Let the House, if it can, regard Ireland as an English country. Let us
think of the eight millions of people, and of the millions of them
doomed to this intolerable suffering. Let us think of the half-million
who, within two years past, have perished miserably in the workhouses,
and on the highways, and in their hovels--more, far more than ever fell
by the sword in any war this country ever waged; let us think of the
crop of nameless horrors which is even now growing up in Ireland, and
whose disastrous fruit may be gathered in years and generations to come.
Let us examine what are the laws and the principles under which alone
God and nature have permitted that nations should become industrious and
provident.
I hope the House will pardon me if I have said a word that can offend
any one. But I feel conscious of a personal humiliation when I consider
the state of Ireland. I do not wish to puff nostrums of my own, though
it may be thought I am opposed to much that exists in the present order
of things; but whether it tended to advance democracy, or to uphold
aristocracy, or any other system, I would wish to fling to the winds any
prejudice I have entertained, and any principle that may be questioned,
if I can thereby do one single thing to hasten by a single day the time
when Ireland shall be equal to England in that comfort and that
independence which an industrious people may enjoy, if the Government
under which they live is equal and just.
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