Closing the Irish ports

[The Rev Charles Boyton FTCD] has a great deal of wit. Indeed in this respect he is the Irishman all over — he evinces no symptom of degeneracy from our models of the last century. His remarkable speech on the Marquis of Anglesey‘s interview in Cork with Doctor Baldwin will never be forgotten.

Lord Anglesey had spoken, in rather a threatening fashion, of “blocking up all the Irish ports with four gun-brigs, and inflicting on the Irish a total suspension of intercourse with England. What then would you do,” continued his Excellency, “if deprived of the English market? What would you do with your corn, and butter, and pork?”

“What would we do with our corn, and butter, and pork?” repeated Mr Boyton. “Why eat them, to be sure! — What else would we do with them? But our viceroy”, continued the speaker, “seems to think that Ireland would suffer, and that England would not, if the intercourse between the countries were suspended. We export food to England; their exports to us are chiefly manufactured articles — the cutlery of Sheffield, the china ware of Worcester, the carpets of Kidderminster. Suppose now our intercourse with England suspended; which party would be worse off? Paddy, who would gladly devour the food which England refused to receive; or John Bull, whose English stomach, notwithstanding its powers, could scarcely digest a Sheffield whittle, or a Worcester tea-cup?” — Mr Boyton is the darling of the Conservative party, and no wonder.

From “Irish Eloquence” in The Dublin Penny Journal Vol IV No 170 October 3, 1835