La lor, James Pint an, 1808- 
 1849- 
 
 The rights of Ireland 
 
 BOSTON COllEGE UBRARY 
 CHESTHUT HILL MA 02167 
 

 SOCIALIST PARTY OF IRELAND. 
 
 ^X^XK3^ 
 
 Cbe Rigbts of Irelaob 
 
 AND 
 
 Cbe Faitb of a. Feloi), 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES FINTAN LALOR. 
 
 Reppioted froiD tbe "Irisb Feloo" Newspaper, 
 suppressed July, 1848. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES CONNOLLY. 
 
 F»I^1CE ON^E IPJE'NN'Y. 
 
 An CL6-Ci.iniAtni, Great Strand Street, Dublin, 
 
1 THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF IRELAND 
 
 ' 'K That society, as at present constituted, consists of two classes, 
 
 the capitaHst class, who own all the instruments of production and 
 distribution ; and the working class, who possess nothing but their 
 labour-power, or capability to work, mentally or physically. 
 
 That as labour produces all wealth the justice or injustice of 
 social conditions becomes apparent in the division of labour's 
 product. Under present conditions the division is — masters' profits 
 and workers' wages. Profit is that portion of wealth over and above 
 his wages which the worker produces. Wages are the price of labour. 
 As both wages and profits are derived from the product of labour, it 
 follows that Avhen the master's profits increase the greater is the 
 robbery and exploitation of the Avorker. Contrariwise, increased 
 wages cause decreased profits. Thus we find the masters' ami 
 xvorkers interests totally opposed. 
 
 That the capitalist class control the power of the State, which 
 they use in their own interest, and as long as they possess control of 
 these powers no permanent measure of reform can be attained by 
 the workers. 
 
 That the remedy for the existing social slavery is to be found in 
 the capture of political power by the working class, and the 
 establishment of a 
 
 SOCIALIST RKHIBLIC 
 
 based on co-operative production with equal opportunities for all. 
 
 That this can only be attained through the complete organization 
 of the workers in a thoroughly class-conscious political party, such 
 as the Socialist Party of Ireland. 
 
 That as other political parties, refusing to accept these 
 principles, are merely the expression of the interests of various 
 sections of the capitalist class, there can be no fusion or amalgama- 
 tion with them. 
 
 BRANCHES WANTED EVERYWHERE. ENQUIRIES INVITED. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF SOCIALISM IN IRELAND 
 
 BY THOMAS BRADY. 
 
 The author does not advocate socialism as an evangel brought 
 from abroad. He takes up Irish History and subjecting it to the 
 materialist interpretation of Marx, shows how the succession of 
 class struggles, beginning at the very dawn of history in the 
 Milesian conquest and carried on to-day in the struggle between 
 Capital and Labour, must inevitably lead to Socialism. 
 
 Pricef Id.; by Post 9 lld» 
 
 MAY 2 1986 WWW ««"»^ )-™*^^ 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE present publication is one of a series of pamphlets The 
 Socialist Party of Ireland proposes to issue on the political 
 and social position of the Irish people. 
 
 They will aim at familiarising the reading- and thinking 
 public WTth that mterpretation of the recorded facts of our national 
 history,' which at once explains and justifies the uprise of a 
 Republican and Socialist Party in Irish political life. Hitherto 
 Irish histon,- has been written almost exclusively from a 
 middle-class standpoint with results that can only be fully appre- 
 ciated by those whose historical studies have rested upon a 
 thorough scientific basis, and who are therefore competent to place 
 in their proper relation to each other, the heterogeneous mass of 
 facts (and fictions) which pass muster as history. The maler'alist 
 conception of history — the truth that a rational explanation of the 
 course taken by human society must be sought in the influence 
 which their material environment has had upon the minds of the 
 men and women with whom history has to deal — furnishes this 
 scientific basis. Applying- it to the present, we find that the 
 government of every civilised country is simply a committee of the 
 rich who conduct the affairs of state in the interests of the upper 
 class, and that, in like manner, every political party is the party of 
 a class and seeks to acquire power in the interest of the class who 
 officer irs organisation and furnish its finances. In other words, a 
 political party is the weapon with which a particular class in the 
 communitv seeks to create and maintain the conditions most 
 favourable to its own class rule, to secure for its own members the 
 greatest share of the wealth whicli exists as the common product 
 of society. 
 
 There are in Ireland to-day, apart from The Socialist P:irty, two 
 political parties. The ConservatiNe party — the party of the rent- 
 receiving landlord, and the so-called Home Rule party — the polit"cal 
 guardian of the profit-grinding capitalist. Between those two 
 there exists an apparent antagonism, but a real identity of interests. 
 The one, openly conser\"ative, seeks to retain intact the institution 
 of private property in land ; the other, while professedly democratic 
 and national, also opposes any solution of the land question which 
 by rooting the peasantry on the soil would deprive the Irish middle- 
 class of the services of those landless labourers, who thronging 
 into the towns and competing for employment, drive down wages 
 and so become the human stepping-stones by which their wealthy 
 compatriots pass to ease and fortune. The first party openly 
 relies on the British connection for the maintenance of its 
 prerogatives, the second keeps up a continual sham fight with the 
 official representatives of that connection, but in the wildest flights 
 of its ultra-patriotic orations, secretly relies on a timely manifesta- 
 
tion of Imperial power to pro\ ide a decent excuse for eatini,^ their 
 words and counselling- "prudence" when the time comes for 
 revolutionary action. 
 
