Parnell himself steps out of a Tory milieu and tradition into the
central tumult of agitation. Wave after incoming wave of them, her
conquerors were conquered. "Once again," cried Parnell in the last
public utterance of his life, "I am come to cast myself into the deep
sea of the love of my people." In that deep sea a hundred diverse
currents of blood have met and mingled; they have lost their individual
drift to become part of the strong tide of national consciousness and
national unity. If Irish history is to be regarded as a test of racial
superiority then Ireland emerges with the crown and garlands of victory.
We came, we the invaders, to dominate, and we remained to serve. For
Ireland has signed us with the oil and chrism of her human sacrament,
and even though we should deny the faith with our lips she would hold
our hearts to the end.
But let us translate her triumph into more concrete speech. The
essential lesson of experience, then, is that no device, plan, or policy
adopted by England for the subjugation of Ireland has ever been anything
except an abject failure.
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