or, if the local authorities oppose the will of the Imperial Parliament, find their constitutions changed, suspended, or annulled."[588] It will be remembered that the original colonists of America were principally Englishmen, who were driven from their own country by religious intolerance; yet no sooner had they established themselves in their new home, than they commenced to practise even more fearful persecutions on others than those from which they had fled.  There was one honorable exception; the Roman Catholics who fled from persecution in England, never, even in the plenitude of their power, attempted the slightest persecution, religious, social, or legal.

It will be seen, then, that the first emigrants to America from the British dominions, could not have had any special attachment to the country they had left; that, on the contrary, their feelings were embittered against the mother country before their departure from her shores; and after that departure she did nothing to allay the irritation, but much to increase it.  For several centuries after the arrival of the “May Flower,” the number of emigrants from England and Ireland were, probably, tolerably equal, and by no means numerous.  It was not an age of statistics, and no accurate statistics can be given.

The disruption between the States and England, or rather the causes which led to it, re-opened whatever feelings there may have been against the mother country, and at the same time increased its bitterness a hundredfold.  The tide of Irish emigration had set in even then—­slowly, indeed, but surely; and it will be remembered that the Irish in America, few though they were, became the foremost to fan the flame of rebellion, and were amongst the first to raise the standard of revolt.  The States obtained a glorious freedom—­a freedom which, on the whole, they have used wisely and well; and even their bitterest enemies cannot deny that they have formed a powerful nation—­a nation which may yet rule the destinies of the world.  Let us endeavour now to estimate in some degree the influence of Irish emigration on American society.  If the history of Ireland were written in detail up to the present day, fully one-fourth the detail should comprise a history of the Irish in America.  Never in the world’s history has an emigration been so continuous or so excessive; never in the world’s history have emigrants continued so inseparably united, politically and socially, to the country which they have left.  The cry of “Ireland for the Irish,” is uttered as loudly on the shores of the Mississippi as on the shores of the Shannon.  It is almost impossible to arrive at accurate statistics of the number of Irish in America, but a fair approximation may be obtained.  The population of America, according to a recent writer, was, in 1840, 17,063,353; in 1850, it had risen to 23,191,876; it is now [1868], 35,000,000.  In 1842, the imports were in value, $100,162,087; the exports, $104,691,534; and the tonnage was 2,092,391.