Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry | Page 4

opportunity to remind his countrymen of the indispensable need of
self-discipline and self-reliance, of toil, of veracity, of justice and

fairness towards opponents. No one ever said sharper and sterner things
to the Irish people--witness his articles on "Scolding Mobs," on "Moral
Force," and on the attack upon one of the jurors who had convicted
O'Connell at the State Trial.[4] But Davis could utter hard things
without wounding, for, when all is said, the dominant temper of the
man was love. That, and that alone, was at the very centre of his being,
and by that influence everything that came from him was irradiated and
warmed. He had, as an Irish patriot, unwavering faith, unquenchable
hope; he had also, and above all, the charity which gave to every other
faculty and attainment the supreme, the most enduring grace.
T. W. ROLLESTON.

[1] This work, with the inclusion of the full text of the more important
of the Acts of the Parliament of James II., and with an Introduction by
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, was reprinted from the _Dublin Monthly
Magazine_ of 1843 by Mr. Fisher Unwin in 1891 as the first volume of
the 'New Irish Library.' It is now out of print.
[2] Mr. Mongan's School on Lower Mount Street.
[3] "Life of Davis," p. 286.
[4] "Life of Davis," pp. 218, 219.
I. The Irish Parliament of James II.
PREFACE.
This enquiry is designed to rescue eminent men and worthy acts from
calumnies which were founded on the ignorance and falsehoods of the
Old Whigs, who never felt secure until they had destroyed the character
as well as the liberty of Ireland.
Irish oppression never could rely on mere physical force for any length
of time. Our enormous military resources, and the large proportion of
"fighting men," or men who love fighting, among our people, prohibit
it. It was ever necessary to divide us by circulating extravagant stories
of our crimes and our disasters, in order to poison the wells of brotherly
love and patriotism in our hearts, that so many of us might range
ourselves under the banner of our oppressor.

Calumny lives chiefly on the past and future; it corrupts history and
croaks dark prophecies. Never, from TYRCONNELL'S rally down to
O'CONNELL'S revival of the Emancipation struggle--never, from the
summons of the Dungannon Convention to the Corporation Debate on
Repeal, has a single bold course been proposed for Ireland, that folly,
disorder, and disgrace has not been foreboded. Never has any great
deed been done here that the alien Government did not, as soon as the
facts became historical, endeavour to blacken the honour of the
statesmen, the wisdom of the legislators, or the valour of the soldiers
who achieved it.
One of the favourite texts of these apostles of misrule was the Irish
Government in King JAMES'S time. "There's a specimen," they said,
"of what an Irish Government would be--unruly, rash, rapacious, and
bloody." But the King, Lords, and Commons of 1689, when looked at
honestly, present a sight to make us proud and hopeful for Ireland.
Attached as they were to their King, their first act was for Ireland. They
declared that the English Parliament had not, and never had, any right
to legislate for Ireland, and that none, save the King and Parliament of
Ireland, could make laws to bind Ireland.
In 1698, just nine years after, while the acts of this great Senate were
fresh, Molyneux published his _case of Ireland_, that case which Swift
argued, and Lucas urged, and Flood and Grattan, at the head of 70,000
Volunteers, carried, and England ratified against her will. Thus, then,
the idea of 1782 is to be found full grown in 1689. The pedigree of our
freedom is a century older than we thought, and Ireland has another
Parliament to be proud of.
That Parliament, too, established religious equality. It anticipated more
than 1782. The voluntary system had no supporters then, and that
patriot Senate did the next best thing: they left the tithes of the
Protestant People to the Protestant Minister, and of the Catholic People
to the Catholic Priest. Pensions not exceeding £200 a year were given
to the Catholic Bishops. And no Protestant Prelates were deprived of
stipend or honour--they held their incomes, and they sat in the
Parliament. They enforced perfect liberty of conscience; nor is there an

Act of theirs which could inform one ignorant of Irish faction to what
creed the majority belonged. Thus for its moderation and charity this
Parliament is an honour and an example to the country.
While on the one hand they restored the estates plundered by the
Cromwellians thirty-six years before, and gave compensation to all
innocent persons--while they strained every nerve to exclude the
English from our trade, and to secure it to the