Ireland and the Empire: A Review, 1800-1900 (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Ireland and the Empire: A Review, 1800-1900I cannot help thinking, too, that the present is an appro priate time for the consideration of the whole question of the relations between England and Ireland afresh. We are be ginning the work of a new century. One hundred years have passed since Pitt's great policy was consummated, since the Act of Union became a statute of the realm. The record of these years is calmly ignored by many. The modern history of Ireland is a sealed book to the majority of the English people. The real truth is, as I shall show, that seventy of these years stand out a reproach and a disgrace to England. Nothing can well be worse than the record of the English in Ireland during this period.These years have witnessed several attempts at armed re bellion, suppressed, of course, by the superior power of England. They have seen the people, visited by a great famine, rushing from the country as if it were plague-stricken having gone across the ocean in fifty years. In other words, 47 per cent of the population have ¿ed from the country to seek bread under another ¿ag. They have witnessed the reign of secret societies, of agrarian crime, and of endless coercion acts. They have been dominated by a land system which can only be described as systematised and legal robbery of the poor. The governed were, in the main, helots and slaves, the governors were, to a large extent, callous and heartless tyrants. England had, unasked and unbidden, taken over the government of Ireland. Where the duty was not shame fully neglected, it was exercised in the interests of a class alone. Until Mr. Gladstone arose, no subject people had ever been more basely treated or neglected by a conqueror.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.