turned a sharp ear to what I was saying, and with vehemence said, ' What Sir, dont you call it disturbance to oppose legal government with arms in your hands, and compel it to make laws in your favour ? Sir, I call it rebellion ; rebellion as much as the rebellion of Scotland.' ' Doctor,' said I, ' I am sorry to hear that fall from you, I must however say that the Irish consider themselves as the most loyal of His Majesty's subjects, at the same time that they firmly deny any allegiance to a British Parliament. They have a separate Legislature, and that they have never showed any inclination to resist/ * Sir/ says the Doctor, ' you do owe allegiance to the British Parliament as a conquered nation x , and had I been Minister I would have made you submit to it. I would have done as Oliver Cromwell did ; I would have burned your cities, and wasted you in the fires (or flames) of them 2 / I, after allowing the Doctor to vent his indignation upon Ireland, cooly replyed, ' Doctor, the times are altered, and I dont find that you have succeeded so well in burning the cities, and roasting the inhabitants of America/ ' Sir/ says he gravely, and with a less vehement tone, ' what you say is true, the times are altered, for power is now nowhere, we live under a government of influence, not of power 3 ; but Sir, had we
bellion ready to break out in Ireland penalties, as rebels, was monstrous
where 15,000 Protestants were in injustice. King William was not
arms, without authority, for their their lawful sovereign ; he had not
own defence, many of them well- been acknowledged by the Parlia-
wishers to the Americans, and all so ment of Ireland when they appeared
ruined that they insisted on relief in arms against him." ' Life, ii. 255.
from Parliament, or were rea4y to 2 'Johnson severely reprobated the
throw off subjection/ Journal of the barbarous debilitating policy of the
Reign of George ///, ii. 339. British government [in Ireland],
1 On May 7, 1773, 'bursting forth which, he said, was the most detest-
with a generous indignation he said, able method of persecution. To a
" The Irish are in a most unnatural gentleman who hinted such policy
state ; for we see there Jhe minority might be necessary to support the
prevailing over the majority. There authority of the English government
is no instance, even in the ten perse- he replied by saying, " Let the au-
cutions, of such severity as that which thority of the English government
the Protestants of Ireland have exer- perish rather than be maintained by
cised against the Catholicks. Did we iniquity.'" Ib. ii. 121.
tell them we have conquered them, 3 Boswell, arguing with Johnson
it would be above board : to punish on Sept. 23, 1777, says : * I insisted
them by confiscation and other that America might be very well
treated
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