Chapter XI

1847-1886.

A Patriot Politician, not a Party-man

"Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?"

-Walter Scott.

Ferguson was not at any period of his life a "panty"-man. As an intelligent student of history, past and present, he held definite views as to the policy, foreign and domestic, of the empire. Of its greatness he was proud, as well as of its position as a bulwark of the cause of man, a planter and buttress of Freedom. The foremost place in his filial love belonged, however, to Ireland, the land of his birth, that "illustrious Innisfail," that

"Green land, still sparkling fresh and fair
With morning dew of heroism dried up and gone elsewhere!"

whose story he had studied; whose heroic legends he had told in verse; whose holy men he had followed in their missionary wanderings; whose kings, and chiefs, and heroes, and bards were familiar in his mouth as household words; and whose wrongs and sufferings wrung his heart. Nor could he tolerate the English policy of centralisation which sought to deprive his native land of its local institutions. How strongly he felt on the subject will appear in the speech recorded later on in this chapter.

The people of England hardly realise how much of what is recognised as Irish disaffection is the result of the insulting - or still more of the patronising - tone of a portion of their press. It has been reformed of late, but we may say with Hamlet, "O, reform it altogether." Ferguson's thoughts on this topic have been temperately expressed in the following words

"Those who see in the stability of Governments the guarantees of peace and freedom, regret that the consolidation of the United Kingdom should be impeded by any cause however trivial. It is therefore that we notice a characteristic of the press of London which, trifling as it may seem, and merely a facon de parler, exercises, we are assured, a very injurious influence in preventing that full understanding and goodwill which all lovers of settled institutions would desire to see subsist between Queen Victoria's English and Irish subjects. We allude to the habitual and too often contemptuous assumption of superiority which marks the language of the London newspapers whenever they speak of Ireland. We would submit to these journals whether it would not be wiser to adopt a phraseology which would not excite invidious comparisons, and which would be consistent with the theory of the Union which they support. In that theory England and Ireland are alike portions of one United Kingdom, neither ruled by the other, but each by the whole. A numerous and powerful body of the Irish are attached to this Union, and it is in a great measure to their support that the empire is indebted for the peaceful maintenance of its integrity.

But while the tone of the English press would lead careless observers to suppose that these Irish adherents of the Union took a morbid pleasure in avenging their quarrel with Mr O'Connell on their common country, the reverse is the fact. For it may generally be said of these Irish Unionists, that while becoming every day more sensible of the advantages of connection with Britain, they are also pari passu becoming more attached to their own country and more sensitive to every reflection on her honour. Habitual contempts of a country where the nobility and chief gentry, as well as a large proportion of the professional and commercial classes, are animated by sentiments such as these, cannot be indulged in without the excitement of irritation and the' creation of danger.

The deportment of the Irish Unionists at the present moment commands respect. An agricultural community, they have cheerfully submitted to a change in the laws affecting agriculture, detrimental to their own immediate interests, but necessary for the commercial advancement of their English fellow-subjects. With strong temptations to the gratification of selfish ambition by assuming their natural place as leaders of the Irish masses, they adhere devotedly to that connection on which they feel the general welfare of the empire to depend; and-which is perhaps as creditable to them as anything else - they have, with little or no Government aid, and without even the encouragement of one generous notice from the capital, laid the foundations in their own country for schools of science, of letters, and of arts, which bid fair to replace Ireland in her old eminence among the homes of learning in the West of Europe.

It is unbecoming as well as impolitic to use language derogatory of a country preserved from total alienation and hostility by the presence of such a class. But what is indiscreet and even unbecoming in journals written by Englishmen, justly proud although perhaps thoughtlessly boastful of the superiority of their portion of the empire, becomes culpable and shocking when it proceeds, as unfortunately the most offensive of these follies have proceeded, from journals edited by natives of the injured country. We can conceive of nothing more calculated to pain the loyal Irish gentlemen, or to excite feelings dangerous to the peace and stability of nations, than the repeated infliction of wounds thus doubly dishonouring.

These Irish gentlemen, scholars, artists, and men of taste and letters, who are engaged in the generous task of making their capital a home for the quiet pursuits of intellect, deserve well of the lovers of peace and order throughout Europe.

In their efforts for the legitimate elevation of their country, the men in question have all made serious personal sacrifices. They have preferred remaining poor and almost unknown in their own country, to accepting the invitation to wealth and fame which London holds cut to the talent of the rest of the empire. May they soon begin to reap the reward of their generous efforts in winning back their own nobility and gentry, whose wealth would be amply sufficient, if spent at home, to create as great inducements to the cultivation of all the higher arts of life in Dublin as now exist in most of the capital cities of Europe."

These sanguine expectations have not been realised. The lack of patriotic feeling has made too many of the gentry absentees. Agitators in Ireland have contributed to this undesirable state of things by bringing about strained relations between landlord and tenant. Many things have contributed to keep Ireland poor. The wealth which, if expended at home, would circulate, and return in great part into the pockets of the producers, is spent out of the country. Poverty thus increased naturally leads to discontent, and so the evil circle completes itself.

"O wad they stay aback frae courts,
And please themselves wi' country sports,
It would for every one be better,
The laird, the tenant, and the cottar!"

But men, till they attain to a high sense of duty, cannot claim the patriot's boast-

"His first, best country ever is at home."

