The Irish peasant had to choose between starving and assassination.

If, in deference to an anonymous mandate, he relinquished his holding, he and those who depended on him were outcasts and wanderers; if he retained or accepted it, his life might be the forfeit, but subsistence was secured; and in poor and…

Those who have treated of the agrarian crimes of Ireland have remarked, that the facility with which these outrages have been committed has only been equalled by the difficulty of punishing them.

A murder, perpetrated at noonday, in the sight of many persons, cannot be proved in a court of justice.

Then it was that, the memory of the past and the hope of the future blending together, all men seemed to mourn over this untimely end, and there was that pang in the public heart which accompanies the unexpected disappearance of a strong…

It should not be forgotten that the most authentic and interesting histories are those which have been composed by actors in the transactions which they record.

The cotemporary writer who is personally familiar with his theme has unquestionably a great advantage; but it is assumed that his pen can scarcely escape the bias of private friendship or political connection.

Yet truth, after all, is the sovereign passion of mankind; nor is the writer of these pages prepared to relinquish his conviction that it is possible to combine the accuracy of the present with the impartiality of the future.

Nature had clothed this vehement spirit with a material form which was in perfect harmony with its noble and commanding character.

All the economical palliatives and political pretences of long years seemed only to aggravate the suffering and confusion.

Liberal politicians, who some years ago were very loud for justice to Ireland, and would maintain at all hazards the identity of the interests of the two countries, have of late frequently found it convenient to omit that kingdom from…

Men are apt to believe that crime and coercion are inevitably associated.

In less than a century there had been seventeen coercive acts for Ireland, a circumstance which might make some ponder whether such legislation were as efficacious as it was violent.

The support of an unconstitutional measure may be expedient, but it cannot be denied that it is the most indubitable evidence of confidence.

The mere division of the House between Free-traders and Protectionists had already ceased; there were breakers ahead, and it was not difficult from this night to perceive that the course of the government would not be so summary as they…

But it was in the dark-brown eye, which flashed with piercing scrutiny, that all the character of the man came forth: a brilliant glance, not soft, but ardent, acute, imperious, incapable of deception or of being deceived.

He always took large views and had no prejudices about things, whatever he might indulge in as to persons.

He was always singularly anxious to acquire the truth, and would spare no pains for that purpose; but when once his mind was made up, it was impossible to influence him.

He wished to see our society founded on a broad basis of civil and religious liberty.

He encouraged them by making occasions for their exertions, and would relinquish his own opportunity without a moment’s hesitation, if he thought the abandonment might aid a better man.

But duty scorns prudence, and criticism has few terrors for a man with a great purpose.

Thus, there is this remarkable characteristic of the agrarian anarchy of Ireland which marks it out from all similar conditions of other countries: it is a war of the poor against the poor.

These outrages were never insurrectionary: they were not directed against existing authorities; they were stimulated by no public cause or clamour; it was the private individual who was attacked, and for a private reason.

All the fruits of his laborious investigations were always at the service of his friends without reserve or self-consideration.