LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
HOME-RULE AND SEPARATION.
[To THE EDITOR Or TER SPECTET0a..] Sts,—I have been asked by several correspondents to give the reference to the passage which I quoted from Grattan. It is in his speech on the " Declaration of Irish Rights " in 1780. The
whole sentence is as follows I never will be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a link of the British chain clanking to his rags. He may be naked ; he shall not be in iron ; and I do see the time is at hand, the spirit is gone forth, the declaration is planted ; and though great men should apostatise, yet the cause will live ; and though the public speaker should die, yet the immortal fire shall outlast the organ which conveyed it, and the breath of liberty, like the word of the holy man, will not die with the prophet, but survive him." (" Grattan's Speeches," Edition of 1882, vol. 1, p. 53.)—I am, Sir, &o.
MALCOLM MACCOLL.
Previous page