Ferguson never undervalued the advantages to Ireland of its union with Great Britain. He saw that the antagonism between Protestant and progressive Ulster and Catholic and Celtic Ireland would not improbably result in the calamity - which of all others he most dreaded - of civil war, were that Union to be severed before the animosities of centuries had disappeared in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and goodwill. He has recorded his convictions on these topics:-

"In politics I am Conservative, but always was and am a great detester of Party and Faction, and an implacable enemy of those projectors and centralisers whose schemes appear to me to keep society in Ireland from consolidating into a settled strength and refinement."

From these opinions he never swerved, although in the speech which he made in May 1848, which will be given in extenso, he spoke in favour of a repeal of the Union. He was then convinced that the gross mismanagement of Irish affairs, and the centralising policy which Lord Clarendon - the Viceroy at that time - was understood to have in hand - namely, the abolition. of the Lord Lieutenancy, and the transfer of the courts of Law to Westminster - would be ruinous to the interests of his country. He held that the project of eliminating from society in Ireland the upper and the professional classes would make the country a mere "draw-farm" for England. He had no doubt that this was the design aimed at, though not openly avowed, by the party in power at that time. These convictions were re-enforced by his heart-breaking experience of the miseries of the land and people whom he passionately loved. When Ferguson left Ireland at the close of 1845, the population exceeded eight millions, and her natural leaders - gentlemen of honour and position - seemed to be aroused to a keener sense than formerly of their public duties. When he returned a year later, he found famine and pestilence rife, and the people decimated by starvation. In obedience to the mistaken views of political economists, food-supplies still in the land had been exported, and advantage taken of the awful visitation to attempt schemes of spoliation which he abhorred. We give in the words of Sir C. G. Duffy his sketch of the afflicted land at that time:-

"The immediate future became more and more menacing. Two facts of fatal significance had by this time become certain. More than a third of the potato crop throughout the island was gone, in some districts more than half; and at the same time the bulk of the remaining supplies, cattle and corn, butter, beef, and pork, which would have fed all the inhabitants, continued to be exported to England, to pay the rent of farms which no longer yielded the cultivators their ordinary food. Deaths from starvation were reported from North and South, and the actual nature of the danger when the food of a country is withdrawn began to be dimly foreseen. It was essentially a remediable calamity, for, as Berkeley had taught of old, if the island was fenced off from the rest of the world by a wall of brass, it produced food enough to support its population. Measures of precaution were again urged on the Government.

Other practical suggestions were equally disregarded. Sharman Crawford, being himself a man of large estate, recommended a property tax, to be spent on employing the people; Smith O'Brien suggested that railways, docks, and canals, and the improvement of the waste lands, would constitute national reproductive work. But the established practice at that time, which has not, as far as I know, undergone any substantial change, was to despatch Englishmen to a country of which they knew nothing, and intrust them to determine questions requiring minute knowledge and long experience. The English officials determined that work simply, irrespective of its reproductiveness, was the proper system, and that not railways and canals or transforming the wastes into cornfields, but a prodigious extension of highways, was the legitimate application of the national strength. Half a million of people were soon employed on this basis, and nearly 12,000 persons paid for overseeing unproductive labour. Serviceable roads were torn up that they might be made anew, and new lines were projected where there was no traffic. . .

The condition of Ireland at the opening of the year 1847 is one of the most painful chapters in the annals of mankind. An industrious and hospitable race were now in the pangs of a devouring famine. Deaths of individuals, of husband and wife, of entire families, were becoming common. The potato-blight had spread from the Atlantic to the Caspian, but there was more suffering in one parish of Mayo than in all the rest of Europe. From Connaught, where distress was greatest, there came batches of inquests, with the horrible verdict, "Died of starvation." In some cases the victims were buried "wrapped in a coarse coverlet," a coffin being too costly a luxury. The living awaited death with a listlessness which was at once tragic and revolting. Women with dead children in their arms were seen begging for a coffin to bury them. . .

It was a fearful time for the men who loved their country not only with deep affection, but with a wise and forecasting interest. A revolution of the worst type was in progress. Not the present alone, but the future, was being laid waste.

The gentry, who were responsible in the first place for the protection of the people, from whom they drew their income, insisted that the calamity was an Imperial one, and ought to be borne out of the Exchequer of the empire. It was an equitable claim. If there was no irresistible title of brotherhood, at lowest the stronger nation had snatched away from the weaker the power of helping itself and still drew away during this terrible era half a million of pounds every month in the shape of absentee-rents. The demand was put aside contemptuously. . .

All the nations of the earth were appealed to, and they gave generously; but the result was far from being proportionate to the need. During the year just ended the contributions fell short of £2000 a-week. And it was not forgotten that after the great fire of London, when the citizens were in deep distress, the Irish contributed 20,000 fat cattle for their relief, which at their present value would amount to a sum greater than England and Europe sent to the aid of Ireland in 1846.

I have written this book [writes Sir C. G. Duffy in his preface to 'Young Ireland'] in the intervals of a busy life, because I believed it was the best and last service I could render to Ireland. . . My first aim was to make a new generation familiar with the truthfulness, simplicity, and real moderation of the men with whom, it was said, "a new soul came into Ireland." . . .

Another aim, if I may venture to say so, was to appeal to the conscience of the best class of Englishmen. If they should think proper to study, with reasonable pains, the brief period embraced in this narrative, they will have no difficulty, I am persuaded, in understanding a problem which has sometimes perplexed them - why Irishmen not deficient in public spirit or probity were eager to break away from the Union and from all connection with England. At present they see with amazement and dismay a whole people who profess to have no confidence in their equity, who proclaim that they do not expect fair play from them, and who fall into ecstasies of triumph over some disaster abroad or embarrassment at home which endangers or humiliates the empire; and they will not take the obvious means of comprehending this phenomenon. For whoever desires to understand why Ireland is distressed and discontented, while England is prosperous and loyal, must assuredly seek the causes in history: to-day is the child and heir of yesterday. . . . I am convinced that confusion and disaster will continue to mark the relation between the islands, till Englishmen confront the facts courageously, and with a determination to discover the spring-head from which discord flows."

