of the kind herself; but as the stronger party, she thought fit to inflict them upon a weaker for three-fourths of a century. The law of the strongest, however, is one not fated to last. Neither has a single opinion been advanced since in support of the justice or policy of a system long retained and unwillingly surrendered. Ireland, therefore, seized upon the moment to extricate herself from a thraldom at once tyrannical and insulting.
To do this, however, cost no ordinary effort. There was England to alarm or to convince of her error; Ireland to arouse to the point of resistance without risking absolute separation; a force to organize in order to give weight to her remonstrances; a spirit of true patriotism to instil into her crooked-minded or wavering statesmen; and the whole influence of government in Ireland and England to overcome.
One of the leading men in accomplishing these patriotic objects was the writer of the following letter, Mr. Denis Daly. Educated at Christchurch, Oxford, returned member for the county of Galway at twentyone, he is represented by Sir Jonah Barrington as “a man of great abilities, large fortune, exquisite eloquence, and high character.” Hardy, in his Life of Lord Charlemont, gives the highest praise to his oratory; and of one of his great efforts on the embargo question says: “It was the most perfect model of parliamentary speaking that, in my opinion, could be exhibited.” Lord Charlemont himself writes to Malone, January 11th, 1779, shortly after its delivery: “Your friend Daly has lately outdone himself; I never heard in any house of Parliament a better
