of the cause of this
emigration. Englishmen are quite aware that from time to time
insurrections break out in Ireland, which seem to them very absurd, if
not very wicked; but they do not know how much grave cause there is for
discontent in Ireland. The very able and valuable pamphlets which have
been written on these subjects by Mr. Butt and Mr. Levey, and on the
Church question by Mr. De Vere, do not reach the English middle classes,
or probably even the upper classes, unless their attention is directed
to them individually. The details of the sufferings and ejectments of
the Irish peasantry, which are given from time to time in the Irish
papers, and principally in the Irish _local_ papers, are never even
known across the Channel. How, then, can the condition of Ireland, or of
the Irish people, be estimated as it should? I believe there is a love
of fair play and manly justice in the English nation, which only needs
to be excited in order to be brought to act.