Irish gentlemen of all conditions, creeds, and politics met in Dublin in 1847 to consider what ought to be done in the emergency caused by the failure of the potato. This "Irish Council " had for its honorary secretaries Sir Colman O'Loghlen and Samuel Ferguson. The advice tendered by the Council was disregarded by the Government. The condition of the starving multitudes became month by month more disastrous, the experimental legislation from Westminster more futile. Many among those who knew the country were disheartened by, and indignant at, the impotent attempts to cope with the exigencies of the position. They were convinced that Ireland would have weathered the crisis more successfully if she had been legislated for by a native Parliament.

This condition of mind is indicated in the speech which Ferguson made at the Protestant Repeal Association in May 1848, here given as reported in a local newspaper:-

Mr Samuel Ferguson then came forward amid loud and long-continued cheering, and said:-

"Mr Chairman and gentlemen, I am a Protestant and an inhabitant of Dublin, and I desire the restoration of a domestic Legislature. Coming thus within the terms of your invitation, I have felt it my duty to present myself amongst you. I have obeyed that feeling of duty notwithstanding a good deal of social coercion, and I have done so under the penalty - which however, in the discharge of such a duty, I do not shrink from incurring - of encountering cold looks from many whom I esteem, and from some whom I love.

"Your committee, sir, have done me the favour to place in my hands a resolution which I have great satisfaction in submitting to the consideration of this assembly, for I believe this resolution expresses a truth of the highest social import at all times and in all communities, but particularly important for us to understand at a time when a proposition directly the reverse is very generally put forth by those who profess to express the opinion of educated persons in England and in Ireland, and also by those who claim to be the exponents of the will of our governors. The resolution is this: 'Resolved - That national prosperity is based on social confidence, and that social confidence in Ireland cannot be expected to exist while the Government is conducted and the laws are made by strangers to the Irish people.'

I am convinced that this proposition is true and just, and that the adverse proposition which, as I have told you, has been supported by influential exponents of the opinions of our governors, not only through their own press but through that over which they exercise a control in France, is untrue and unjust - viz., that what the people of Ireland require is a material and not a political change. I have the utmost esteem for those who tell us we de require material changes. I am perfectly aware that we are in a condition which requires not only the production of greater wealth, but also a more just distribution of our public expenses and taxation; but I believe such a change as that cannot be brought about so as to make it permanently conducive to the prosperity of this country, unless it be based on such political reforms as will bring the body of the Irish people to be friends with their laws.

"It has been repeatedly declared by the representative of her Majesty in Ireland, for whom I have much respect, that we ought not to ask for political changes, but be satisfied with changes in our material condition. I wish here to say, that I am very sorry the abilities of a nobleman so highly accomplished as Lord Clarendon should be engaged in carrying out, and inculcating on the Irish mind, a proposition the effect of which would be, to divert us from that which it is of most consequence for us to attain, and to induce us to rest satisfied with something that would be transitory and of little avail. I have taken the liberty, sir, to say that I entertain great respect for Lord Clarendon as an eminent statesman. I believe, sir, that no reflecting man will condemn him for having, in the execution of his duty, taken care that the public peace should be preserved, and that the inhabitants of a great city like Dublin, who are so much divided in their opinions, should be protected from those horrors which must ensue on any outbreak of armed rebellion. But, sir, while it is quite true that the preparations made by the Government to preserve the peace - preparations in making which they were discharging their duty, and are entitled to our thanks - have averted from our eyes that spectacle which, please God, I and you shall never have to recoil from - the spectacle of mutual butchery among our fellow citizens, - there has resulted from these preparations a great loss, in the loss of that social confidence which the resolution affirms to be the true basis of national prosperity. I deplore the necessity - I lament the evil consequences which have ensued. I believe that it is mainly owing to the want of profitable employment, arising from the want of confidence, and the consequent fear of men to embark their money in mercantile speculations, that we are brought here to-night; for when I look around me, and ask what it is that has assembled so great a multitude, I feel that the same impulse which has brought me has actuated you - namely, that we find our affairs are not prosperous, that we want profitable employment, that industry is deadened and enterprise at an end, and therefore we have come together to seek the best remedy that we can find, consistent with our duty to one another, to the laws, and to our sovereign. I believe that although the remedy which we look to may not be immediately productive of the brilliant results so many of us expect, yet that the foundation of the future amelioration of our state in Ireland must be looked for in the establishment of our own Legislature.

