FRASER'S MAGAZINE. JANUARY 1873. ADDRESS BY J. A. FROUDE, DELIVERED NOVEMBER 30, IN THE ASSOCIATION HALL, NEW YORK. ADIES AND GENTLEMEN: If my it is equally desirable that the Irish in coming country a was to draw attention to the Irish subject, I may so far be said to have succeeded. I have succeeded also, beyond my expectation, in eliciting a counter-statement containing the opinions of the Irish people themselves on their past history, the most complete, the most symmetrical, the most thoroughgoing which has yet been given to the world. The successive positions taken by Father Burke have been long familiar to me, some in one book and some in another. But nowhere have so many of them been combined so artistically, and not till now have they been presented in what may be called an authoritative form. Father Burke regrets that I should have obliged him to reopen wounds which he would have preferred to have left closed. I conceive, on the other hand, that a wound is never healed so long as there is misunderstanding. England and Ireland can approach each other only on the basis of truth, and so long as Irish children are fed with the story which Father Burke has so eloquently told, so long they must regard England with eyes of utter detestation, until full atonement be made for past wrongs. If Father Burke's account is true, let England know it, look it in the face, and acknowledge it. If it be an illusion, or tissue of illusions, then VOL. VII.-NO. XXXVII. NEW SERIES. solid fact be laid across the gulf that divides us. A subject of this kind can only usefully be treated from the platform if the audience will bear their share of the burden, if they will test by reference what they hear, compare evidence, and analyse it. You will learn more from the books to which I shall refer you than you can learn from me in the time for which I shall address you. I shall myself venture to indicate the particulars where Father Burke's narration specially needs examination, and refer you to authorities. That an Irishman's view should be different from an Englishman's view is natural and inevitable; but the difference must be limited by facts, which are easily ascertainable. When they are not ascertainable elsewhere, as, for instance, when Father Burke attributes words to me which I never uttered, I shall venture to speak with authority. I must throw off with a point of this kind. The Father says I have come to America to ask for the extraordinary verdict that England has been right in the manner in which she has treated Ireland for 700 years. Considering that I have drawn a heavier-indictment against England in the course of my lectures than she will probably thank me for, considering that I have B 2 described the history of her connection with Ireland from the beginning as a scandal and reproach to her, I must meet this assertion with a simple denial. No one who knows Ireland now can be satisfied with its present condition. There is an agitation for a separate Irish Parliament, which it was supposed that public sentiment in America generally approved. I think, for myself, that there are certain definite measures for Ireland's good which she could obtain more easily from the United Parliament than she could obtain them from her own. I wished to show that she had less cause than she supposed for the animosity which she entertained against England, ill as England had behaved to her; and I have said what I had to say here in the form of lectures, because it was the most likely way to attract attention. Father Burke goes on to suggest that England is a decaying empire, that her power is broken, her arm grown feeble, the days of Macaulay's 'New Zealander' not far off, that England is afraid of the growing strength of the Irish in the United States, the eight millions of them who have come from the old country, and the fourteen millions of Irish descent. It is scarcely becoming for two British subjects to be discussing in this country whether Great Britain is in a state of decadence. England is afraid, however, and deeply afraid. She is afraid of being even driven to use again those measures of coercion against Ireland, which have been the shame of her history. But Father Burke's figures, I confess, startled me. Of the forty-two millions of American citizens, twentytwo millions were either Irish born or of Irish descent. Was this possible? I referred to the census of 1870, and I was still more confounded. The entire number of immigrant foreigners, who were then in the United States, amounted to 5,556,566. Of these, under two millions were Irish. The entire number of children born of Irish parents was under two millions also. Add half a million for children of the second generation, and from these figures it follows, if Father Burke is correct, that in the two last years there must have come from Ireland no less than 6,000,000 persons, or more than the entire population of the island, and that in the same two years the Irish mothers must have produced not