to this, of ships sailing from the majority of the Irish ports, as compared with vessels setting out from the majority of English ports, on a voyage to the Mediterranean, the former would be half over their destination before the latter could get into the Atlantic -a maritime advantage, on the part of Ireland, of which no improvements in navigation, by steam or otherwise, could deprive her, as such improvements would only be an addition of the resources of art to the benefits of nature, leaving the latter, and the superiority conferred by them, undiminished. The maritime counties of Ireland constitute two thirds of her area. So numerous along her shores are either marine indentations or those caused by the mouths of rivers, that there is not an acre of her soil more than 50 miles from the sea. The harbours or anchoring-places average but 13 miles distance from each other; and six eighths of her coasts have been estimated as almost entirely free from danger to mariners. The proportion of harbours in favour of Ireland, in a country so much smaller than England and Wales, is very considerable-those of Ireland being 136 in number, and those of England and Wales but 112—while, of the latter harbours, not 20 are to be compared with 40 of the Irish ports. Moreover, of those English and Welsh harbours, a very large number,-unlike those of Ireland-are mere creeks and coves, "dangerous, barred, and difficult of access;" so that if, in imitation of England, Ireland were desirous of adding such artificial to her 136 natural ports, 110 miles of the Irish seacoast are convertible, at a comparatively easy and cheap rate, into receptacles for shipping. In short, says the profound and industrious Newenham, "MOST of the harbours of Ireland rank in ALL respects with the noblest in the world; SEVERAL of them excel those of which ANY OTHER country can boast." 40 The great advantages for an extensive domestic trade and intercourse by water which the numerous fine lakes and rivers of Ireland afford, and their peculiar aptitude for a still further and compaparatively cheap increase by canals, that would add as much to the natural strength of the country in war, as to the commercial accommodation of its inhabitants in peace, are circumstances so obvious to any one who casts an eye over a map of the island, that to be admitted, they need only be alluded to. 41 40 Newenham (part 1. sect. 1. p. 5, 6, 8, 12 14, & 16,) and Butler Bryan, (chap. 1. p. 4 & 5.) 41 Thus, ancient Egypt is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus to have been constantly invaded by the Arabs, who-if they were, according to some eminent authorities, the famous Shepherd Kings-even held that kingdom in subjection for many years. Nor were their destructive invasions ever effectually stopped, till the great Sesostris cut several canals from the Nile, and, from those canals, extended a great number of small trenches or dikes throughout the country; which dikes could be filled at any time with water from the canals, and were thus equally serviceable for irrigation, and as a protection against the inroads of an equestrian foe. Such a system of canals and dikes, which the kings of Babylon are also mentioned to have made use of against the cavalry of their neighbours the Medes, on the north, and the similar aggressions of the Arabs, on the southwest of Babylonia, would be additionally useful in modern warfare, by depriving the regular infantry of an invading army The happy formation of Ireland for military defence is not inferior to her admirable position for Ireland is in shape more a commercial purposes. circular, or like a wheel, than, perhaps, any other island of the same size. She is therefore so much the stronger, from the facility which such formation affords to march, in about the same portion of time, from her centre or nave to all parts of her sea-girt felloe or circumference, a number of armies sufficient to meet those which any invading enemy might land upon her shores. Such a landing might, for example, have occurred in the time of the Volunteers, or in 1779, from the month of May to September, when the combined French and Spanish fleets of 50 ships of the line rode triumphantly through Channel; when England, unable to oppose the enemy on what she called "her own element," was in dread of, and inade preparations against, a descent upon her own coasts; when, in reply to the applications of Ireland for assistance against a similar cause for apprehension, in conse its artillery as well as its cavalry, or the two main arms of its defence, if it intended to proceed rapidly to action, or would be scarcely less serviceable by fatally delaying its march, if it proposed to advance in conjunction with them. A regular infantry, thus partially or totally deprived of its chief sources of superiority over an irregular infantry, would consequently be obliged to contend with the