Gentlemen, that conviction has arisen in my mind of late, and I am not in the least ashamed to come amongst my fellow-citizens and confess that I believe in so long rejecting that conviction I have been in error. I have been always aware of the fact that prior to the Union this country enjoyed a great degree of what is called material prosperity, and that our society was much further advanced in the arts of life and of civilisation than it has been Since. I believe, in point of fact, that since the Union this country has retrograded both in the elements of material prosperity and in the tone of its society. However, sir, I had believed that the advantages - and no doubt they are great - attendant on the unity of government and the efficient administration of law, which are secured by having the Legislature and Government located in one part of the empire - I believed that these, and the advantages we derive from a Union with England, would have more than counterbalanced those evils. I have, however, seen reason lately to believe that the disadvantages of the Imperial connection greatly outweigh any advantages we might derive, and infinitely outweigh those which we hitherto have derived, from that source. I have seen that the people of this country, having their minds fixed on this great national question, to which the mass of the upper classes have been hitherto averse, social disunion has resulted, and the effect has been that our representatives in the Imperial Parliament have consisted mainly of members of either one or the other extreme party in politics. I have seen that the representatives elected by the popular constituencies - who would not seek for their members of Parliament amongst those who rejected the question of Repeal - have generally been men who did not represent the intelligence or property of the country. On the other hand, I have observed that the few members whom the upper classes, holding aloof from the people, have been able to return, have gone into the House pledged in all things to dependence on England, and by reason of that dependent position incapable of expressing the opinions of their own part of the United Kingdom with spirit or effect. I have thus taken notice of an increasing inefficiency of our representatives from year to year, in proportion as society has been more widely divided; and, concurrently with that deterioration in the character of our representatives, I have seen the growth in Parliament of a spirit of contempt, and even of hostility, towards this country, which render the services even of those who are best disposed, of no avail for our benefit. And although I can well understand how it is that English gentlemen might excuse themselves for having given way to a petulance which was not without its provocation, I must own that I have felt the utmost indignation at the unworthy manner in which this ancient kingdom-this loyal, great, and peaceable people - have been spoken of by English representatives in the House of Commons - spoken of with ribald insolence, which, if we had been represented by Irish gentlemen of independence, would never have been ventured on, much less permitted, and repeated. While our members have been thus inefficient, and while persons, unknown for property, for intelligence, or for genius-unknown for anything that should make men conspicuous - have been suffered to indulge in the utmost insolence unreproved by the Speaker of the House of Commons -

A Voice. "Smith O'Brien."

Mr Ferguson. "No; that was not the case with Mr Smith O'Brien. But before Mr O'Brien went there, and told them his mind, like the brave gentleman he is, when the slightest attempt at expostulation was made - when a gentleman respected by us all, and whom I greatly esteem, appealed to the Speaker of the house of Commons, in terms infinitely less strong than he ought to have used, that gentleman was told that he was out of order - and that a Mr Wakley - no, not Wakley (a voice - 'The editor of the "Times"') - no; the gentleman to whom I allude has not the ability to do more than utter scurrilous invectives. But the one gentleman was told that he was out of order, when he commented on the improper language of a Mr Walters, who declared, without any interference on the part of the Speaker, and with the apparent sanction of the rest of her Majesty's advisers, that 'If Nigger were not Nigger, Irishman would be Nigger.' I believe, gentlemen, that the House is perfectly well aware that in suffering one of their members thus to inflame international hostilities between two great sections of her Majesty's subjects, they are grossly deserting the duty which they owed to both. I believe that the House are now desirous to make reparation, and that no man in the House is more aware that he has failed in the duly which he owed to her Majesty and to her Irish subjects on that occasion, than the Speaker.

"It is not on account, however, of a mere passing cause of irritation of that kind, that I would deem myself justified in wishing for the change - which I now desire to see effected. But, whilst they have exhibited this contempt fox us, and this hostility towards us, they have also exhibited great ignorance of our affairs, and utter incapacity to make laws salutary for this country. What impresses this on my mind with particular force is, that when, by the occurrence of the calamity that has lately visited us, it became essential that we should make large provision for the support of the poor of this country - when that necessity arose (and here I speak from personal experience) 15 months ago, parties representing all sections of Irish politicians - representing both creeds and all classes in the community - saw what the difficulty was with which we had to contend, and clearly saw what was the remedy. It was perfectly evident that if on the first of January 1847, we had had a local Legislature in this country, not only would moneys have been raised adequate for preserving the lives of all her Majesty's subjects who, since that time, owing to the mismanagement of the Imperial Legislature, have lost their lives, but that in apportioning the taxation for that purpose, under any Act passed in an Irish Legislature, no one class in the community would have been made to suffer more than another. It seems that our governors at that time - and it was proclaimed by their authoritative organs in and out of Parliament - were glad to take occasion of the affliction with which the Irish people had been visited, in order, by accumulating the whole of the taxation necessary for the relief of the poor on one particular set of proprietors, to exterminate and put out of their way altogether the class of resident Irish landlords.

"I believe, sir, that the extinguishment of the Irish landed proprietors is only one part of a design, the scope and object of which is to eradicate out of Ireland all classes of gentry, to make this country what is vulgarly called a draw-farm for England, and to centralise in London all the wealth, refinement, and social attractions of the empire. That policy has been openly avowed, and for the purpose of reconciling us to a change so great, writers have been hired at the public expense, in order to persuade us that we ought not to apply ourselves to any of the higher departments of industry, and to tell us that the existence in this country of any other class except the mere tillers of the soil is quite unnecessary. They cannot even bear the presence of an affluent clergy among us. They would confiscate their incomes twice as fast as those even of the landlords, for they impose a double amount of poor-law taxation on them. In the prosecution of the same plebeianising policy, the executive Government here have sought to hire the services of the most accomplished medical gentlemen, as they would hire the services of menials or mechanics; and, to complete that policy, they have brought in a bill, now pending before the Legislature, the object of which is to transfer our superior courts of Law from Dublin to Westminster. It is impossible for one to observe what is going on, and the consistent manner with which these designs have been prosecuted, without being perfectly conceived that the object that all these people have been about is, to extinguish out of this country whatever a gentleman of education, spirit, or honourable ambition would deem best worth living for.