 In opposing- both parties, as enemies to Labour, The Socialist 
 I'arty of Ireland stands to-day in much the same position as Fintan 
 Lalor occupied in '48. Indeed a most striking parallel exists- 
 between his time and our own. In '48 there stood on the one side 
 the landlords backed up by the government in demanding their 
 rents, while the people were left to star\-e in the midst of plenty. 
 On the other side, there stood, nominally in opposition to the 
 goAernment, the iwo sections of the Repeal Party. Of these twa 
 sections, one, the Repeal Association, was tame, constitutional,, 
 and time-serving, its only hope being to secure the good offices of 
 middle-class English politicians, repealers and repealers only. The 
 other section, the Confederation, intelligent, honest and sincere- 
 according to their lights, but (with a few exceptions, such as John 
 Mitchel) like the lirst, thoroug-hly conservative on the really 
 fundam.ental question of property, firm belicAcrs in rent, interest 
 and profit, outA-ying e^-en the g'overnment in their insistence on the 
 landlord's right to his rent, also repealers only, but, under a 
 multitude of grandiloquent phrases hiding even from themselves 
 the utter paltriness of our ideal. To-da}- we have in our midst 
 the same storv repeated. In the Home Rule camp again 
 exist two opposing sections, the most advanced of whom are as 
 hopelessly conservative as ever in their opposition to the claim oi 
 the labourer to the full produce of his toil. Under these circum- 
 stances. The Socialist Party of Ireland, as the only political party 
 in Ireland which fully accepts Fintan Lalor's teaching, from his 
 declaration of principles to his system of insurrection, hopes that in 
 issuing this pamphlet they will succeed in bringing' home to the 
 minds of their fellows, a realisation of the necessity which exists 
 for the creation of a party which shall aim at giving effective 
 political expression to the twin ideas of national and industrial 
 freedom noAv so hopelessly divorced in the public life of Ireland. 
 
 Of the man himself it may not be amiss to inform our readers 
 that hew^as descended from a family noted in Irish history for their 
 rebellious tendencies, that is, for their restlessness under injustice. 
 One of the seven septs of Leix (Queen's Co.) they were transplanted 
 to Kerry in 1609 by Chichester under orders from James I. They 
 had rebelled eighteen times against the plantations ordered by 
 Oueen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and had been nearlv exter- 
 minated in consequence, and the government hoped bv thus 
 removing them to remote and unfamiliar territory to curb their 
 native impetuosity. But at each successive rebellion they were 
 always running back to their old tribelands, and it was probably 
 in this way the ancestors of our author found their way to, and 
 eventually settled at, Tenakilk Fintan Lalor himself was born in 
 1809, but did not come into public life until 1847. After the 
 suppression of the United Irishman newspaper and the sentence 
 upon its editor, John Mitchel, of 14 years transportation, Lalor 
 stepped into the breach as principal writer In the Ti-ish Felon. 
 
edited by John Martin. Tlie Irish Fi'h>)i was also suppressed and 
 Lalor arrested at Ballyhane, County Tipperary, where he was 
 endeavourincj to ors^anise a revolt of the peasantry. He was 
 removed to Xewijate prison, Dublin, where he was conhned, until, 
 his health completely breaking; down, he was released — to die. 
 He died as he had li\ed, a revolutionist and a rebel ag'ainsl all 
 iorms ol political and social injustice, and for nearly fifty years 
 the middle-class " patriots " who write Irekand's historv have 
 honoured his memory by boycotting- his writinufs and slurrintr over 
 his name. May the labours of our Irish democracy inscribe on thi 
 passes of their countrv"s historv a more fittin<>' tribute to his gfenius. 
 
 J.AMKS CONNOLLY. 
 
THE RIGHTS OF IRELAND. 
 
