Those who read the Irish local papers of the day, may continually peruse accounts of evictions; but only an eyewitness can describe the misery, and despair of the unfortunate victims.  When shall the picture be reversed?  When will Irishmen return from America, finding it possible to be as free and as prosperous here?  Finding that a man who is willing to toil may obtain a fair remuneration for his labour, and that a man may have the rights of men;—­then, and not till then, may we hope that Irish history will, for the future, be a record of past injustice, amply compensated for by present equity.

[Illustration]

FOOTNOTES: 

[584] Prospered.—­This gives an average of about eight persons to each house.  There were 22,276 inhabited houses in Dublin in 1861, and the population was 254,480.  This would leave an average of eleven persons to each house.  There are only seventy-five carpenters in Thom’s Directory, and sixty-four cabinet makers:  if we give them an average of ten men each in their employment, it would not give more than 680 at the trade in all.

[585] Own.—­History of the United States, p. 3.  Ludlow and Hughes; Macmillan, London, 1862.  The title of this work is singularly infelicitous, for it is merely a sketchy and not very clear account of the late war in America.

[586] Spirit.—­History of the United States, p. 7.

[587] Policy.—­Morley’s Burke, p. 153.

[588] Annulled.—­Historical and Philosophical Essays, Senior, vol. i. p. 197.

APPENDIX.

The letter given below, which is from the pen of a distinguished Protestant clergyman, appears to me of such importance, that I place it here to be a permanent record for the future historian of Ireland, as an important opinion on the present history of this country, but too well supported by facts.

     TO ISAAC BUTT, ESQ., LL.D.

My DEAR BUTT,—­If every other man in the world entertained doubts of my sincerity, you, at least, would give me credit for honesty and just intentions.  I write to you accordingly, because my mind has been stirred to its inmost depths by the perusal of your address in my native city of Limerick.  I do not regard the subject of your address as a political one.  It ought to be regarded solely as a question of humanity, justice, common sense, and common honesty.  I wish my lot had never been cast in rural places.  As a clergyman, I hear what neither landlords nor agents ever heard.  I see the depression of the people; their sighs and groans are before me.  They are brought so low as often to praise and glorify those whom, in their secret hearts, are the objects of abhorrence.  All this came out gradually before me.  Nor did I feel as I ought to have felt in their behalf, until, in my own person and purse,