Had Irishmen died in 1848 as they did in 1798 Ireland would be to-day fifty years nearer to freedom.

It is because a century has passed since Europe saw Ireland willing to die that to-day Europe has forgotten that she lives.
As I began this essay with a remark of Charles Lever on Germany so shall end it here with a remark of Lever on his own country, Ireland.
In a letter to a friend in Dublin, he thus put the epitaph of Europe on the grave of a generation who believed that "no human cause was worth the shedding one drop of human blood." "As to Ireland all foreign sympathy is over owing to the late cowardice and poltroonery of the patriots.

_Even Italians can fight_" (Letter of C.Lever from Florence, August 19th, 1848).
It is only the truth that wounds.

It is that reproach that has cursed Ireland for a century.
Sedition, the natural garment for an Irishman to wear, has been for a hundred years a bloodless sedition.

It is this fiery shirt of Nessus that has driven our strong men mad.