fewer than 11,500,000 infants. I knew that their fertility was remarkable, but I was not prepared for such an astounding illustration of it.' Still speculating on my motives, Father Burke inclines on the whole to give me credit for patriotism. He thinks I have come to speak for my own country, and he is good enough to praise me for doing so. I am grateful for the compliment, but I cannot accept it. I have come not to speak for my country, but for his. I believe that the present agitation there is likely to avert indefinitely the progress of Father Burke probably meant that there were 14 millions of Irish altogether in the United States. Even so, his estimate is wildly exaggerated; I assume that he was not speaking of the Anglo-Irish or Scotch-Irish, but of the Irish proper. Of these there were in America in 1870, of natives of Ireland, 1,855,779, of children of Irish parents born in America, 1,389,433. The children of mixed marriages are not properly Irish, nor are mixed marriages common among the Irish; but construing the phrase Irish descent widely, and allowing the same proportion to them as to other foreigners, there were in 1870 of children, one of whose parents was Irish, 385,723. Thus of natives of Ireland and of children in the first generation, there were in all 3,630,935. It is difficult to arrive at the number of Irish children of the second gene improvement, that the best chance for the Irish people is to stand by the English people and demand an alteration of the land laws. I wish to see them turn their energies from the speculative to the practical. But Father Burke considers me unfit to speak upon this subject, and for three reasons: First, because I despise the Irish people. I despise them, do I? Then why have I made Ireland my second home? Why am I here now? Am I finding my undertaking such a pleasant one? I say that for various reasons I have a peculiar and exceptional respect and esteem for the Irish people; I mean for the worthy part of them, the peasantry, and according to my lights I am endeavouring to serve them. I say, the peasantry. For Irish demagogues and political agitators,—well, for them, yes, I confess I do feel contempt from the bottom of my soul. I rejoice that Father Burke has disclaimed all connection with them. Of all the curses which have afflicted Ireland, the demagogues have been the greatest. But I am unfit for another reason. I have been convicted, by a citizen of Brooklyn, of inserting words of my own in letters and documents of State. Ladies and gentlemen, I have not been convicted by the citizen of Brooklyn, but I have given the citizen of Brooklyn an opportunity of convicting me if I am guilty. He has not been pleased to avail himself of it. He calls my proposal, I know not why, falla cious. He enquires why I will not reply directly to his own allegations. I answer first, that I cannot, for I am on one side of the Atlantic and my books and papers are on the other. I answer secondly, that if I reply to him I must reply to fifty others. I answer thirdly, that I have found by experience that controversies between parties interested in such disputes lead to no conclusion. At this moment I am supposed to be calumniating the Irish Catholics. Two or three years ago I was in trouble in England on pre cisely opposite ground. I had dis covered a document which I conceived to relieve the Catholic hierarchy of Ireland of a charge of subserviency to Queen Elizabeth, which had long attached to them. I had discovered another, from which I published extracts, exposing an act of extreme cruelty perpetrated in the North of Ireland by one of Elizabeth's officers. Both these papers I had reason to know were extremely welcome to the Irish Catholic Prelates. They were no less unwelcome to Protestants. I was violently attacked, and I replied. The documents were looked into, up and down, but without producing conviction on either side. I, after the most careful consideration, was unable to withdraw what I had written. The Tory journals continued, and perhaps continue, to charge me with misrepresentation, and speak of me as a person whose good faith is not to be depended on. I determined that from that time ration born in the United States. They must be the descendants of those who have been sufficiently long here to allow their children to be born, to grow to maturity and become parents. None of the immigrants arriving since 1850 can be included in this class; the arrival of the native Irish was inconsiderable before 1847, and in 1850 the entire number of Irish who had arrived in the United States amounted only to 988,945. The mortality among the Irish, whether as children or adults, is in advance of any other part of the population. The most extravagant conjecture will not venture, therefore, to add more than 600,000 for the number of Irish children whose parents were born in this country. Those who have best means of judging, estimate the entire Irish race now in America at between four and five millions. |