It was an equitable claim. If there was no irresistible
title of brotherhood, at lowest the stronger nation had snatched away
from the weaker the power of helping itself, and still drew away during
this terrible era half a million pounds every month in the shape of
absentee rents. The demand was put aside contemptuously. The claim of
the Nationalists to reenter on the management of their own affairs,
since it was plain England could not manage them successfully, was
treated as sedition. We were proffered, instead of our own resources,
which were ample--
"Alms from scornful hands, to hands in chains,
Bitterer to taste than death."
All the nations of the earth were appealed to and they gave generously;
but the result was far from being proportionate to the need. During the
year 1846 the contributions fell short of two thousand pounds a week.
And it was not forgotten that after the great fire of London, when the
citizens were in deep distress, the Irish contributed twenty thousand
fat cattle for their relief, which at their present value would amount
to a sum greater than England and Europe sent to the aid of Ireland in
1846.
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