 (From the first number of the IrisJi Felon. June 24th, 184S.J 
 
 TO found a paper like the Irish Felon, far the mere purpose, 
 in whole or in part, of m-aking- a fortune or making- a 
 farthing-, would be a felon's crime indeed, deserving no 
 hero's doom, lamented death, or honoured exile, but death 
 on the scaffold, amid the scoff and .scorn of the world. For years 
 we have seen men in Ireland alternately trading on the g-overnment 
 and trading on the country, and making money by both ; and you 
 do not imagine, perhaps, to what deg-ree the public mind has been 
 affected with a feeling- of suspicion by the circumstance — a feeling- 
 deepened, extended and justified, by all w^e see or know of 
 ourselves. For, mdeed, the craving- to get money — tlie niggard 
 reluctance to give money — the coward fear of losing- or laying out 
 money — is the bad and coarse point that is most apparent in the 
 character of all ranks and classes of our people ; and I often fear it 
 argues an utter absence of all heroism from our national tempera- 
 ment, and of all the romantic passions, whether p-ubUc or private. 
 In other countries men marry for love ; in Ireland they marry for 
 money. Elsewhere they serve their country for their country's 
 thanks or their country's tears — here they do it for their country's 
 money. At this very time, when Ireland, to all appearance, is 
 stripping for her last struggle on this side of ages, there are, I am 
 convinced, many persons among the middle classes who refuse to 
 fall into the national march, or countenance the national move- 
 ment, merely from the hope — in most cases as vain as it is vile — 
 of obtaining some petty government place ; or from the fear of 
 losing some beggarly employment or emolument ; and I know 
 myself in this country many and many a sturdy and comfortable 
 farmer who refuses to furnish himself Vv-ith a pike, merely and 
 solely because it vrould cost him two shillings. For ourselves — 
 I say nothing of others — let us aim at better rewards than mere 
 money rewards. Better and higher rewards has Ireland in her 
 hands. If we succeed, we shall obtain these ; and if we do not , 
 succeed, we shall deserve none. In cases like this, the greatest 
 crime that man can commit is the crime of failure. I am convinced 
 ifc has become essential to our fame and our effectiveness — to the 
 success of our cause and the character of our country, to keep 
 clear and secure ourselves from the suspicion th.at our only object 
 may be nothing more than a long and lucrative agitation. The 
 Confederation pledged its members to accept no office or place of 
 profit from an English government. That pledge was eflicient. 
 perhaps, for its own professed purposes, but not for others — for 
 an " agitation " has places and profits of its owv. to bestow. Let 
 them say of us whatever else they will — let thein call us felons, 
 and treat us as such, but let them not, at least, have the power to 
 call us swindlers. We may be famous ; — let us not becon^ve 
 infamous. 
 
For these and other st'U more important reasons, needless to be 
 stated as yet, I certainly could have wished that this journal had 
 been established on a subscribed capital, and the effective owner- 
 ship vested in a joint stock company of, say eiijht hundred or a 
 thousand proprietors. What is there to hinder that this arrange- 
 ment should be made even now? It would contain securities, and 
 create powers, which no other could offer or pretend to. There 
 are, indeed, some practical difficulties in the way, but they might 
 easily, I think, be overcome. Whether any such arrangement be 
 adopted or not, I believe, however, that I am fully warranted in 
 desiring — and I think that our own true interest and honour concur 
 in demanding — that the Felon oflice shall not be a commercial 
 establishment, but organised and animated as a great political 
 association. And, for my part, I enter it with the ho{>e and 
 determination to make it an armed post, a fortress for freedom to 
 be, perhaps, taken and retaken again, and yet again ; but never 
 to surrender, nor stoop its flag, till that flag shall float above a 
 liberated nation. 
 
 Without agreement as to our objects we cannot agree on the 
 course we should follow. It is requisite the paper should have but 
 one purpose ; and the public should understand what that purpose 
 is ]\Iine is not to repeal the Union, or restore Eighty-two. This 
 is not the year '82, this is the vear '48. For repeal I never went 
 into " Agitation " and will not go into insurrection. On that 
 question I refuse to arm, or to act in any mode ; and the country 
 refuses. O'Connell made no mistake when he pronounced it not 
 worth the price of one drop of blood ; and for myself, I regret it 
 A\as not left in the hands of Conciliation Hall, whose lawful 
 property it was and is. Moral force and Repeal, the means and 
 llie purpose, were just fitted to each other — Arcades amho, balm} 
 x\rcadians both. When the means were limited, it was onh' 
 proper and necessary to limit the purpose. When the means were 
 enlarged, that purpose ought to have been enlarged also. Repeal, 
 in its vulgar meaning, I look on as utterly impracticable by any 
 mode of action whatever ; and the constitution of '82 was 
 absurd, worthless, and wor.se than worthless. The English 
 government will never concede or surrender to any species of 
 moral force whatsoever ; and the country-peasantry will never 
 ?rm and fight for it — neither will I. If I am to stake life and fame 
 it must assuredly be for something better and greater, more likely 
 to last, more likely to succeed, and better worth success. And a 
 stronger passion, a higher purpose, a nobler and more needtui 
 enterprise is fermenting the hearts of the people. .A mightier 
 question mo\es Ireland to-day than that of merely repeul'ng the 
 Act of Union. Not the constitution that Wolfe Tone died to 
 abolish, but the constitution that Tone died to obtain — indepen 
 dence ; full and absolute independence for this island, and lor 
 evtry man within this island. Into no movement that would leave 
 an enemy's garrison in possession of all our lands, masters of our 
 liberties, our lives, and all our means of life and happiness — into 
 no such movement will a single man of the greycoats enter with 
 
iiii armed hand, whatever the town popuhition may do. On a 
 wider fig^hting field, with stronger positions and greater resources 
 than are afforded by the pahry question of Repeal, must we close 
 for our final struggle with England, or sink and surrender. 
 
