counties who have breathed a spirit that would have done honor to old Rome, when Rome did honor to mankind, are they to be free by connivance ? And the military associations, those bodies whose origin, progress, and deportment have transcended, equalled at least, anything in modern or ancient story, are they to be free by connivance ?… I do call upon you, by the laws of the land and their violation, by the instruction of eighteen counties, by the arms, inspiration, and providence of the present moment, tell us the rule by which we shall go, assert the law of Ireland, declare the liberty of the land. I will not be answered by the public lie in the shape of an amendement ; neither speaking for the subject’s freedom, am I to hear of faction. I will never be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags : he may be naked, he shall not be in irons ; and I do see the time is at hand, the spirit is gone forth, the declaration is planted ; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet but survive him.”
Grattan ne réussit pas cette fois, mais deux ans après il ramena la question devant la chambre, et le gouvernement comprenant que la résistance n’était plus possible céda avant même que Grattan prît la parole.
Mais une foule immense était là, dans la Chambre
