connection, is to be attributed, unquestionably, to the sublime
lessons of the great American people, and the generous sympathy they
evince invariably in regard to nations deprived of the blessings of
freedom. Time was, we are aware, when the children of Ireland had no
such exalted idea of human liberty as they possess to-day, and when
they would have hailed the return of kingcraft to their shores, on
the restitution of their independence, with every demonstration of
pleasure; but that period has passed away, and forever. Having once
tasted the blessings, and imbibed the idea of American institutions,
they have now cast aside every sentiment of barbarism in this
relation, and stepped out on the broad platform of justice and common
sense; ignoring the mere accident of birth, and paying homage only to
those attributes and characteristics which, in themselves, tend to
the elevation of the human family, and which are not confined to any
peculiar class or people.

When it becomes understood, that ever since the introduction of
printing, and the consequent diffusion of book and newspaper
literature throughout Europe, the history and people of Ireland have
been subjected by the invader to every description of the grossest
misrepresentation, it will create no small degree of surprise, that
the country has survived the assault, or that she presents to-day a
compact individuality, that commands the sympathy and respect of most
of the nations of the earth. Heaven, itself, must have inspired the
vigor, truth and heroism which, through a lapse of seven hundred
years, have battled for the right against the most fearful odds, and
that now arms her, on both sides of the Atlantic, with the mighty
resolve which cannot fail to result in her final redemption from the
chains of the oppressor. Her vitality in this connection has scarcely
a parallel in the history of the past; from the fact, that she has