and I added, “then give me a legal claim to become the protector of your
daughter, and through her to restore you to that independence necessary
for the repose of a proud and noble spirit. In a few days I shall openly
appear to the world, with honour and with safety, in my own name and
character. Take this letter, it is addressed to the Earl of M--------,
whom I solemnly swear is not more your enemy than mine, and who
consequently cannot be biased by partiality: from him you shall learn
who and what I am; and until that period I ask not to receive the hand
of your inestimable daughter.”
The Prince took the letter and tore it in a thousand pieces; exclaiming,
“I cannot indeed equal, but I will at least endeavour to imitate your
generosity. You chose me as your protector in the hour of danger, when
confidence was more hazardous to him who reposed than him who received
it. You placed your life in my hands with no other bond for its security
than my _honour!_ In the season of my distress you flew to save me: you
lavished your property for my release, not considering the improbability
of its remuneration! Take my child; her esteem, her affections, have
long been yours; let me die in peace, by seeing her united to a worthy
man!--_that_ I _know_ you are; what else you may be I will only learn
from _the lips of a son-in-law_. Confidence at least shall be repaid by
confidence.” At these words the always generous, always vehement and
inconsiderate Prince rose from his pillow and placed the hand of his
daughter in mine, confirming the gift with a tear of joy and a tender
benediction. Glorvina bowed her head to receive it--her veil fell over
her face--the index of her soul was concealed: how then could I know
what passed there? She was silent--she was obedient--and I was----
deceived.
The Prince, on his arrival at the castle of In-ismore, felt the hour of
dissolution stealing fast on every principle of life. Sensible of his
situation, his tenderness, his anxiety for his child survived every
other feeling; nor would he suffer himself to be carried to his chamber
until he had bestowed her on me from the altar. I knew not then what
were the sentiments of Glorvina. Entwined in the arms of her doating,
dying father, she seemed insensible to every emotion, to every thought
but what his fate excited; but however gratified I might have been at
the intentions of the Prince, I was decidedly averse to their prompt
execution. I endeavoured to remonstrate: a _look_ from the Prince
silenced every objection: and----. But here let me drop the veil of
oblivion over the past: let me clear from the tablets of memory those
records of extraordinary and recent circumstances to which my heart can
never revert but with a pang vibrating on its tenderest nerve. It
is, however, the true spirit of philosophy to draw from the evil which
cannot be remedied all the good of which in its tendency it is yet
susceptible; and since the views of my parental ambition are thus
blasted in the bloom, let me at least make him happy whom it was once my
only wish to render eminent: know then, my imprudent but still dear
son, that the bride chosen for you by your father’s policy has, by an
elopement with a more ardent lover (who followed her hither,) left your
hand as free as your heart towards her ever was.
Take then to thy bosom _her_ whom heaven seems to have chosen as
the intimate associate of thy soul, and whom national and hereditary
prejudice would in vain withhold from thee. In this the dearest, most
sacred, and most lasting of all human ties, let the names of Inismore
and M-------- be inseparably blended, and the distinctions of English
and Irish, of Protestant and Catholic, for ever buried. And, while
you look forward with hope to this family alliance being prophetically
typical of a national unity of interests and affections between those
who may be actually severed, but who are naturally allied, end your
_own individual efforts_ towards the consummation of an event so
devoutly to be wished by every liberal mind, by every benevolent heart.
During my life, I would have you consider those estates as yours, which
I possess in this country; and at my death such as are not entailed.
But this consideration is to be indulged conditionally, on your spending
eight months out of every twelve on that spot from whence the very
nutrition of your existence is to be derived; and in the bosom of those
from whose labour and exertion your independence and prosperity are
to flow. Act not with the vulgar policy of vulgar greatness, by
endeavouring to exact respect through the medium of self-wrapt reserve,
proudly shut up in its own self-invested grandeur; nor think it can
derogate from the dignity of the _English landholder_ openly to appear
in the midst of his Irish peasantry, with an eye beaming complacency,
and a countenance smiling confidence, and inspiring what it expresses.
Show them you do not distrust them, and they will not betray you, give
them reason to believe you feel an interest in their welfare, and they
will endeavour to promote yours even at the risk of their lives; for the
life of an Irishman weighs but light in the scale of consideration with
his feelings; it is immolated without a murmur to the affections of his
heart; it is sacrificed without a sigh to the suggestions of his honour.
Remember that you are not placed by despotism over a band of slaves,
creatures of the soil and as such to be considered; but by Providence,
over a certain portion of men, who, in common with the rest of their
nation, are the descendants of a brave, a free, and an enlightened
people. Be more anxious to remove _causes_ than to punish _effects_; for
trust me that it is only to
“Scotch the snake--not kill it,”
to confine error, and to awaken vengeance.
Be cautious how you condemn; be more cautious how you deride, but be
ever watchful to moderate that ardent impetuosity which flows from
the natural tone of the national character, which is the inseparable
accompaniment of quick and acute feelings, which is the invariable
concomitant of constitutional sensibility: and remember that the same
ardour of disposition, the same vehemence of soul, which inflames
their errors beyond the line of moderate failing, nurtures their better
qualities beyond the growth of moderate excellence.
Within the influence then of your own bounded circle, pursue those means
of promoting the welfare of the individuals consigned to your care and
protection, which lies within the scope of all those in whose hands
the destinies of their less fortunate brethren are placed. Cherish by
kindness into renovating life those national virtues, which though so
often blighted in the full luxuriance of their vigorous blow by the
fatality of circumstances, have still been ever found vital at the root,
which only want the nutritive beam of encouragement, the genial glow of
confiding affection, and the refreshing dew of tender commiseration, to
restore them to their pristine bloom and vigour: place the standard of
support within their sphere; and like the tender vine which has been
suffered by neglect to waste its treasures on the sterile earth, you
will behold them naturally turning and gratefully twining round the
fostering stem, which rescues them from a cheerless and grovelling
destiny: and when by justly and adequately rewarding the laborious
exertions of that life devoted to your service, the source of their
poverty shall be dried up, and the miseries that flowed from it shall be
forgotten; when the warm hand of benevolence shall have wiped away
the cold dew of despondency from their brow; when reiterated acts of
tenderness and humanity shall have thawed the ice which chills the
native flow of their ardent feelings; and when the light of instruction
shall have dispelled the gloom of ignorance and prejudice from their
neglected minds, and their lightened hearts shall again throb with the
cheery pulse of national exility;--then, _then, and not till then_,
will you behold the day-star of national virtue rising brightly over the
horizon of their happy existence; while the felicity which has awakened
to the touch of reason and humanity, shall return back to, and increase
the source from which it originally flowed: as the elements, which
in gradual progress brighten into flame, terminate in a liquid light,
which, reverberating in sympathy to its former kindred, genially warms
and gratefully cheers the whole order of universal nature.
THE END.