object of political reform are distinctly impressed upon all his appeals
to the people. In his letter of December, 1832, to the Dublin Trades
Union, he says: "The Repealers must not have our cause stained with
blood. Far indeed from it. We can, and ought to, carry the repeal only
in the total absence of offence against the laws of man or crime in the
sight of God. The best revolution which was ever effected could not be
worth one drop of human blood." In his speech at the public dinner given
him by--the citizens of Cork, we find a yet more earnest avowal of
pacific principles. "It may be stated," said he, "to countervail our
efforts, that this struggle will involve the destruction of life and
property; that it will overturn the framework of civil society, and give
an undue and fearful influence to one rank to the ruin of all others.
These are awful considerations, truly, if risked. I am one of those who
have always believed that any political change is too dearly purchased by
a single drop of blood, and who think that any political superstructure
based upon other opinion is like the sand-supported fabric,--beautiful in
the brief hour of sunshine, but the moment one drop of rain touches the
arid basis melting away in wreck and ruin! I am an accountable being; I
have a soul and a God to answer to, in another and better world, for my
thoughts and actions in this. I disclaim here any act of mine which
would sport with the lives of my fellow-creatures, any amelioration of
our social condition which must be purchased by their blood. And here,
in the face of God and of our common country, I protest that if I did not
sincerely and firmly believe that the amelioration I desire could be
effected without violence, without any change in the relative scale of
ranks in the present social condition of Ireland, except that change
which all must desire, making each better than it was before, and
cementing all in one solid irresistible mass, I would at once give up the
struggle which I have always kept with tyranny. I would withdraw from
the contest which I have hitherto waged with those who would perpetuate