(Extract)
But the history of America at this time is
so closely allied to that of Ireland that we
must stop to trace it.
Told briefly, the fact are as follows:
To meet the expenses incurred by a late
war, Lord Grenville proposed to tax the
American Colonies by passing a Stamp Act.
The Americans absolutely refused to pay this
tax, alleging as their reason that they had
no representation in the English House of
Commons, and consequently had no share in
the government of the country. While the
English people in general sneered at the
determination of the colonists, a few of the wiser
heads saw that a storm would be raised if
they dared to enforce the Stamp Act. The
Parliament saw matters in this light too, and
accordingly repealed the Stamp Act, alleging
all the while that they had a right to impose
taxation on their colonies.
But the resentment of the Americans
had not died down before new taxes were
levied on tea, glass, wool, paper, and other
commodities. Flushed by the success of their
protests on the former occasion, they were
now more determined to withstand the English
imposition. They expressed their discontent
in petitions which were spurned, in arguments
which were jeered at, in threats which
were mocked. Daily the arrangement between
them and motherland grew greater; daily
the spirit of resentment grew higher, until
some young men, disguised as Mohawk
Indians, emptied the taxed tea into Boston
harbour. Now the game was fairly afoot.
American had definitely refused to comply with
British law, so England must proceed to
humble her unruly offspring.
It was in the middle of this ten years
wrangle between England and America that
the English Government requested the Irish
parliament to pass a Money Bill. The Irish
Parliament refused, through Townsend, the
Lord Lieutenant used all his arts to persuade
them. He had been specially chosen by the
English Government as the most fitting person
to uphold their cause in Ireland in those days
of conflicting politics, nevertheless all his
shrewdness could not avail against the spirit
of independence which Henry Flood had lately
infused into his countrymen. In 1771 a second
Money Bill was also rejected with the result
that Lord Townshend, defeated and disheartened,
resigned his office and returned to England.
The Parliament did not assemble again until
the end of 1773, that is, for nearly two years,
but meanwhile we are afforded a good opportunity
to survey that state of the country at
that time. It was a period of general depression
and distress, probably the sternest
through which this island ever had to pass.
Ostensibly to make up a deficient revenue,
but really to handicap the Irish workman in
the interests of English trade, excessive taxes
were levied on almost every species of our
manufactures, with the dire result that our
trade declined and our best workmen
emigrated to the colonies.
Ireland has now entered a night so dark
that it looked as if the sun could never shine
again. Sapped by incessant mis-government
and taxation, she has drooped exhausted
beneath the burdens placed upon her. Her
hitherto prosperous industries were in most
instances crippled, and in many havoced; her
population was decimated by the unjust
interference of a powerful rival; her
agriculture was depressed; her commerce was
curtailed; her manhood drained, ambition
thwarted, and valour wasted by the reckless
policy of headstrong and selfish rivals.
In 1772-73-74 the linen trade, the only
manufacture of any consequence that survived,
suffered considerable depression, and this was
a further stimulus to emigration from the
North. To give some idea of the numbers exiled
by very went from their native shores, we
quote the number of the ships and passengers
which left the ports of Belfast, Newry,
Larne and Londonderry, during these three
Years:-
In 1771, 32 ships with 9,000 passengers.
In 1772, 30 ships 9,000 passengers.
In 1773, 39 ships 12,000 passengers.
That this constant steam of emigration
became a source of alarm to the patriotic
political economists of the time is seen from the
following photograph cut from a Newry newspaper,
dated 20th March, 1773. It says:
There are no less than fourteen ships advertised
in the Belfast papers to take passengers
to Philadelphia. If some stop be not put
to this trade, we shall in a short time lose
our manufactures with our workers. The
numbers that went last year are incredible,
and almost all Protestants.
But despite the notes of warning from
various quarters, no attempt was made to stem
the steam, no effort was put forth to staunch
the draining of a nations manhood and retain
at home that youth and skill from which a
nations wealth is coined.
As in the centre of ancient Rome there
stood a gilded pillar towards which all the
military roads converged, and at which they
terminated, so there are great focal points
in history towards which the lines of past
progress have converged, and from which have
radiated the mouldering influences of the
future.
This emigration from Ireland, which , very
possibly, many at the time looked upon as a
light thing, is such a focal point, from which
have radiated the influences which went far
to shape the destinies of three countries
England, Ireland and America - nay, the
whole world, for who can gauge the past or
assign bounds to the future influence of the
Anglo Saxon race and language and the great
American Republic.
Transcribed by PaulaTracey