“This, too, for certain know, that underneath
     The water dwells a multitude, whose sighs
     Into these bubbles make the surface heave,
     As thine eye tells thee wheresoe’er it turn.”

And I say that in Ireland, for generations back, the misery and the wrongs of the people have made their sign, and have found a voice in constant insurrection and disorder.  I have said that Ireland is a country of many wrongs and of many sorrows.  Her past lies almost in shadow.  Her present is full of anxiety and peril.  Her future depends on the power of her people to substitute equality and justice for supremacy, and a generous patriotism for the spirit of faction.  In the effort now making in Great Britain to create a free representation of the people you have the deepest interest.  The people never wish to suffer, and they never wish to inflict injustice.  They have no sympathy with the wrong-doer, whether in Great Britain or in Ireland; and when they are fairly represented in the Imperial Parliament, as I hope they will one day be, they will speedily give an effective and final answer to that old question of the Parliament of Kilkenny—­“How comes it to pass that the King has never been the richer for Ireland?”

FROM THE SPEECH ON THE IRISH ESTABLISHED CHURCH

(1868)

I am one of those who do not believe that the Established Church of Ireland—­of which I am not a member—­would go to absolute ruin, in the manner of which many of its friends are now so fearful.  There was a paper sent to me this morning, called ’An Address from the Protestants of Ireland to their Protestant Brethren of Great Britain.’  It is dated “5, Dawson Street,” and is signed by “John Trant Hamilton, T.A.  Lefroy, and R.W.  Gamble.”  The paper is written in a fair and mild, and I would even say,—­for persons who have these opinions,—­in a kindly and just spirit.  But they have been alarmed, and I would wish, if I can, to offer them consolation.  They say they have no interest in protecting any abuses of the Established Church, but they protest against their being now deprived of the Church of their fathers.  Now, I am quite of opinion that it would be a most monstrous thing to deprive the Protestants of the Church of their fathers; and there is no man in the world who would more strenuously resist even any step in that direction than I would, unless it were Mr. Gladstone, the author of the famous resolutions.  The next sentence goes on to say, “We ask for no ascendancy.”  Having read that sentence, I think that we must come to the conclusion that these gentlemen are in a better frame of mind than we thought them to be in.  I can understand easily that these gentlemen are very sorry and doubtful as to the depths into which they are to be plunged; but I disagree with them in this—­that I think there would still be a Protestant Church in Ireland when all is done that Parliament has proposed