a smaller number at the expense of the civil liberties and properties of the far greater part, and at the expense of the political liberties of the whole. It was, to say the truth, not a revolution but a conquest, which is not to say a great deal in its favour."[1]
Further on in the same letter the writer observes: "The true Revolution to you—that which most intrinsically and substantially resembled the English Revolution of 1688—was the Irish Revolution of 1782."[2] "If gentlemen will consult our history," said Mr. Forbes, in the Irish House of Commons, " they will find there was not any settlement of the Constitution of Ireland at that period (1688); the security of our religion and property were the benefits which the Protestants of this kingdom derived from the Revolution, essential and important advantages, which justly entitle the event to commemoration; but the endeavours of a certain description of men in this House to obtain a participation in the benefits of the Constitution of England at the Revolution, and in those measures which grew out of that settlement, have been constantly and successfully resisted by the present British Minister."[3]
The various points of contrast between the Irish and the British Constitutions were, as these quotations have shown, very frequently alluded to by the public men of the day, in both the British and the
- ↑ "Edmund Burke on Irish Affairs," edited by M. Arnold, p. 239.
- ↑ "Edmund Burke on Irish Affairs," edited by M. Arnold, pp. 234, 244.
- ↑ "Irish Debates," vol. xii. p. 193.
