Parliament the leaders of the Confederation were in their places.
The problem referred to me was not how to abate the famine, but by what method, if any, the Irish Parliament could be re-established, and the control of their own affairs restored to the Irish people. Could the thing be done at all, and, if so, how and when? No short cut or coup de théâtre was expected, but such a deliberate survey of the route as might have preceded the first Repeal meeting.
The Report[1] had a wide field to cover, but I will endeavour to extract its essence in a few paragraphs.
Since the death of O'Connell there was no authority in Ireland recognised by the whole nation and able to counsel it successfully; but to a national movement which would succeed, such an authority was indispensable. I was persuaded it might be re-created; not in the old shape, but in a shape as effectual. A small number of able and honest men, who devoted their lives to the purpose, might constitute the nucleus from which such a power would grow. They would win authority in the most legitimate way by deserving it. The first condition of success was that they should be governed not only by fixed principles but by a scheme of policy carefully framed and deliberately worked out to the end. The sudden explosion of an outraged people has sometimes given liberty to a nation; but mere turbulence or agitation, with no definite scheme of action, never. The Repeal Association was a disastrous example in later times; it was like a great steam power which turned no machinery.
The first agent we wanted was a Parliamentary Party. It need not be a large party, but it must include men trained in political science, and familiar with the past and present of Ireland, and who would devote themselves to the task till it was accomplished. The House of Commons is a platform which all Europe looks upon, and the Irish Party must teach all Europe to understand the iniquity of English government in Ireland in the way they understood the case of Italy or of Poland. This course would not only revive the sympathy of
- ↑ Report on the Ways and Means of Attaining an Independent Irish Parliament. Dublin: Printed for the Irish Confederation by James Charles, 61, Mary Street. 1848.
