And, finally, we are reminded that England, by her stupid Irish policy, punished her own supporters, and even herself, quite as much as the 'mere Irish.' Much of this may be true, but this line of argument only shows that these English economists do not thoroughly understand the real grievance which the Irish people still harbour against the English for past misgovernment.

The commercial restraints sapped the industrial instinct of the people--an evil which was intensified in the case of the Catholics by the working of the penal laws.

When these legislative restrictions upon industry had been removed, the Irish, not being trained in industrial habits, were unable to adapt themselves to the altered conditions produced by the Industrial Revolution, as did the people in England.

And as for commerce, the restrictions, which had as little moral sanction as the penal laws, and which invested smuggling with a halo of patriotism, had prevented the development of commercial morality, without which there can be no commercial success.

It is not, therefore, the destruction of specific industries, or even the sweeping of our commerce from the seas, about which most complaint is now made.
The real grievance lies in the fact that something had been taken from our industrial character which could not be remedied by the mere removal of the restrictions.