"But what I regard as the great and characteristic evil of this state of things, and what, in my mind, has weighed more strongly than anything else to induce me to entertain the opinion which I now hold, is this - that amongst the upper classes, who particularly lock to England for support and protection, there has been propagated an anti-national and servile spirit, which is wholly inconsistent with social consolidation, dignity or progress. I believe that if the patronage of the empire were divided in the most equitable terms amongst those who submit to this humiliating allegiance, in reward for their supposed services, such benefits would be dearly purchased by the loss of self-respect and social confidence which must attend the keeping up of such a class of mercenaries. But when I see that in return for this humiliating servitude they are only repaid by the meanest offices, whilst all offices of dignity and trust are conferred on Englishmen, I feel that we must put an end to this state of affairs - if we would not see the race of gentry (not to speak of the spirit of gentility and honour) eradicated for ever from amongst us.

"For those reasons I desire, and am willing to encounter, the dangers and the risk of the changes you contemplate. I beg to say, in reply to the question of 'What do you mean by a Repeal of the Union?' that I am prepared to declare, and in all its details, what it is exactly I desire. Details, however, are not for your meeting to-night. You are now met to affirm the broad principle of self-government. But with reference to details, I may now say that in the reconstruction of whatever legislative body we may procure to be again established in Ireland, I would seek to obtain no power inconsistent with its continued independent action; and I agree in the sentiments of those who have originated this movement, that we ought not to seek any control outside the limits of our own country. But within the boundary of Ireland we claim the exclusive right of taxing ourselves, and of regulating and administering our own affairs.

"I am aware that such a change is not to be effected' without difficulty, nor can we contemplate those difficulties without perceiving that those who continue averse to such a change are not without reason for some of their objections. There is one objection in particular to which I wish to reply. They say to us, 'Look to your constituencies, see what representatives you have in Parliament and in your corporations - are you willing to put your affairs exclusively into the hands of such persons?' It is my firm persuasion that immediately on the removal of the present cause of contention, the people, in exercising their franchises, would look for the ablest servants they could find, and that our affairs, instead of being managed as they are at present, would be put into the hands of the best gentlemen in the country. On the other hand, I believe that there are some who warmly advocate the restoration of her Legislature to this country, who are carried away by expectation of greater benefits and more brilliant results than can be rationally hoped for; but the advantages of bringing the people to be friends with the law would go a great way in creating respect for the law, and inducing enterprise, by the certainty of contracts being enforced. I believe that it would be impossible for us, if governed by moderate and reasonable men, to go on without great and immediate improvement It will appear, therefore, that in taking this step, and in admitting those convictions, I have not been actuated by any romantic, or dazzled by any brilliant, picture.

"I know of no spectacle nobler or more gratifying to the friends of freedom and humanity than was presented in London, when its citizens, including the highest nobility, arrayed themselves in defence of the public peace, threatened by some who did not know the value of public order. Yes, it was a spectacle truly gratifying to all, save men carried away by factious feelings. On witnessing that triumph of the good sense of the English people, and contrasting her state with that of neighbouring nations, I could not avoid exclaiming, in the words of England's national anthem -

"'The nations round less blest than thee,
Shall see their thrones successive fall,
But thou shalt flourish great and free,
The boast and envy of them all.'

(Cheers.) I rejoice to hear that cheer: nothing can be more gratifying to me than to find such a sentiment elicit such a response among those whom the English Government has so long wronged. But to the English, as a people, we must be ever grateful for their magnanimous benevolence to us in the time of our distress. As far as concerns England herself and the colonies she has created by her industry, the dependencies she has won by her arms, I say, with cordial sincerity, 'Rule Britannia.' But we are not a colony of Great Britain - we are an ancient kingdom, an aristocratic people, entitled to our nationality, and resolved on having it; and I trust the day is not far distant when Irishmen will be able to say in reference to their country, as well as to England, in the words of the same noble composition I have already quoted-

"'Thee, haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame:
All their attempts to bind thee down
Shall but increase thy generous flame,
And work their woe and thy renown.'"

When Mr Gladstone's Home Rule Bill occupied the public mind some 40 years later, Sir Samuel Ferguson was asked to state his views on the subject. He wrote in 1885 and subsequently the following letters:-

"I sympathised with the Young Ireland poets and patriots while their aims were directed to a restoration of Grattan's Parliament in which all the estates of the realm should have their old places. But I have quite ceased to sympathise with their successors who have converted their high aspirations to a sordid social war of classes carried on by the vilest methods. I was comrade in that sense of Davis, and possibly, but with far less sympathy, of some of his companions. But it was in sympathy only. I never wrote in the 'Nation.' To say that I have upborne their tame; therefore, is more than I would like to vouch.

I agree with our friend in thinking that the Irish of our day will not give attention to any other political project save that of Home Rule.

I think that the safest form of Home Rule - if we are to have it - that can be adopted is that of a restoration of the Parliament of 1799. County Boards, in my judgment, if only able to impose without apportioning taxation, would not in any degree satisfy the longings of the people; and if authorised to apportion, would become instruments of uncontrolled oppression and plunder. I think a Parliament controlled by a House of Lords and the Royal Prerogative would be much more likely to end discontents, with comparative safety to property and social security. The proposed abolition of the Lord Lieutenancy would, in my opinion, be merely a further step in centralisation, and would be socially injurious in depriving the better classes here of the advantages of a Court. These advantages now extend to a large class of our community who could not seek admittance to a Royal Court, even if we had the assurance of such a substitute. I ascribe much of the good tone and polish of our unpretending Irish society to the influence of successive Viceregal hospitalities, but consider the office chiefly valuable as affording local administrative government

As a public servant it is not my function to interfere in politics; but I am at liberty to form my own opinions, which I believe are dispassionate and know to be the result of long observation. In my capacity as President of the Academy, also, I know no distinction of creed or politics, all reference to both or either being forbidden in our meetings, but the position gives me a wider view of what is going on around me."

