IRISH AFFAIRS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1355, 30 September 1886, Page 2

IRISH AFFAIRS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, — Your article in the Guardian of the 28 .h instant, as a whole, 1 mast compliment you on. It is as reasonable and as moderate as Irishmen could expect; Unfortunately, however, Englishmen know so little about Ireland that, with the best intentions, they make sad mistakes.

With your permission I will show yon how Englishmen are doped. First, as to the Belfast riots, these are the result of foreign interference —Home Bole would and all that. As regards the cruelty to dumb animals, of eonrsa it is unjustifiable ; but the cruelty to human beings is infinitely more so. And lor every one of the former there ten thousand of the latter. Why denounce the one so vigorously and pass over the ten thousand so gently ? Bot do the peasantry really treat dumb animals cruelly by way of reprisal 7 It is at least very doubtful. Near Carlow there was a woman very loyal; she bad her horses, and probably a goat, hamstrung by way of reprisal. Exit's polios were placed in the district, it beingV* disturbed ; ” she had some haystacks burped ; she bad her stable burned. All these “'outrages ’’ were telegraphed over the world—-and the people of the “ disturbed ” district had to pay for the damage about four times the real valve. She got police protection, and the police actually eaught this loyal woman setting fire to her own house: the outrage business paid so well! Such are most of the outrages perpetrated in Ireland 1 That woman is now doing two years’ penal servitude for that offence. No man conscientiously opposes Home Buie either in Ireland or out of it. Yon might as well say that a man conscientiously opposes you having possession of your own purse or watch* Irishmen demand that they be permitted to manage their own business without outride interference, and that demand must be complied with. I have looked over my letter and find that I, at all events, have need language studiously moderate, and if I made any alteration it would bo to make it more energetic. “ The end justifies the means ” is the motto of the English Government; I abhor it. Who is to determine what is lawful and what is not 7 Is the footpad who knocks you down and takes your parse to determine what is lawful means to recover it 7 The English Government has a greater objection to constitutional action than nnoonstitatioMl Daring the last few years the Imperial Parliament baa not shown an earnest desire to remove any Irish grievance; but It has shown a very earnest desire to remove the Irish people oat of their own homes and their own country. All the Irish people want of that Parliament is to let them alone. Liberals and Conservatives concede that a change must take place; bat this change Is not owing to either of these parties; it is owing entirely to the energetic action of the Homs Balers. Tfaess parties have persistently turned a deaf ear to all remonstrances, and would now, bat it is somewhat dangerous. Do they try to stop the wholesale evictions which canse “outrages” in Kerry? While Irishmen tried to encourage friends or convert enemies they received a deaf ear. If the State were in earnest the State would earnestly put down the armed rebellion which exists la Belfast. But who are the rebels 7 Are they not the pets of this Government which ws are called on to respect 7 And are they not the men who were called upon to rebel by an English Cabinet Minister? Of coarse they are. Throughout the whole of the southern provinces there is scarcely any crime except what is perpetrated by the laws of the Stats on a too patient people. Irishmen will respect law when it is made by themselves. I will (five you another specimen of outrage. The Dublin Express, the landlords* organ, is edited by a parson, the Bcv Dr Patton. This man is the correspondent and outrage-maker to the London limes. He telegraphed to the Times that a noble lord was foully murdered ; a few days afterwards it turned out that it was bis son; a few more days after snob a lord and such a son had never existed, and had never been murdered t 1

In conclusion, I thank yap for your kindly feeling, and trust that Englishmen will soon be better acquainted with the real facts of the ease—(we are revealing them); the* they will make short work of incendiary Cabinet Ministers and their rebellions pets. No man esteems the kindly feelings of Englishman more than An letshhah.