3. To refuse all rent to the usurping proprietors, until the
people, the true proprietors, had decided in national congress
what rents were to be paid, and to whom.
4. That the people should decide that rents should “be paid to
_themselves_, the people, for public purposes, and for behoof
and benefit of them, the entire general people.”
Lalor saw clearly that this programme might, and almost certainly would,
lead to armed revolution. If so--
“Welcome be the will of God. We must only try to keep our
harvest, to offer a peaceful, passive resistance, to barricade
the island, to break up the roads, to break down the
bridges--and, should need be, and favourable occasions offer,
surely we may venture to try the steel....
“It has been said to me that such a war, on the principles I
propose, would be looked on with detestation by Europe. I assert
the contrary. I say such a war would propagate itself throughout
Europe. Mark the 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 rights 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 your son’s hands, gentlemen of earth, for you
and they 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 blaze of the sun, and to make
her for ages the lodestar of history. Will she take the path I
point out--the path to be free, and famed, and feared, and
followed--the path that goes sunward?...”
A fortnight later, in the _Irish Felon_ for July 22, Lalor wrote the
article “Clearing the Decks,” which was intended to declare the
revolution. It was worthy of a braver response than it received:
“If Ireland be conquered now--or what would be worse--if she
fails to fight, it will certainly not be the fault of the people
at large, of those who form the rank and file of the nation. The
failure and fault will be that of those who have assumed to take
the office of commanding and conducting the march of a people
for liberty without, perhaps, having any commission from nature
to do so, or natural right, or acquired requisite. The general
population of this island are ready to find and furnish
everything which can be demanded from the mass of a people--the
members, the physical strength, the animal daring, the health,
hardihood, and endurance. No population on earth of equal amount
would furnish a more effective military conscription. We want
only competent leaders--men of courage and capacity--men whom
nature meant and made for leaders.... These leaders are yet to
be found. Can Ireland furnish them? It would be a sheer and
absurd blasphemy against nature to doubt it. The first blow will
bring them out....
“In the case of Ireland now there is but _one fact_ to deal
with, and _one question_ to be considered. The _fact_ is
this--that there are at present in occupation of our country
some 40,000 armed men, in the livery and service of England; and
the _question_ is--how best and soonest to kill and capture
these 40,000?...
“Meanwhile, however, remember this--that somewhere, and somehow,
and by somebody, a beginning must be made. Who strikes the first
blow for Ireland? Who wins a wreath that will be green for
ever?”
That was Lalor’s last word. The issue containing the article was seized,
the _Irish Felon_ suppressed, and Martin and Lalor arrested. In a few
months Lalor was released from prison a dying man. From his sick bed he
tried to rally the beaten forces; he actually went down into North
Munster and endeavoured to lead the people. This effort--the almost
forgotten rising of 1849--failed. Lalor died in Dublin a few weeks
after. But his word has marched on, conquering.