Ferguson, ever zealous for the honour of Ireland and its people, was inexpressibly grieved and shocked at the crimes which disgraced the country during the latter years of his life. He wrote in 1882 a powerful poem, "The Curse of the Joyces," in which he dwells on those "three awful years of idleness, disaster, want, and tears," and expresses his loathing of the "sordid gang," the "panders and apologists of crime," whose lessons had degraded and sullied the character of Irishmen. It is here published for the first time:-

The Curse of the Joyces
Galway, 15th December 1882
Oh! ye poor wretches who to-day must hang,
Curse, with your last breath, the sordid gang
Who led you on, and now have led you in
Where deaths of shame must end your lives of sin.
Curse, while your sentence yet leaves breathing-time,
The panders and apologists of crime,
Who've shown you, daily, these three awful years
Of idleness, disaster, want, and tears,
In every cunning form of speech abused,
Crime hinted, crime applauded, crime excused;
Who've told you, plain as nod and wink could tell,
"Shoot on brave boys, we'll see you through it well;
Shoot landlord, agent, bailiff, working man
Who dares to earn what daily bread he can
From boycotted employer: never fear,
We'll back the good deed up, and see you clear.
We'll fill the jury-box with leaguers good,
Friends to the cause, and connoisseurs in blood,
Who'll only ask that willing lips supply
The formal features of an alibi.
Or, if a weak Executive take heart,
And bid our minions from the box depart,
As slaves, for Freedom's offices unfit,
God help the doomed successors they admit!
We'll show them up, we'll treat them to some tricks
Reserved for Saxons of their politics;
Placard their businesses, and let their wills
To keep their oaths, react upon their tills.
Mark every gesture: if a note be sent
To say 'I can't come home,' record the event:
For, though the sheriff read it, was it not
A noted loyalist the missive got
As messenger? Be sure, we'l watch them well;
And when, at night, brought down to their hotel,
Good patriot spies shall wait them there, and note
What stint of liquor goes down every throat;
Each glass of whisky, as it leaves the cask,
That bailiff, or that bailiff's man, may ask,
Sheriff or sheriff's visitor, see scored
Against the unconscious twelve men round the board.
Heaven help near-sighted juror who may trip
Over the tin-bath, for the root or hip,
Placed in his way to bed. With morning cries
Of 'drunken verdict!' we'll affront the skies;
And if we can't get off our guilty man,
Convict and damn his judges if we can.
Who knows, but some one whom we do not know,
(Oh! far from us be that!) by some shrewd blow,
Better than twenty challengges, may strike
Terror, in judge and juryman alike?
If Justice Lawson (which the heavens avert!)
When walking after dusk, should-catch-a hurt,
If Foreman Field so-cautioned-we should see,
Shall we be blamed for that? oh no, not we."
Curse them, while yet your windpipes are unstretched,
And breath from living lungs can still be fetched
To speed the malediction; and, then, say,
"Adjust the knot, good hangman, let's away
And leave a world where greater villains far
Than even we poor guilty miscreants are,
Live to enjoy the profits they have made
Of us and other victims of their trade.
The world we go to hardly can be worse;
Let them live on, and bear the Joyces' curse!"

On the 6th of May 1881, in the Phoenix Park, in open day, a deed of shame was wrought which filled all honourable men with horror. The murder of Mr Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish by four ruffians armed with knives, and hounded on by miscreants still more guilty than those butchers, as being of somewhat superior position and education, shocked not alone Dublin, but the empire. Carey, who gave the signal, while waiting for the appearance of the unsuspecting victims was an onlooker at a game of polo then being played in the Park. His supposed meditations are analysed by Ferguson in a poem written partly to show how readily Browning's mannerisms might be imitated. "At the Polo-Ground" was a new departure, differing altogether in style from any of Ferguson's previous compositions. The analysis of Carey's hesitancies before he had given the fatal signal to the assassins is quite in Browning's manner:-

