THE IRISH CHARITABLE SOCIETY.*

MR PRESIDENT:

I RISE, agreeably to usage, to make my acknowledgments to yourself and the company for their kind notice. I deem it an honor to have been invited to be present on this occasion, and I regard it a very auspicious circumstance for Massachusetts, that a festival like this can be celebrated in her capital, with such demonstrations of cordial feeling and good will on the part of such a company as I see around me. I have been, in truth, sir, highly interested in the exercises of the day. I had a general knowledge of your society, from the reports of the proceedings of former anniversaries; but I was ignorant that its existence dated so far back; covering, in fact, nearly one half of the entire period since the settlement of the country. I must own, too, sir, that before hearing your judicious and eloquent discourse, I had not sufficiently reflected on the importance of such an institution as this, in a national point of view. No public man, it is true, in America, can have failed to perceive the vast importance of the subject of emigration, in various aspects. I have ever thought the condition, circumstances, and wants of those who land on our shores from Europe, deserving more consideration than has been yet paid to them. They not only afford scope for the most meritorious efforts of philanthropy, but they have important bearings on the welfare both of America and Europe. But I perceive from your discourse, sir, that this and kindred societies are actually necessary, if I

Speech made at the public dinner of the Irish Charitable Society of Boston, on the 17th of March, 1837, being the hundredth anniversary of that institution.

may so express myself, to enable the new world to fulfil its destiny. By the destiny of the new world, I mean the office assigned it by Providence in promoting the advancement of civilization, the progress of freedom, and the moral improvement of our race.

It is justly remarked by the learned historian of the Roman empire, that one of the circumstances which rendered the condition of its subjects more completely wretched than that of the victims of tyranny in any other age or country was, that they had no escape. The empire of the Romans, he observes, filled the world; and when that empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became one dreary prison for his enemies. He contrasts this condition of things with that of the modern world, and regards the division of Europe into a number of independent states, connected, however, with each other by a general resemblance of religion, language, and manners, as productive of the most beneficial consequences to the liberty of mankind. A modern tyrant who found no restraint in his own bosom, or from his own people, would soon find it from the example of his fellowrulers, the dread of censure, the advice of his allies, the fear of his enemies. The objects of his displeasure might fly to other countries, and there find refuge, new fortunes, perhaps the means of revenge. I shall not, certainly, question the truth of these judicious reflections; but a very limited acquaintance with the modern history of Europe will teach us, that something more is required in order to the full protection of the victims of oppressive government. The international system of a considerable part of Europe tends to a sort of confederacy of monarchies. You cannot travel from one country to another without a passport. This may be given or refused at pleasure; and the minister or consul of every power resident at any intermediate court, near which the fugitive has to pass, may refuse to countersign the passport. In this way a man may be hunted from Archangel to Lisbon.

But besides this, in Europe what is to be gained by change of place, to any class, except those who possess a great amount of easily transferable wealth? The old world is full

of inhabitants, or at least the land is all appropriated; the professions and the trades are full, and a hungry competition keeps out intruders. There are political orders, religious establishments, deep-rooted prejudices, national feuds, every where prevalent; and a man, jostled or forced out of the spot where he was originally planted, particularly if known as a man of liberal opinions, is apt to find elsewhere in Europe neither place, sympathy, nor good will. This checks all ardent efforts at improvement against the interest or pleasure of the governments. To afford then, at once, a full and fair scope for the noble principle of our natures which aspires to improve our condition; a refuge for those who fail in the sometimes perilous attempt; a spot where good may be achieved without the painful necessity of pulling down the bad; where the blessings of nature and bounties of Providence may be enjoyed without struggling with others for what they hold by prescription and claim as right, -it pleased Heaven, at the moment of the great movement in Europe, occasioned by the invention of the art of printing, to rend away the mighty veil of waters that concealed the western world.

