It was notorious that the writings of one man, Mr.
Burke, had changed the opinions of the whole people of England against the French Revolution.

...

If proper books were circulated through the country, and if the public mind was prepared for the reception of their doctrines, it would be impossible to make the ignorance of the people an instrument of national ruin.
'There is, he contended, a fund of goodness in the Irish as well as in the English nature.

Did God give different minds to different countries?
No, the difference of mind arose from education.

It therefore became the duty of Parliament to improve as much as possible the public understanding--for the misfortunes of Ireland were owing not to the heart, but the head: the defect was not from nature, but from want of culture.
'During this session my father spoke again two or three times, on some questions of revenue regulations and excise laws: of little consequence separately considered, but of importance in one respect, in their effect on the morality of the people.