 Ireland her own — Ireland her own, and all therein, from the sod 
 to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the people of Ireland, to have 
 and hold from God alone who gave it — to have and to hold to them 
 and their heirs for ever, without suit or service, faith or fealty, 
 rent or render, to any power under Heaven. From a worse 
 bondage than the bondage of any foreign government — from a 
 dominion more grievous and grinding^ than the dominion of 
 England in its worst days — from the cruellest tyranny that ever 
 yet held iis \ ulture clutch on the body and soul of a country — from 
 the robber rights and robber rule that ha^■e turned us into slaves 
 and beggars in the land which God gave us for ours — Deliverance, 
 oh Lord, Deliverance or death — Deli\erance, or this island a desert. 
 This is the one praver, and terrible need, and real passion of 
 Ireland to-day, as it has been for ages. Xow, at last it begins to 
 shape into defined and desperate purpo.se ; and into it all meaner 
 and smaller purpo.ses must .settle and merge. It might ha\e been 
 kept in abeyance, and far away from the sight of the sun — aye, 
 even till this old native race had been finally conquered out and 
 extinguished, sub siJentio, without noise or notice. But once 
 propounded and proclaimed as a principle, not in the dust of remote 
 country districts, but loudly and proudly in the tribunes of the 
 capital, it must now be accepted and declared as the first and main 
 Article of Association in the National Covenant of organised 
 defence and armed resistance : as the principle to take ground, and 
 stand, and fight upon. When a greater and more ennobling 
 enterprise is on foot, everv inlerior and feebler project or proceed- 
 ing will soon be left in the hands of old women, of dastards, 
 imposters, swindlers, and imbeciles. .\11 the strength and manhood 
 of the island— all the courage,, energies, and ambition— all the 
 passion, heroism, and chivalry — all the strong men and the strong 
 minds — all those that make revolutions will quickly desert it, and 
 throw themselves into the g'reat movement, throng into the larger 
 and loftier undertaking, and flock round the banner that flies 
 nearest the sky. There go the young, the gallant, the gifted, and 
 the daring ; and there, too, go the wi.se. For wisdom knows that 
 in national action JittJeuess is more fatal than the wildest rashness; 
 that greatness of object is essential to greatness of effort, strength, 
 and success ; that a revolution ought never to take its stand on 
 low or narrow- ground, but seize on tlie broadest and highest 
 ground it can lay hands on ; and that a petty enterprise seldom 
 succeeds. Had America aimed or declared for less than 
 mdependence, she would, probably, have failed, and been a fettered 
 slave to-day. 
 
 Not to repeal the Union, then, but the conquest — not to disturb 
 or dismantle the empire, but to aboli.sh it utterly for ever — not to 
 fall back on '82, but act up to '48 — not to resume or restore an old 
 constitution, but found a new nation and raise up a free people. 
 
and strongs as well as free, and secure as well as strong", based Oii 
 it peasantry rooted like rocks in the soil of the land — this is my 
 object, as 1 hope it is yours ; and this, you may be assured, is the 
 easier as it is the nobler and the more pressings enterprise. For 
 repeal, all the moral means at our disposal have in turns been 
 used, abused, and abandoned. All the military means it can 
 command will fail as utterly. Compare the two questions. Repeal 
 would require a national organisation ; a central representative 
 authority, formally elected ; a reg'ular army, a reg-ulated war of 
 concentrated action and combined movement. On the other 
 question all circumstances differ, as I could easily show you. i^ut 
 I have gone into this portion of the subject prematurely and 
 unawares, and here I .stop — being reluctant, besides, to trespass 
 too long on the time of her Majesty's legal and military advi.sers. 
 
 The principle I state, and mean to stand upon, is this, thar the 
 entire ownership of Ireland, moral and material, up to the sun and 
 down to the centre, is vested of right in the people of Ireland ; 
 that they, and none but they are the land-owners and law-makers 
 ■of this island ; that all laws are null and void not made by them, 
 and all titles to land invalid not conferred or confirmed by them ; 
 and that this full right of ownership may and ought to be asserted 
 and enforced by any and all means which God has put in the 
 power of man. In other, if not plainer words, I hold and maintain 
 that the entire soil of a country belongs of right to the entire 
 people of that country, and is the riglitful property, not of any one 
 class, but of the nation at larg-e, in full effective possession, to let 
 to whom they will, on whatever tenures, terms, rents, services and 
 conditions they will ; one condition, however, being una\oidable 
 and essential, the condition that the tenant shall bear full, true, 
 and undivided fealty and allegiance to the nation. and 
 the laws of the nation whose land he holds, and own 
 no allegiance whatsoever to any other prince, power, or 
 people, or any obligation of obedience or respect tn their 
 will, orders or laws. I hold further, and hrmly believe, that the 
 enjoyment by the people of this right of first ownership of the soil, 
 is essential to the vigour and vitality of all other rights ; tt > their 
 validity, efficacy, and value ; to their secure possession and .sale 
 exercise. For let no people deceive themselves, or be deceived by 
 the words and colours, and phrases, and form of a mock freedom, 
 by constitutions, and charters, and articles and franchise. These 
 thing-s are paper and parchment, waste and worthless. Let laws 
 and institutions sav what thev will, tliis f.act will be stronger than 
 all laws, and prevail ag:nnst them — the fact tliat those who own 
 vOuh lands will make vour laws, and command your liberties and 
 vour lives. But this is tvrannv and slavery ; tyranny in it.^ A\idest 
 scope and worst shape ; slaverv of body and soul, from the cradle 
 to the coHin — slavery with all its horrors, and with none of its 
 physical comforts and security ; even as it is in Ireland, where the 
 whole communit\' is made up of tyrants, slaves, and slave-drivers. 
 A people whose lands and lives are thus in the keeping" and custody 
 of others, instead of in their own. are not in a position of coi^mon 
 
