The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga by Edward Rutherfurd

Author:Edward Rutherfurd
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Europe, Historical - General, History, Ireland - Social life and customs, Ireland, Family sagas, 1172-, Historical fiction, Fiction, Dublin (Ireland), Historical, General, Fiction - Historical
ISBN: 9780345472366
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2007-02-27T08:00:00+00:00

The honoured guest arrived at the appointed hour precisely. Fortunatus ushered him into the big parlour where all the family were waiting. As he entered, everyone fell silent. Georgiana was standing beside Hercules. As the visitor came in, she observed him closely.

He was a curious figure. An elderly man in a brown, homespun coat. He wore stockings and buckled shoes, but no wig. Long wisps of white hair hung down from his large, bald pate. On his nose sat a pair of half-spectacles, over which he looked benignly at the company. What a dear old man, she thought.

Mr. Benjamin Franklin was making his first visit to Ireland.

Fortunatus conducted him round the room, introducing each member of the family to him in turn, while the American shook hands or bowed his white head in the simplest and most pleasant manner imaginable. But Georgiana had seen enough of public men to notice that the kindly old eyes were also exceedingly sharp. And when he got to her, and the eyes lit up with an unmistakable gleam at the sight of her own gently swelling bodice, she smiled to herself and concluded: this clever old fellow is not as sweet and homespun as he pretends. But he’s a first-rate actor.

“Mr. Franklin has already paid a visit to our House of Commons, where he was invited to sit as a member, during a debate, and where I had the honour of making his acquaintance,” Fortunatus announced. “As to his purpose in visiting Ireland, I shall let him explain that himself in a little while.”

For about a quarter of an hour, Franklin conversed with several of the party and gladly answered their questions. Yes, he was a member of the Philadelphia legislature. Indeed, he’d been born in Boston. He had returned from America to London upon his present business, but had resided in London for many years in the past and had the warmest affection for that city. After a little while, however, Fortunatus led him to one end of the room, from where he could address them all.

When the old American spoke, it was in a very simple and friendly manner. He had come to Ireland, he explained, because he believed that their own situation here was rather similar to the case in the American colony.

“We have our legislatures, as you have yours, but they are not given the powers which, as plain free men, we should think reasonable. We can adjust local matters, but all decisions of importance are made in London, by men we never see. Troops are quartered in our towns—by London. We are ruled by government officials who are chosen and paid—by London—so that we have no control over them. Our trade is restricted and ordered—by London. It is London that controls our currency. Contentious taxes are imposed—by London. Yet in the Parliament in London that so orders our lives and our livelihoods, we have no representation whatever. We are subjects of the king, yet we are treated as something less than subjects; we are free men, yet we are not free.

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