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ANSWERS

TO FROUDE, THE ENGLISH HISTORIAN.

BY

REV. THOMAS N. BURKE.

[201]

FIRST LECTURE.

DM VERED IN THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC, NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 12, 1872.

IDIES AND GENTLEMEN, —It is a strange fact that the old battle, which has been raging for seven hundred years, should continue so far away from the old land. The question on which I am come to speak to you this evening is one that has been disputed at many a council board, one that has been disputed in many a parliament, one that has been disputed on many a wellfought field, and is not yet decided -- the question between England and Ireland. Amongst the visitors to America who came over this year there was one gentleman distinguished in Europe for his style of writing and for his historical knowledge, the author of several works which have created a profound sensation, at least for their originality. Mr. Froude has frankly stated that he came over to this country to deal with the English and with the Irish question, viewing it from the English standpoint; that, like a true man, he came to America to make the best case that he could for his own country; that he came to state that case to an American public as to a grand jury, and to demand a verdict from them the most extraordinary that was ever yet demanded from any people - namely, the declaration that England was right in the manner in which she has treated my native land for seven hundred years. It seems, according to this learned gentleman, that we Irish have been badly treated; that he confesses, but he put in as a plea that we only got what we deserved. It is true, he says, that we have governed them badly; the reason is, because it was impossible to govern them rightly. It is true that we have robbed them; the reason is, because it was a pity to leave them

their own, they made such a bad use of it. It is true we have persecuted them; the reason is, persecution was a fashion of the time and the order of the day. On those pleas there is not a criminal in prison to-day in the United States that should not instantly get his freedom by acknowledging his crime and pleading some extenuating circumstance. Our ideas about Ireland have been all wrong, it seems. Seven hundred years ago the exigencies of the time demanded the foundation of a strong British empire; in order to do this, Ireland. had to be conquered, and Ireland was conquered. Since that time the one ruling idea in the English mind has been to do all the good that they could for the Irish. Their legislation and their action has not always been tender, but it has been always beneficent. They sometimes were severe; but they were severe to us for our own good, and the difficulty of England has been the Irish during these long hundreds of years; they never understood their own interests or knew what was for their own good. Now, the Ameriean mind is .enlightened, and henceforth no Irishman must complain of the past in this new light in which Mr. Froude puts it before us. Now, the amiable gentlemen tells us, what has been our fate in the past he greatly fears we must reconcile ourselves to in the future. He comes to tell us his version of the history of Ireland, and also to solve Ireland's difficulty, and to lead us out of all the miseries that have been our lot for hundreds of years. When he came, many persons questioned what was the motive or the reason of his coming. I have heard people speaking all round me, and assigning to the learned gentleman this motive or that. Some people said he was an emissary of the English government, that they sent him here because they were beginning to be afraid of the rising power of Ireland in this great nation; that they saw here eight millions of Irishmen by birth, and perhaps fourteen millions by descent; and that they knew enough of the Irish to realize that the Almighty God blessed them always with an extraordinary power, not only to preserve themselves, but to spread themselves, until in a few years not fourteen, but fifty millions of descendants of Irish blood and of Irish race will be in this land. According to those who thus surmise, England wants to check the sympathy of the American people for their Irish fellow-citizens; and it was considered that the best way to effect this was to send a learned man with a plausible story to this country, a

man with a singular power of viewing facts in the light which he wishes himself to view them and put them before others, a man with the extraordinary power of so mixing up these facts that many simple-minded people will look upon them as he puts them before them as true, and whose mission it was to alienate the mind of America from Ireland to-day by showing what an impracticable, obstinate, accursed race we are.

----

Others, again, surmise that the learned gentleman came for another purpose. They said, England is in the hour of her weakness; she is tottering fast and visibly to her ruin; the disruption of that old empire is visibly approaching; she is to-day cast off without an ally in Europe, her army a cipher, her fleet nothing according to Mr.. Reade, a great authority on this question - nothing to be compared to the rival fleet of the great Russian power now growing up. When France was paralyzed by her late defeat, England lost her best ally. The three emperors, in their meeting the other day, contemptuously ignored her, and they settled the affairs of the world without as much as mentioning the name of that kingdom, which was once so powerful. Her resources of coal and iron are failing, her people are discontented, and she is showing every sign of decay. Thus did some people argue that England was anxious for an American alliance; for, they said, "What would be more natural than that the old tottering empire should seek to lean on the strong, mighty, vigorous young arm of America?"

I have heard others say that the gentleman came over to this country on the invitation of a little clique of sectarian bigots in this country. Men who, feeling that the night of religious bigotry and sectarian bitterness is fast coming to a close before the increasing light of American intelligence and education, would fain prolong the darkness for an hour or two by whatever help Mr. Froude could lend them.

But I protest to you, gentlemen, here to-night that I have heard all these motives assigned to this learned man without giving them the least attention. I believe Mr. Froude's motives to be simple, straightforward, honorable and patriotic. I am willing to give him. credit for the highest motives, and I consider him perfectly incapable of lending himself to any base or sordid proceedings from a base or sordid motive. But as the learned gentleman's motives have been so

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