10 
 
 satiety. The Irish famine of "47 is example and proof. The corn 
 crops were sufficient to feed the island. But the landlords it'ow/d 
 have their rents, in spite of famine and defiance of fever. They 
 took the whole harvest and left hunger to those who raised it. 
 Had the people of Ireland been the landlords of Ireland, not a 
 human creature would have died of hunger, nor the failure of the 
 potato been considered a matter of any consequence. 
 
 There are, however, many landlords, perhaps, and certainly a 
 few, not fairly chargeable with the crimes of their orders ; and you 
 may think it hard they should lose their lands. But recollect the 
 principle I assert would make Ireland, m fact as she is of right, 
 mistress and queen of all those lands ; that sl>e, poor lady, had 
 ever a soft heart and grateful disposition ; and that she may, if she 
 please, in reward of allegiance, confer new titles or confirm the 
 old. Let us crown her a queen ; and then — let her do with her 
 lands as a queen may do. 
 
 In the case of any existing' interest, of what nature soever, I 
 feel assured that no question but one would need to be answered. 
 Does the owner of that interest assent to swear allegiance to the 
 people of Ireland, and to hold in fee from the Irish nation? If he 
 assent he may be assured he will suffer no loss. No eventual or 
 permanent loss I mean ; for some temporary loss he must assuredly 
 suffer. But such loss would be incidental and inevitable to any 
 armed insurrection whatever, no matter on what principle the right 
 of resistance .-should be resorted to. If he refuses, then I say — 
 away with him — out of this land with him — himself and all his 
 robber rights, and all the things himself and his rights have 
 brought into our island — blood and tears, and famine, and the 
 fever that goes with famine. 
 
 Between the relative merits and importance of the two rights, 
 the people's right to the land, and their right to legislation, I do 
 not mean or wish to ins'titute any comparison. I am far, indeed, 
 from desirous to put the two rights in competition or contrast, for 
 I consider each alike as the natural complement of the other, 
 necessary to its theoretical completeness and practical, efificacy. 
 But considering them for a moment as distinct, I do not mean to 
 assert this — that the land question contains, and the legislative 
 question does Jiot contain, the materials from which victory is 
 manii^ftLCtured ; and that, therefore, if we be truly in earnest, and 
 determined on success, it is on the former question, and not on the 
 latter, we must take our stand, fling out our banner, and hurl 
 down to England our gage of battle. Victory follows that banner 
 alone — that, and no other. 
 
 This island is ours, and have it we will, if the leaders be but true 
 to the people, and the people be true to themselves. 
 
 The rights of property may be pleaded. No one has a higher 
 respect for the real rights of property than I have ; but I do not 
 class among them the robber's right, by which the lands of this 
 county are now held in fee from the British crown. I acknowledge 
 no right of property in a small class which goes to abrogate the 
 rights of a numerous people. I acknowledge no right of property 
 
11 
 
 in eight thousand persons, be the}' noble or ig'noble, which takes 
 away all rigfhts of property, security, independence, and existence 
 itself, from a population of eig-ht millions, and stands in bar to all 
 the political rights of the island, and all the social rights of its 
 inhabitants. I acknowledge no right of property which takes t!ie 
 food of millions, and gives them a famine — which denies to the 
 peasant the right of a home, and concedes, in exchangCj the right 
 or a workhouse. I deny and challenge all such rights, howsoever 
 founded or enforced. I challenge them, as founded only on the 
 code of the brigand, and enforced only by the sanction of the 
 hangman. Against them I as.sert the true and indefeasible right 
 of property — the right of our people to live in 't in comfort, 
 security, and independence, and to live in it by their own labour, 
 on their own land, as God and nature meant them to do. Against 
 them I sliall array, if I can, all the forces that yet remain in this 
 island. And against them I am determined to make war. — to their 
 destruction or my own. 
 
 These are my principles and views. I shall have other oppor- 
 tunities to develop and defend them. I have some few other 
 requisitions to make but I choose to defer them for other reasons 
 besides want of time and space. Our first business, before we can 
 advance a step, is to fix our own footing and make good our 
 position. This once done, this contest must, if possibie, be 
 brought to a speedy close. 
 
 THE FAITH OF A FELON. 
 
 (From the Irish Felon, July 8th, 1848.) 
 
