Transcriber’s Note:
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
MY LORD,
If the name of your Grace had been rendered illustrioussolely by those distinguished Patriots fromwhom you derived it, my pride could not fail of beingeminently gratified by being permitted to dedicate toyou the following pages: but other, and infinitelymore impressive and honourable emotions are awakened,when I reflect, that in the present descendant ofthe House of Russel are displayed that patriotic fervor,that lofty spirit of political independence, andthat ardent zeal in the great cause of humanity, whichdistinguished so many of its branches in the annalsof this great country. Indeed, my Lord, it is a felicityto be able to attest, from experience, and now torecord, the pretensions of your Grace to the gratitudeof your country and the love of mankind.
To the wisdom of your administration was committeda great and important, but a much neglectedportion of the United Empire. You became the rulerof a country long oppressed, wickedly calumniated,and still bleeding from many a wound. Soon after theelevation of your Grace to this august situation, publicsymptoms appeared which called for sagacity andivenergy of no ordinary nature. Instead of listening, inthe sunshine of vice-regal magnificence, to the vaguereports of the idle, the ignorant, or the mischievous,you penetrated into the wild recesses of that distractedcountry, reputed to contain the hot-bed of insurrection;you personally contemplated the character ofthe poor, suffering Irish peasant, in all its rough butaffecting simplicity; you beheld a fellow-being possessedof affections easily to be won by tenderness, ofa vivid imagination, and quick and ardent susceptibility,clothed in rags, and living in common with thebeast of the field, in a state of penury and wretchedness,unknown to the miserable and oppressed of anyother region. To see, to feel, and to meditate relief