[44] There is no complete history of Ireland from the Union to the present time, though the materials for such a work are abundant. I may refer to my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ from the second chapter to the end. An excellent and elaborate description of Ireland from 1800 to 1812 will be found in the volumes of Edward Wakefield.
[45] The best account of this period—the forerunner of one even more calamitous—will be found in the proceedings of a Parliamentary Committee on the state of Ireland in 1824-25, and in the mass of evidence collected by it. The evidence of O’Connell is full of interest.
[46] I perfectly recollect, though quite a boy, this strong and widespread expression of sentiment.
[47] Mitchel’s ‘History of Ireland,’ vol. ii. p. 213. Mitchel was a rebel, but an honourable man, superior to the falsehoods disseminated by later agitators against Irish landlords.
[48] Every one acquainted with the history of Irish titles, from about 1790 to 1820, knows that this was the case.
[49] ‘Clarendon,’ wrote Greville, ‘told me he expected the Encumbered Estates Act would prove the regeneration of Ireland.’
[50] That great lawyer, Lord St. Leonards, protested. He had been Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
[51] For the state of Ireland during the Famine and the years that followed, see ‘The Irish Crisis,’ by Sir Charles Trevelyan, reprinted from the Edinburgh Review; and the ‘Letters’ of Mr. Campbell Foster, the Commissioner of the Times. Valuable information will also be found in the Greville ‘Memoirs,’ vols. v., vi. I may refer to my ‘Ireland, 1798-1898,’ chs. v. and part of vi.
[52] For an account of these machinations of party, see Greville, ‘Memoirs,’ vol. vii. p. 33.
[53] I heard several of these most injudicious and ill-informed expressions of a false opinion.