 \\'hen Mr. Duffy expected arrest, some weeks ago, h-e drew up 
 his profession of principles,, " The Creed of The N(ation.'' 
 Under influences of similar feelings and considerations, though noi 
 ■exactly the same, nor excited by circumstances altogether alike, I 
 iiasten to put my own principles upon record. Until yesterday I 
 did not intend to have done this for some weeks to come. The 
 statement or confession of faith that follows I could have wished 
 for time to make niore correct and complete. It is ill-framed. 
 ili-connected, and wants completeness. But, even such as it 
 stands, I do firmly believe that it carries the fortunes of Ireland ; — 
 and even such as it stands, I now send it forth to its fate, to 
 conquer or be conquered. It may be master of Ireland and make 
 her a Queen ; it may lie in the dust and perish with her people. 
 
 Here, then, is the confession and faith of a Felon. 
 
 "^ ears ago I perceived that the English conquest consisted of two 
 parts combined into one whole, — the conquest of our liberties, the 
 conquest of our lands. 
 
 I saw clearly that the re-conquest of our liberties would be 
 incomplete and worthless without the re-conquest of our lands.— 
 would not, necessarily, involve or produce that of our lands, and 
 
12 
 
 could not, Jon its own means, be possibly achieved ; while the' 
 re-conquest of our lands would involve the other — would, at least, 
 be complete in itself, and adequate to its own purposes ; and cou'd 
 possibly, if not easily., be achie\ed. 
 
 The lands were owned by the conqut-riny race, or by traitors to 
 the conquered race. They were occupied by the native people, or 
 by settlers who had minified and merg-ed. 
 
 I selected, as the mode of re-conquesc — to refuse payment of 
 rent, and resist process of ejecrment. 
 
 In that mode 1 determined to effect the re-conquest, and staked 
 on it all my hopes, here and hereafter — ni}- hopes of an effective 
 life and an eternal epitaph. 
 
 It almost seemed to me as if the Youni^ Ireland party, the 
 quarrel, the secession, tlie Confederation, liad all been specially 
 pre-ordained and produced in order to aid me. .Vly faith in the 
 men .who formed the Council of that body was then unbounded. 
 Tsly faith in them still is as firm as ever, thoui^h somewhat more 
 measured. In the paper I published last week, and in a private 
 correspondence that ensued with some of its members, I proposed 
 that they should merg'e the Repeal question in a mii^htier project — 
 that of wresting' this island from an English rule altogether, in the 
 only mode in which it could possibly be achieved. I endeavoured 
 to show them they were only keeping up a feeble and ineffectual 
 fire from a foolish distance, upon the EngJis]! Govevyiment. which 
 stands out of reach and beyond our power ; and urged them to 
 wheel their batteries round and bend tht-m on the English 
 Garrison of landlords, who stand there within our hands, 
 scattered, isolated, and helpless, girdled round by the m.ight of 
 a people. Except two or three of them, all refu.sed at the time, 
 and have persisted in refusing until now. They wanted an 
 alliance with the landowners. They chose to consider them as 
 Irishmen, and imagined they could induce them to hoist the green 
 iiag. They wished to preserve an Aristocracy. They desired, not 
 a democratic, but merelv a national revolution. Who imputes 
 blame to them for this? Whoever does so will not have me to 
 join him. I ha\'e no feeling but one of respect for the motives 
 that caused reluctance and delay. That delay, however, I consider 
 as a matter of deep regret. Had the Confederation, in the May 
 or June of 'i7, thrown heart and mind and means and mig-ht into 
 the movement I pointed out, they would have made it successful, 
 and settled at once and for ever all quarrels and questions between 
 lis and England. 
 
 The opinions I then stated, and which I yet stand firm to, are 
 the.se : — 
 
 I. That in order to sa^■e their own lives, the occupying tenants 
 of the soil of Ireland ought, next autumn, to refu.se all rent and 
 arrears of rent tlven due, beyond and except the value of the 
 overplus of harvest produce remaining in their hands after having 
 deducted and reserved a due and full provision for their own 
 subsistence during the next ensuing twelve months. 
 
13 
 
 II. That they oui^ht to refuse and resist being' made beggars^ 
 hmdless and houseless, under the Eng-hsh hiw of ejection. 
 
 III. That the}- oug-ht further, on principle, to refuse all rent to 
 tlie present usurping- proprietors, until the people, tlie true pro- 
 prietors (or lord paramount, in leg-al parlance), have, in national 
 congress, or con\ention, decided ivhat rents they are io pay, and 
 io ivhom they are to pay them. 
 
 IV. And that the people, on g-rounds of policy and ccoioniv. 
 oug-ht to decide (as a general rule, admitting of reservations) that 
 those rents shall be paid to themselves, the people, for public 
 purpose'^, and for behoof and benefit of them, the entire geiieral 
 people. 
 
 These are the principles, as clearly and fully stated as limit of 
 time will allow, wliich I advise Ireland to adopt at once, and at 
 once to arm for. Should the* people accept and adhere to them, 
 the English government will then ha\e to choose whether to 
 surrender the Irisli landloi'ds, or to support them with the arnied. 
 power of the empire. 
 