At the Polo-Ground
6th May 1881.
Not yet in sight 'Twere well to step aside,
Beyond the common eye-shot, till he comes.
He - I've no quarrel under heaven with him:
I'd rather it were Forster; rather still
One higher up than either; but since Fate
Or Chance has so determined, be it he.
How cool I feel; and all my wits about
And vigilant; and such a work in hand!
Yes: loitering here, unoccupied, may draw
Remark and question. How came such a one there?
Oh; I've strolled out to see the polo-players:
I'll step across to them; but keep an eye
On who comes ~p the highway.
Here I am
Beside the hurdles fencing off the ground
They've taken from us who have the right to it,
For these select young gentry and their sport.
Curse them! I would they all might break their necks!
Young fops and lordlings of the garrison
Kept up by England here to keep us down:
All rich young fellows not content to own
Their chargers, hacks, and hunters for the field,
But also special ponies for their game;
And doubtless, as they dash along, regard
Us who stand outside as a beggady crew. -
'Tis half-past six. Not yet. No, that's not he. -
Well, but 'tis pretty, sure, to see them stoop
And take the ball, full gallop; and when I
In gown and cocked hat once drove up Cork Hill,
Perhaps myself have eyed the common crowd,
Lining the footway, with a similar sense
Of higher station, just as these do me,
And as the man next door no doubt does them.
'Tis very sure that grades and differences
Of rich and poor and small men and grandees
Have all along existed, and still will, -
Though many a man has risen and thriven well
By promising the Poor to make them rich
By taking from the Rich their overplus,
And putting all on a level: beggars all.
Yet still the old seize-ace comes round again;
And though my friends upon the pathway there -
No. Not he neither. That's a taller man -
Look for a general scramble and divide,
Such a partition, were it possible,
Would not by any means suit me. My share
Already earned and saved would equal ten
Such millionth quotients and sub-multiples.
No: they may follow Davitt. 'Tis Parnell
And property - in proper hands - will win.
But, say the Mob's the Master; and who knows
But some o' these days the ruffians may have votes
As good as mine or his, and pass their Act
For every man his share, and equal all?
No doubt they'd have a slice from me. What then?
I'm not afraid. I'll float. Allow the scums
Rise to the surface, something rises too
Not scum, but Carey; and will yet rise higher.
No place too high but he may look for it.
Member for Dublin, Speaker, President,
Lord Mayor for life - why not? One gentleman,
Who when he comes to deal with this day's work-
No: not in sight. That man is not so tall -
Will find, to his surprise, a stronger hand
Than his controls the rudder, sat three years
And hangs his medal on the sheriff's chain.
Yes; say Lord Mayor: my liveries green and gold,
My secretary with me in my coach,
And chaplain duly seated by my side.
My boy shall have his hack, and pony too,
And play at polo with the best of them;
Such as will then be best. He need not blush
To think his father was a bricklayer;
For laying bricks is work as reputable
As filling noggins or appraising pawns,
Or other offices of those designed
For fathers of our Dublin swells to be.
'Tis twenty minutes now to seven o'clock.
What if he should not come at all? 'Twere then
Another - oh - fiasco as they call it,
Not pleasant to repeat to Number One,
But, for myself, perhaps not wholly bad.
For, if he comes, there will he consequences
Will make a stir; and in that stir my name
May come in play-well, one must run some risk
Who takes a lead and keeps and thrives by it
As I have done But sure the risk is small.
I know those cut-throats on the pathway there
May be relied on. Theirs is work that shuts
The door against approval of both sorts.
But he who drives them, I've remarked in him
A flighty indecision in the eye,
Such as, indeed, had I a looking-glass,
I might perhaps discover in my own
When thoughts have crossed me how I should behave
In this or that conjuncture of the affair.
Him I distrust. But not from him or them
Or any present have I aught to fear
For never have I talked to more than one
Of these executive agents at a time,
Nor let a scrap of writing leave my hand
Could compromise myself with any one.
And should I - though I don't expect I shall -
Be brought, at any time, to book for this,
'Twill not be - or I much mistake - because
Of any indiscretion hitherto.
But, somehow, these reflections make me pause
And set me inly questioning myself
Is it worth while - the crime itself apart -
To pull this settled civil state of life
To pieces, for another just the same,
Only with rawer actors for the posts
Of Judges, Landlords, Masters, Capitalists?
And then, the innocent blood. I've half a mind
To trip across this elm-root at my foot,
And turn my ankle.
Oh, he comes at last
No time for thinking now. My own life pays
Unless I play my part. I see he brings
Another with him, and, I think, the same
I heard them call Lord - something - Cavendish.
If one; two, likely. That can't now be helped.
Up. Drive on straight, - if I blow my nose
And show my handkerchief in front of them,
And then turn back, what's that to any one?
No further, driver. Back to Island Bridge.
No haste. If some acquaintance chanced to pass,
He must not think that we are running away.
I don't like, but I can't help looking back.
They meet: my villains pass them. Gracious Powers,
Another failure! No, they turn again
And overtake; and Brady lifts his arm -
I'll see no more. On - by the Monument
On - brisker, brisker - but yet leisurely.
By this time all is over with them both.
Ten minutes more, the Castle has the news,
And haughty Downing Street in half an hour
Is struck with palsy. For a moment there,
Among the trees, I wavered. Brady's knife
Has cut the knot of my perplexities;
Despite myself, my fortune mounts again.
The English rule will soon be overthrown,
And ours established in the place of it
I'm free again to look, as long as I please,
In Fortune's show-box. Yes; I see the chain,
I see the gilded coach. God send the boy
May take the polish! There's but one thing now
That troubles me. These cursed knives at home
That woman brought me, what had best be done
To put them out o' the way? I have it. Yes,
That old Fitzsimon's roof's in need of repairs.
I'll leave them in his cock-loft. Still in time
To catch the tram, I'll take a seat a-top -
For no one must suppose I've anything
To hide - and stow myself in Grafton Street

At the Polo-Ground" was followed by another poem in the same manner - a Dublin eclogue - dated February 18, 1886, "In Carey's Footsteps." In this the speculations of another stroller in the Phoenix Park are imaginatively dissected. The supposed thinker would appear to be an ecclesiastic who finds himself near the spot where the former tragedy had been enacted.

In Carey's Footsteps.

A hideous thought I'll walk a while in the Park
And rid my mind of it. I wish to God
I had not said it: though no man can say
I counselled or advised it: only this;
I did not, as I ought, advise against -
Express some detestation - say, at least,
Such crimes are cowardly, and Irishmen,
Having the true faith; should be bold to act
The manlier part.

Yes, here I'm in the Park.
The People's Garden? No. Let dull Carlisle
Set out his leg among the nurserymaids:
I'm not for statues nor for works of art
Reminding one at every step he takes
In his own grounds, at home, that some one else
Confers his culture on him from outside.
I want brisk walking. Ay; there's General Gough,
Some little off the perpendicular,
Astride the gingered bronze. They set him up
To show us how our masters know to ride
Over us rebel Irish; and Lord James
And General Sir Thomas Steele, I'm told,
Made capital speeches at the ceremony.
And all the Civil Service and its wives
Sat and applauded when the Board of Works
Rigged up their platforms, either side the road;
While the town blackguards and the ragged boys
Stood silent in the background, jeered or hissed
According to their distance.

