He would venture to assert,
though the power of the sword was great, that the force of education
was greater. It was notorious that the writings of one man, Mr.
Burke, had changed the opinions of the whole people of England
against the French Revolution. ... If proper books were circulated
through the country, and if the public mind was prepared for the
reception of their doctrines, it would be impossible to make the
ignorance of the people an instrument of national ruin.
'There is, he contended, a fund of goodness in the Irish as well as
in the English nature. Did God give different minds to different
countries? No, the difference of mind arose from education. It
therefore became the duty of Parliament to improve as much as
possible the public understanding--for the misfortunes of Ireland
were owing not to the heart, but the head: the defect was not from
nature, but from want of culture.
'During this session my father spoke again two or three times, on
some questions of revenue regulations and excise laws: of little
consequence separately considered, but of importance in one respect,
in their effect on the morality of the people.
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