 It it reiuse to incur tlu odium and expense, and to peril the 
 salety of England in a social v/ar of extermination, then the land- 
 lords are nobodie.--, the people are lords of the land, a mighty social 
 revolution is acconijjiished, and the foundation of a national 
 revolution .-^urelv laid, li it should, on the other hand, determine 
 to come to the rescue and relief of its garrison — elect to force their 
 rents and enforce their rig'hts by infantry, cavalry, and cannon, 
 and attenipt to lifi and carry the whole harvest of Ireland — a 
 somewhat heavy undertaking, which might become a hot one, too 
 — then I, at least, for one, am prepared to bow Avlth humble 
 resignation to tlie clispei"\sations of Pro\-idencc. \\'elcome be the 
 will of God. \\'e must only try tf) keep our harvest, to offer a 
 peaceful, passive resistance, to barricade tlie island, to break up 
 the roads, to break down the bridges— and, should need be, and 
 favourable occasions offer, surely we ma}- A'enture to try the steel. 
 Other approved n^odes of moral resi>t;!nce might gradually be 
 added to these, according as we shoukl become trained to the 
 system : and all combined, I imagine, and well worked, might 
 possibly task the strength and break the heart of the empire. 
 
 Into artistic details, however, I need not. and do not choose, to 
 enter for the present. 
 
 It has been said to nie that such a war, on the principles I 
 propose, would be looked on Avith detestation by Europe. I assert 
 the contrarv : I sa\- such a war would propagate itself throughout 
 Europe. Mark "tlie words of this prophecy; — the principle I 
 propound goes to the foundations of Europe, and sooner or later. 
 will cause Europe to outrise. Mankind will yet be masters of the 
 earth. The right of the people to make the laws — this produced 
 the first great modern earthquake, whose latest shocks, even now. 
 are heaving in the heart of the world. The right of the people to 
 own the land — this will produce the next. Train your hands, and 
 vour sons' hands, gentlemen of earth, for you and thev will yet 
 have to use them. I want to put Ireland foremost, in the van of 
 the world, at the head of the nations — to set her aloft in the bla;?e 
 
of the sunj and to make her for ages the lode star of history. Will 
 she take the path I poinc out — the path to be free, and famed, and 
 feared, and followed — the path that g"oes sunward? Or, onward 
 to the end of time, will wretched Ireland ever come limping- and 
 lagging hindmost? Events must answer that. It is a question 
 I almost fear to look full in the face. The soul of this island seems 
 lo sink where that of another country would soar. The people 
 sank and surrendered to the famine instead of growing savage, as 
 any other people would have done. 
 
 I am reminded that there are fevv' persons now who trouble 
 themselves about the "conquest," and there may be many — I 
 ■ know there are some — who assent to the two first of the four 
 principles I have stated, and are willing' to accept them as the 
 grounds of an armed movement ; but who object to the last two 
 of them. I am advised to summon the land tenants of Ireland up 
 in battle-array for an armed struggle in defence of their rights of 
 life and subsistence, without asserting any greater or more com- 
 prehensive right. I distinctly refuse to do so. I refuse to narrow 
 the case and claim of this island into any such petty dimensions, 
 or to found it on the rogue's or the beggar's plea, the plea of 
 necessity. Not as a starving bandit or desperate beggar who 
 demands, to save life, what does not belong to him, do I wish 
 Ireland to stand up, but as a decrowned Queen, who claims back 
 her own with an armed hand. I attest and urge the plea of utter 
 and desperate necessity to fortify her claim, but not to found it. 
 I rest it on no temporary and passing conditions, but on principles 
 that are permanent, and imperishable and universal ; — available to 
 all times and to all countries, as well as to our own, — I pierce 
 through the upper stratum of occasional and shifting circumstance 
 to bottom and base on the rock below\ I put 'the question in its 
 eternal form, — the form in ■\\hich, how often soever suppressed for 
 a season, it can never be finally subdued, but will remain and 
 return, outliving and outlasting the corruption and cowardice of 
 generations. I view it as ages w'ill view it — not throug'h the mis's 
 of a famine, but by the living lights of the firmament. You may 
 possibly be induced to reject it in the form I propo.se, and accept it 
 in the other. If so, you will accept the question, and employ it as 
 :-. weapon against England, in a shape and under conditions which 
 deprive it of half its strength. You \\ ill take and work it fettered 
 and hand-cuffed — not otherwise. 
 
 I trouble myself as little as any one does about the " conquest " 
 as taken abstractedly — as an affair that took place long ages ago. 
 But that "c»nquest" is still in existence, with all its rights, claims, 
 laws, relations, and results. The landlord holds his lands by right 
 and title of conquest, and uses his powers as only a conqueror may. 
 The tenant holds under the law of conquest — vce viciis. 
 
 What forms the right of property in land? I have never read :n 
 the direction of that question. I have all my life been destitute of 
 hooks. But from the first chapter of Blackstone's second book, 
 the only page i ever read on the subject, I know that juri.sts are 
 iinanimouslv agreed in considering " first occupancy" to be the 
 
15 
 
 only true orii;;inaI foundation on tl>e right of property and 
 possession of land. 
 