To the right
I'll here turn off the highway, on to the grass.
A lovely dell: these elms, 'twould seem, escaped
The storm of Thirty-nine. The former road
Ran here. 'Twas afterwards the Works laid out
The broad raw-margined highway - get ye gone,
Ugly associations! - that now leads
Hence to the Phoenix. Now I feel the air
Fresh and refreshing. Here I cross the road
That to the Zoologic Garden grounds -
Where Haughton's monkeys crack their Sunday nuts,
As he his eggs and jokes on Saturdays -
Conducts the city mothers, when the treat
Familiar brings its buns and happy hour.
Here, cross again the avenue that leads
To Lodge Viceregal, sacred to the wheels
Of folks of station driving to inscribe
Names and addresses in the Visitors' Book.
Well, say they do; what harm? Why, by-and-by,
They'll pay the same respects to some one else;
Prince Cardinal, mayhap, or Archbishop.
Why not? The stabling's good, and rooms of state
Lofty and spacious, and an extra wing,
For chapel, easily added. And methinks,
Seen winding through these glades and shrubberies,
A good procession carrying the Host,
Say, to sick gardener, while our athletes there
Dropped bat and cricket-ball, and, down on their knees,
Adored at distance, were a pretty sight.

What's here? A fence of hurdles. Oh, I see.
This is the Polo-Ground. But, what, what, what,
I'm here in Carey's footsteps! - Yes, 'twas here,
This very spot, I'm certain that he stood
Waiting, - foul images, I say begone!
Why should ye haunt my mind? what hand had I
In Carey's plot or Brady's butcherings?
I do detest them; and I ask myself
Pardon for words of question, where all's sure.
But, 'tis the mischief of such thoughts as these -
Of fire, assassination, dynamite -
One can't allow them entrance in the mind,
But straight the mind will turn to speculate
How this thing might be managed and how that,
And none the wiser. Carey thought himself
So safe, he laughed and puffed his cigarette
Leaving the prison van. Well, what"he did
At last was right.

And what were right for me
To do at this conjuncture? Openly
Avow my sorrow that untimely words
Escaped me which some miscreant might wrest
To implication of assent to crime?
That were heroic, that were right indeed;
My conscience so inclines. I would not bear
The blame of giving entrance, thoughtlessly,
To wicked thoughts in other minds. For none
Amongst my hearers, thinking I approved,
But well might set his wits imagining
How he would carry on his private war
Were he Avenger: how he should procure
His stuffs; how keep a good face to the world;
And think it easy since a single man
Risking no more than his particular life,
With fairly even chances of escape,
Might carry half a town's destruction packed
In greatcoat-pockets or a Gladstone bag;
Or dowdy woman drop her petticoat
And wreck a nation's palace, and walk off
Slim and secure; or gleeful speculate
What were the outraged Briton's sentiments
And attitude regarding Ireland's right,
Should some fine morning show Westminster Bridge
Half discontinuous, or Victoria Tower
Hanging side-rent and ready to come down
Lengthwise along the roof of the House of Lords?
Or should some quasi city shopkeeper
Have tunnelled till he got below the Bank,
And sent the gold he scorned to touch sky-high
Far as the Strand? and think within himself
That Pharaoh, when he heard the mourning cry
For Egypt's first-born, were not more in haste
To let the Jews go than the Irish they.
More I could fancy; but immoral thoughts
Fancied in others might infect myself
And that were what our guides in ethics call
Morosa delectatio and a sin:
Sin's punishment, besides; for greater pain
Hardly attends the damned than have their minds
Compelled to dwell, whether they will or no,
On thoughts they know are evil. What to these
Were Carey's worst imaginings? Two or three
Men in high office, well-instructed men,
Who knew the perils that attend on place,
And, haply, were not wholly unprepared
What these, compared with casual multitudes
Of young and old sent indiscriminate
To death and pain? Or what the finished Law
On those poor self-imagined Brutuses.
To rage of angered cities, when the arm
Of civil power is impotent to stay
A people's fury bent on massacre,
On bloody vengeance, fire and banishment?

Yes, here he waited till the man in grey
Should show himself approaching. Here his fate
Turned on the central pivot, once for all.
Had Carey, then, but walked the other way,
And meeting Under-Secretary Burke,
Said, "Sir, I would not have you walk alone
Further, just now," it might have all been stopped,
And no blood spilt, and no necks stretched over there.
But here he stood, and had his chance, and chose
To walk in front and show the handkerchief:
And, in his pausing footsteps, here stand I,
Still free to turn whichever way I will."

Still, even in those awful days of shame, Ferguson did not despair for his country. He knew that the disgrace brought on her fair name by crime, cruelty, and dishonesty was the work of a few miscreants, only. He believed that the better nature and religious principles of the people at large would reassert themselves, and the "lessons of hell," enforced as they had been by intimidation, tyranny, and terror, would be in due time not only execrated, but sternly repressed.

Yet it must be admitted that the close of his long life of patriotic endeavour to raise and elevate his countrymen was saddened by their evil-doings. "There have been men," wrote a distinguished author, "who have felt in their country's humiliation and loss a far sharper pang than in any personal suffering." These words express Ferguson's feelings. All his correspondence at this time evidences the grief and pain which filled his heart. To "wait and pray," to hope and trust that the virtues of "truth and manliness" would reassert themselves - these were his consolations.