latter in quickness of movement and desultory combats, in which their chief strength would lie; and be thus like a Sampson with his hair shaved off, opposed to a Sampson with his hair on. The great watery defence which the Dutch opposed to the formidable invasion of Louis XIV, and 130,000 men, under the first generals and engineers in the world, is too well known to be expatiated upon. R quence of the country having been drained of regular troops for the war in America, the Irish learned that they had NO aid to expect from "the British heart and the British arm;" when Ireland, consequently found, that "in NATIVE Swords and NATIVE ranks her only hope of safety dwelt ;"42 when Irishmen, if they CHOSE to take advantage of and to remember against England the oppression of centuries, might, in Lord Plunket's language, have "flung British connexion to the winds, and clasped 42 What a very different spectacle Ireland presents on this occasion, when told by the British government to provide for her own defence against the French and Spaniards, compared with the Britons, when they were enjoined by the Roman emperor Honorius to do the same, with respect to the Scots, Picts, and Saxons ! The historical parallel between the political circumstances of England and Ireland at those two periods is complete, and the contrast in the conduct of the two countries is as honorable to Ireland, as it is the direct opposite to her insular neighbour. Ireland, a dependency of England, was, when the Volunteers arose, deprived of all the regular forces of her English protectors, and of a large amount of her own natives among them, for the contest in America. Britain, a province of Rome, in the time of Honorius, was stripped of all the legions or regular forces of her Roman protectors, and of numbers of her own youth, who had been conveyed over to the continent to take part in the civil or foreign wars of Rome. But, though a naval invasion from the triumphant armaments of the French and Spaniards was so much more formidable than the power of the Scots, Picts, and Saxons, the Irish never disgraced themselves by such a document as this petition of the Britons, in 446, to the Roman general Ætius, for assistance. "To Etius, thrice consul, the groans of the Britons. The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea throws us back on the swords of the barbarians; so that we have nothing left us but the wretched choice of being either drowned or butchered!" (Henry's Hist. of Great Britain, vol. 1. p. 129.) These base "groans" met with no more aid than they deserved; but, though not creditable to his countrymen, they should not have been completely suppressed, in his History of England, by Dr. Lingard. the independence of their country to their hearts ;"43 and, in fine, when, instead of acting thus, they came to the memorable decision of standing or falling with England in the hour of her weakness, for which they were afterwards so basely requited by the annihilation of their national independence at the Union. Whatever has happened once may happen 44 43 See Barrington's Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, p. 82, the account of the meeting of Lieutenant Doyne and the 2nd Regiment of Horse, on Essex Bridge, with a body of Volunteers, under Lord Altamont, in which the regular forces thought proper to give way to the latter. See also, in p. 173 & 4 of the same work, the description of the strength and preparations of the Volunteer Army, for REAL service, in case "the British heart and the British arm" did not think proper to surrender the usurped legislative independence of Ireland. O Liberty! can men resign thee, Can dungeons, bolts, and bars confine thee, The principles of national independence, so triumphantly vindicated by those men, were condemned, as contained in Molyneux's book, to be burned by the common hangman, only about 80 years before, and were proscribed, still later, in the person of Doctor Lucas. But the phoenix of Irish legislative nationality arose from its ashes; and if Ireland, like Sir Malice Ravenswood in the story, only "bides her time," the hour MUST sooner or later arrive, when she may be again as great, or greater, than she has ever yet been. To act, to suffer, may be truly great But nature's noblest effort is-to WAIT! 44 The ingratitude of the British government at the Union, in forcing that measure upon Ireland at the time of her distress, though Ireland, in the period of her strength under the Volunteers, had adhered so faithfully to England in the hour of her weakness, is calculated to remind and almost to identify the political feelings of every true Irishman with those of the Tyrolese peasant mentioned by the late Mr. Inglis, in the account of his journey through the Tyrol. The bold and loy al struggle against the superior power of France and Bavaria, and in favour of an Austrian " connexion," which was made, |