 Now I am prepared to prove that " occupancy " wants every 
 character and quality that could give it moral efiicacy as a founda- 
 tion of right. I am prepared to prove this, when " occupancy " 
 has first been defined. If no definition can be given, I am relieved 
 from the necessity of showing any claim founded on occupancy to 
 be weak and worthless. 
 
 To any plain understanding the right of private property is very 
 simple. It is the right of man to possess, enjoy, and transfer, the 
 substance and use of whatever he Jias himself created. This 
 title is good against the world ; and it is the sole and only title 
 by which a valid right of absolute private property can possibly 
 vest. 
 
 But no man can plead any such title to a right of property in the 
 substance of the soil. 
 
 The earth, together with all it spontaneously produces, is the 
 free and common property of all mankind, of natural right, and by 
 the grant of God; — and ail men being equal, no man, therefore, 
 has a right to appropriate exclusively to himself any part or 
 portion thereof, except with and by the common consent and 
 agreement of all other men. 
 
 The sole original right of property in land which I acknowledge 
 to be morally valid, is this right of common consent and agreement. 
 Every other I hold to be fabricated and fictitious, null, void, and of 
 no effect. 
 
 In the original and natural state of mankind, existing in 
 u' dependent families, each man must, in res3:>ect of actual fact, 
 either take and hold (assujME occipaxcv as well as maintain 
 possession of) his land by right and virtue of such consent and 
 agreement as aforesaid, with all those who might be in a position 
 to dispute and oppose his doing so ; or he must take and maintain 
 possession by force. The fictitious right of occupancy — invented 
 by jurists to cover and account for a state of settlement otherwise 
 unaccountable and indefensible on moral principle — this right 
 would l>e utterly worthless, and "could seldom accrue ; for except 
 in such a case as that of a single individual thrown on a desert 
 island, the ijuestion of right would g"enerally arise, and require to 
 be settled before any colourable " title by occupancy " could be 
 established, or even actual occupation be effected. And then — 
 \vhat constitutes occupancy? What length of possession gives 
 " title by occupancy "? 
 
 When independent families have united into separate tribes, 
 and tribes SAvelled into nations, the same law obtains; — each tribe 
 or nation has but either one or another of two available rights to 
 stand upon — the)' must take and maintain territorial possession 
 by consent and agreement with all other tribes and nations : or 
 they must take and hold by the tenure of chivalry in th.e right of 
 their might. 
 
 Putting together and proceeding on the principles now stated, 
 it v^ill appear that, if those principles be sound, no man can legiti- 
 
16 
 
 mate!}- cUiim possession or occupation of any portion of land or 
 any right of property tlierein, except by sjrant from the people, 
 at the will of the people, as tenant to the people, and on conditions 
 made or .sanctioned b the people ; — and that every r-ght, except 
 the rig-ht so created and \estinij by grant from the people, is 
 nothing- more or beiter than the righl of the robber who hold'^ 
 forcible possession of what does not lawfully belong to him. 
 
 The present proprietors of Ireland do not hold or claim by grant 
 Irom the people, nor even — except in Ulster — by any species of 
 imperfect agreement or assent of the people. They got and keep 
 their lands in the robber's right — the right of conquest — in despite, 
 defiance, and contempt of the people. Eight thousand men are 
 owners of this entire island, — claiming the right of enslaving, 
 starving, and exterminating eight millions. A\"e talk of asserting" 
 free-government, and of ridding ourselves of foreign domination — 
 while, lo ! eight thousand men are lords of our lives — of us and 
 ours, blood and breath, happiness or misery, body and soul. Such 
 is the state of things in every countr_\- where the settlement of the 
 lands has been eflected bv conquest. In Ulster the case is isome- 
 Avhar different, mncli to the advantage of the people, but not as 
 much as it ought to have been. Ulster was not merely conquered 
 but colonized — the native race being expelled, as in the United 
 States of America : — and the settlement that prevails was made 
 by a sort of consent and agreement among the conquering race. 
 
 No length of time or possession can sanction claims acquired by 
 robbery, or convert them into valid rig-hts. The people are still 
 rig-htful owners, Miough'not in possession. ''Nullum tempus 
 occurit Deo. — nullum tempus occurit populo." 
 
 In many countries besides this, the lands were acquired, and 
 long- held, by right of force or conquest. But in most of them the 
 settlement and laws of conquest have been abrogated, amended, or 
 modified, to a greater or lesser exteni. In some, an outrise of the 
 people has trampled them down, — in some, the natural laws have 
 triumphed over them, — in some, a despotic monarch or minister has 
 abolisiied or altered them. In Ireland alone they remain unchanged, 
 unmitigated, unmollified, in all their original ferocity and cruelty, 
 and the people of Ireland must now abolish them, or be themselves 
 abo'ished, and this is noiK.' the more urQ'eiif business.. 
 
 ^X^XKeXo 
 
^iAN '^o** 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
 3 9031 01605022 1 
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 rniNTEO IN U.S.A. 
 
BOSTON C01U6E LJBRWn 
 CHISrHWT HHU «A 0216?