The Life Of Charles Stewart Parnell Vol - I

18 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL
that the Irish were rebellious before religious differences arose. The English came, he says in effect, to rob and kill, and the Irish fought for property and life. ( Contemporary writers never mentioned religion as a cause of rebellion till long after the Reformation ; on the contrary, their fears are always expressed against the Irishry, not against the Papists. They found the greatest opposition in national pride, not in religion.' He thus deals with the Protestant oligarchy, though he himself belonged to that oligarchy : ' The Protestants, in their terror of persecution, have become persecutors, their alarm at Catholic atrocities has made them atrocious. ; To hear them speak, one would imagine that they had been the patient and uncomplaining sufferers, from the reign of "William till George III.; that they had borne this long and cruel test with loyal resignation ; that they had been deprived of property, of arms, of every legal and honourable right. No, it is not suffering, but it is power, it is pride of artificial ascendancy, it is the jealousy arising from exclusive privilege that corrupts the understanding and hardens the heart.' Sydney Smith reviewed the book very favourably in the c Edinburgh/ saying : ' We are truly-glad to agree so entirely with Mr. Parnell upon this great question; we admire his way of thinking, and most cordially recommend his work to the attention of the public/
A warm friendship existed between William Parnell and Thomas Moore. It was at Avondale that the poet wrote ' The Meeting of the Waters/ and the exact spot from which he is supposed to have viewed fche scene was pointed out to me by Mr. John Parnell some time ago*
* Tom Moore's tree'—under whose wide-spreading