My heart swells with a glow of satisfaction and pride, that I can come before the critical world, with a defence of Ireland, resting on the names of Spencer, Davies, Coke, Temple, Borlase, Clarendon, Rushworth, Nalson, Carte, Warner, Leland, Baker, Orrery, &c. nearly all of whom were open or concealed enemies of that country and its unfortunate inhabitants. It may seem extraordinary, that there is on the list the name of the wretched Temple, who, as I have shown,* was so far ashamed of his own spurious work, that he endeavoured, but in vain, to suppress it : but it is the peculiar felicity of this undertaking, that it may be fairly said to this father of all the imposture,

"By thy words thou shalt be condemned."

for, were all the other authorities, cited in this work, totally annihilated, there is enough in this legendist to demolish the fabric of fraud and deception, in the erection of which, so much time, and such varied talents, have been prostituted, for a hundred and fifty years past.

Having stated the motives to this undertaking; the points I have endeavoured to prove; and the materials I have employed, it remains to render some account of the execution of the plan: and here I confess I feel myself open to censure, from which I shall not attempt to shrink. The work is in a very imperfect state indeed; and

*Page 391.

has not had a due share of attention bestowed on it. Whether, by any degree of time and labour, I could have rendered it complete and perfect, I am very doubtful. But this is certain, that I might have made it far less imperfect, had I devoted more time to it. The great body of it has been written at night, when the pressure of usual avocations had subsided; and next day hastily committed to the press, under all the consequent disadvantages.

This statement is the offspring, not of ostentation, but of a due regard to truth, and in the faint hope that it will operate as some sort of apology for the manifest imperfections of the work. I am not, however, unaware, that, in strict justice, this avowal may be considered as rendering those imperfections more unpardonable; as it may with truth be said, that no man has a right to present his productions to the world, without due preparation; that it is disrespectful, and deserves severe censure; in a word, that the haste with which this vindication has been composed and hurried through the press, so far from being an extenuation, is an aggravation of the offence.

The correctness of these objections cannot be denied. But let it sink deep into the mind of the reader, that, whatever I may suffer from the justice, or even the utmost rigour, of criticism, is unimportant, compared with what I feel from the convictions of my own mind. I stand selfcondemned. That I have not done justice to

myself, in presenting the work to the public in such an imperfect state, is of little importance. This might lower the sails of my vanity: but it could affect me alone. But, having undertaken the delightful task of vindicating the country of Swift, Parnell, Goldsmith, Sterne, Farquhar, Burke, Flood, Curran, Grattan, Montgomery, and a long and bright galaxy of such illustrious characters; a country whose natives, notwithstanding the countless blessings bestowed on them by Nature, in local situation, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate, have been for ages doomed to pine in the most abject poverty, wretchedness, and idleness, at home; but abroad, in every region and every clime of the known world, have displayed the brightest energies of the human character, in all the varied walks of life; a country which has furnished almost every nation in Christendom with statesmen and warriors, driven from their native soil by lordly despotism, rampant injustice, and religious intolerance ;* a country

* Extract from an unanimous Address, agreed to by the Federal members of the legislature of Maryland, published in consequence of the Baltimore riots.

"A dependency of Great Britain, Ireland has long languished under oppressions reprobated by humanity, and discountenanced by just policy. It would argue penury of human feeling, and ignorance of human rights, to submit patiently to those oppressions. Centuries have witnessed the struggles of Ireland, but with only partial success. Rebellions and insurrections have continued, with but short intervals of tranquillity. Many of the Irish, like the French, are the hereditary foes of Great

which has produced the men on whom the destinies of Europe have recently depended, in the field and in the cabinet; a country the most calumniated, and among the most oppressed, in the world; having as fair a field to explore as ever courted the exertions of any writer, in any age or any country, I most deeply regret, and sincerely apologize for, the want of judgment which led me to appear precipitately before the public, without that degree of elaboration which the importance of the subject demanded.

Having candidly avowed thus much with respect to the execution of the work, I trust I shall not be censured for expressing a hope, that there is, in the object I have had in view; the glorious cause I have undertaken; and the impregnable basis on which this vindication rests, a redeeming virtue, that would atone for defects and imperfections infinitely greater than those to be found in these pages. He must be a most fastidious epicure, who, when hungry, would turn in scorn from excellent viands, merely because the traiteur had been injudicious or inexpert in the cookery and the reader would be equally injudicious, who should reject a work which

Britain. America has opened her arms to the oppressed of all nations. No people have availed themselves of the asylum with more alacrity, or in greater numbers, than the Irish. High is the meed of praise, rich the reward, which Irishmen have merited from the gratitude of America. AS HEROES AND STATESMEN, THEY HONOUR THEIR ADOPTED COUNTRY."

shed the broad glare of truth on an important and much-misrepresented period of history, merely because, from want of skill, or want of leisure, or perhaps both, the writer had failed in the arrangement of his materials.

Some readers may complain, that the quotations are too numerous; that they disfigure the appearance of the work; and unnecessarily enhance its volume: and some may be unjust enough to believe that the latter is one of the objects of the writer.

Whoever entertains this idea must be grossly ignorant of the nature of writing. He has never tried the experiment. The search for some of those passages, which do not exceed three or four lines, has cost more time and labour than have been employed in writing five or six pages. In fact, the time wasted in examining the dry and dreary details of a soporific volume of Thurloe's State Papers, of eight or nine hundred pages, where hardly a single fact was to be gleaned, would have sufficed for writing a chapter of original matter.

In some cases, however, I have probably given more quotations than were necessary: but this error is venial. Those who are satisfied with one or two authorities, out of six or eight, may pass over the remainder: whereas the contrary and common error, of affording slender support to what we are ourselves, and suppose others, convinced of, is a vital one. A single