Page:Annalsoffaminein00nich.djvu/20

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14
ANNALS OF THE

facts, as their different features were presented to the mind.

Some, and possibly many, have been grieved that so much "plainness of speech" has been used; but here emphatically "flattering titles" should have no place; opiates have served no other purpose for diseased Ireland than to leave undisturbed the canker-worm that was doing more effectually his deadly work within. "Peace, peace," where there is no peace, eventually brings down the chastenings of the Almighty, and He has shown in language that cannot be misunderstood, for the last three years, that He sitteth in the heavens, overturning and overturning the nations of the earth, and, in his own due time, He whose right it is to rule will rule. The stone is rolling, and its velocity increases as it proceeds. The potato has done its work, and it has done it effectually: it has fed the unpaid millions for more than two centuries, till the scanty wages of the defrauded poor man have entered into the "cars of the Lord of Sabaoth," and He is now telling the rich that "their gold and silver is cankered," and that their day is coming speedily.

We are gravely told that the year 1844 was one of great abundance, and that the peasantry were then a contented and happy people; but listen! the year 1844 was a year of abundance, but did the poor man share in this abundance—was he contented and happy? Why then was the whole country rocking "to and fro" with the cry of repeal? and, Why was O'Connell in prison? Were the people all singing in their chains,