He deprecated the opposition of the Irish in America
to any and every form of alliance with England, and he did not hesitate
to condemn the demand of O'Connell for the repeal of the union between
England and Ireland. Said he: "If I could contribute one line more
to the future unity in action of the United States and England, I
should more aid the Irish than by all exclamations against one or the
other. With the United States and England in union, the Continent of
Europe would be republican. Then, though England remained monarchist,
Ireland would be more free than it is now."
It is a singular incident in Kossuth's history, in connection with
Irish affairs, that in one of his speeches he foreshadowed Gladstone's
Home Rule policy,--but upon the basis of a legislative assembly for
each of the three principal countries, England, Scotland and Ireland.
Thus did he indicate a public policy for Great Britain that has been
accepted in part by the present government,--a policy that is to be
accepted by the English nation and upon the broad basis laid down by a
foreigner and sojourner, who had had only limited means for observation.
"If I were an Irishman, I would not have raised the standard of repeal,
which offended the people of England, but the standard of municipal
self-government against parliamentary omnipotence; not as an Irish
question, but as a common question to all; and in this movement all
the people of England and Scotland would have joined, and there now
would have been a Parliament in England, in Ireland and Scotland.
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