one, "delenda est Carthago" will anyone who dares to face the facts of that time pretend to be surprised? What surprises me in these letters is the extraordinary coolness and patience of the man who, loving his own country, had seen her suffer the horrors of the Famine Years.
Nor was Mitchel's attitude purely negative and non-constructive. He laid down clearly the policy that Parnell afterwards took up, the policy which Gladstone declared to be "marching through rapine to the dismemberment of the Empire"—"to lay the axe to the root of this rotten and hideous Irish landlordism, that we might see how much would come down along with it." (p. 36). He saw that the enemy of Ireland was "British oligarchy" (p. 36), then in strict alliance, offensive and defensive, with Irish landlordism and Irish officialism. He warned his readers against expecting any good thing from the English Parliament or the English Government, and told them to trust themselves and make ready to defend themselves and their right to live and prosper in the land.
Seventy years ago, this Ulster Protestant poured scorn on the No-Popery campaign of the Ulster landlords. He showed how the English Whig, Lord Clarendon, was playing upon Ulster Protestant "loyalty." The No-Popery campaign is still the main reliance of the British Oligarchy in Ireland, and only two years ago the English Liberal, Chief Secretary Birrell, was still exploiting the "loyalty" of those who (shall we say to his bitter grief?) were threatening armed
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