Hither, at all periods since its discovery, the longing hearts of the friends of liberty and the victims of oppression have been turned. The persecuted Puritan found refuge in New England, and the persecuted Catholic in Maryland, at the same moment. As perhaps there is no spot on earth which has suffered more from misgovernment than Ireland, none where there is more passionate attachment to liberty, so perhaps there is no country from which a larger emigration to America has taken place. It is difficult to say whether the cause of humanity and improvement is the greatest gainer on the part of those who emigrate, or of their friends left behind, and still struggling in the good cause. An imbittered and exasperated state of public feeling, forever hovering on the verge of rebellion, however righteous the cause of warfare, is unfavorable to human improvement or happiness. But such a state exists, wherever all outlet and escape are cut off. I am persuaded that the cause of liberty is much more effectually 25

VOL. II.

served in Europe by the reflection back from this country of the light of liberal institutions, by the spectacle of general prosperity shared by those who have turned their backs on the hardships and oppressions of older countries, than it could possibly have been had the iron wall of the European confederacy never been broken down, and the friends of freedom been hemmed in, to struggle, to suffer, and to sink, without the possibility of a refuge in case of disaster. You have also stated to-day, sir, that the progress of reform in your native country was impeded by the explosion of 1789; and it is beyond question that, if it is to make sure and rapid advances, it must be in the paths of peace, and under the genial reaction of public sentiment from this country.

But now, sir, comes a practical difficulty. In the prodigious extent of emigration which is constantly taking place, particularly under the circumstances which occasion much of the emigration from Ireland, there is much present suffering, much want of guidance, much need of encouragement. The emigrant lands on our shores a stranger; often a friendless, destitute stranger. You have sketched the picture, sir; it needs no attempt at coloring from me. If he does not stoop to pick up the dollar at his feet, it is not always under the egregious delusion, of which you told us, that farther on there is a bag of gold. Sometimes it is because his heart is sick at the thought of those at home, who struggle in vain for a shilling to procure their daily bread. He has come to a land of promise, and of performance, too; but the performance comes later, and promises will not always buoy up the wounded spirit. I know what it is, as well as you, my friends, to be a stranger in a distant land; I can catch a glimpse at the emigrant's feelings, though, as your worthy president told us, to be realized in all their force they must be felt. I can conceive that, of all mortal men, he most needs protection, counsel, and aid. He is a stranger on a remote shore; he has separated himself from his native home, and has not yet acquired a new one in the land of his adoption; its opportunities and its blessings exist but in vision; its strangeness is heavy upon him. He cannot, at

the first bound, lay hold of the promised advantages. He thinks not yet of acquiring blessings for himself; his first thought is to implore an exile's blessing "on the land of his forefathers." The language of his bosom is—

"Buried and cold, while my heart chills its motion,

Green be thy fields, sweetest isle of the ocean;

And thy harp-stringing bards sing aloud with devotion,
Erin, mavourneen, Erin go brah!"

I do not pretend, sir, to speak the native dialect of your country - the venerable relic of the great Celtic language; I fear my pronunciation wounds the ears of the company, but I perceive, from their response, that it has touched their hearts.

Now, sir, in this state of the emigrant's feelings, an association like this steps in; spreads out its wings over the stranger; extends to him, possibly, some little pecuniary aid, if circumstances require and admit it; cheers him with the voice of sympathy; points out to his inexperience the safe path; and sends him on his way encouraged and rejoicing. It would be as unnecessary as it would be in me intrusive, to go more particularly into the subject of the agency of such societies; but I hope I have not wholly failed to explain my meaning, when I stated that I deemed them actually necessary to enable the new world to fulfil its destiny. I will no longer intrude upon the politeness of the company, except to offer, with your permission, the following senti

OUR FELLOW-CITIZENS OF IRISH BIRTH AND PARENTAGE: MAY THE ADVANTAGES WHICH THEY ENJOY IN THIS COUNTRY SOON BE SHARED BY THEIR BRETHREN BEYOND THE SEA.