in a word or two, to the effect, that he was not so sure of the
propriety of the Brotherhood invading the Province, as its
inhabitants were not in any way answerable for the wrongs which had
been inflicted by England upon Ireland. Here Barry observed, that
although he was not competent to speak on the matter, and had no
desire to endorse or countenance such an invasion, he regarded a
Fenian attack upon Canada fully as justifiable as an assault of the
same character upon England, or any other portion of her majesty's
dominions. The empire, he contended, was a unit and no part of it
could be assailed, that did not possess, in relation to Ireland, just
as inoffensive people as the Canadians were. Fenianism, he presumed,
did not pretend to make war upon individuals, but upon a government,
in any or all of its ramifications, that was alleged to be oppressive
and an enemy to civil and religious freedom; and so long as any
people chose to endorse the acts of such a government by defending
them, and adhering to the flag under which they were said to have
been committed, so long were they amenable to the party who assumed
to be aggrieved in the premises, as aiders and abettors of the
offence.

This position was so reasonable and so logical that there was but
little room for dispute upon the subject. And hence the absurdity of
certain squeamish gentlemen who, before and since the invasion of
1866, have denounced a descent upon Canada as not so justifiable as
an attack upon the more central parts of the empire, from the assumed
fact, that the Canadians are in no way chargeable with the wrongs
inflicted by the British Government upon Ireland. Such an argument to
a military man, or astute politician, would be the very height of
absurdity. The outworks are always stormed and taken before the
citadel falls; nor are those who occupy or defend them regarded with