The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1889.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 244, 14 October 1889, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1889.

For the omiM Gμ laeto- anlitante. Por t)t9 OTMg that needs reeietaat*, Tot the fata** in Uβ dletaete, And- the good that we oan io.

Another by-election*—that of Buckingham—has resulted favourably to Mr Gladstone, making the third contest lately in which the electors have demonstated that the current of English public opinion is turning against Conservative rule. What makes the Buck" ingham- election especially significant* is the fact that the seat was previously filled by a Conservative, who has been elevated to- the House of Peers, and Gaptr. E.H. Verney, R.N., a Gladstonian Liberal and Home Rulerj appealed to the same constituency at the- last election and was defeated. To. the selfdubbed colonial "Loyalists.•" it must be a very shocking, thing to hear, of a captain in the Royal Navy ranging himself upon of those terrible Separationisfcs. Wiiat, is the service, once the backbone of Toryism, coming to* forsooth? More dreadful to narrate still, Sir Henry, Loch, who on Saturday passed through Auckland en route for Victoria, the Governor elect of the Cape of Good Hope, holding his commission from the Queen, ; acting under the advice of Lord Salisbury himself, occupied a part of his recent brief sojourn at Home in atending Mt Gladstone during!, his 1 last political earapaigp., What do the ramping colonial Tories say to all. this ? Can the-Empire hold together when such things be?' Or- is= the explanation to be- found in the feet, that colonial Jingoism has become fossilised,, and lags a long way behindeven the Liberalism, of Mr Balfour?

Anyone who. reads, csrefoHy the reports of the splendid reception accorded 1 to Mr Parneli in Aula Reekie, will scarcely doubt that the latter sup? position, contain? the true explanation; Even Mr Balifour has beea driven before the advancing tide,- andi has made a big bid for Irish- support in his Catholic University Bill and his- other proposals with regard; to denominational education in. Ireland , . By the Saw Praneisco. mail.to-drty- we have received the details of these jproposals. The " Irish Catholic," which [publishes a forecast of Mr Balfour's ;bill for the establisbtaent of a Catholic university; in Ireland,, states :<— : Thi Royal University will not be abol'ishedf, because it is required for nonconformists and others unable to avail themselves of the advantogee afforded by Trinity College, bftfc theeetabfisbnaent willbelargely reduced. With a view to the conciliation of Ulsfcej-itJleQHeeo'ff College a,t Belfast will be maintained and be empowered to degrees-. The antmtU earing from the. extinction of the Queen'? College at Cork and the Queen-'e. College aft Galway, combined with- the saving from retrenchment at th& Eoyal XJmversity f ia expected partially te-meefr the coafe of fe&Q epdawmenb of the new university.

c4«S6 jlr was comaifeted agahntt anf guea rteasiiro in

1868, when Lord Mayo, on behalf of Mr Disraeli's Government, submitted a proposal of this kind. It is also well known that the English Nonconformists, who form the backbone of the Liberal party, would never concede the de* mand of the Irish bishops for absolute control of a university endowed by imperial funds, although they would have no objection to allowing Ireland to .sfittle the. question for itself under a Home Rule Parliament. Nevertheless, Mr Sexton, Mr Parnell, and other Irish members, hailed Mr Balfour's promise joyfully on the ground that they had never repudiated the doctrine of opportunism in Irish affairs, and would take all they could get out of a Tory Government. The London " Tablet" also calls attention to the fact that under Mr Gladstone's Home Rule Bill the Irish Parliament would not have been able to do what Mr Balfour has promised to accomplish, becaps.e Mr Gladstone expressly provided that the endowment of religion and religious bodies of all sects should be beyond its powers. Therefore, the "Tablet" thanks Mr Balfour for the "bold, generous, and statesmanlike way in which he has faced .the problem which has baffled so many in the past," and assures him of its pordial support.

Mr Davitt, on the other, hand has warmly assailed Mr Parnell for listening to the scheme for a moment. He says : —

The hapd which has recently (been charged by Irish members with the murder of Donegal prisoners in the Londonderry Gaol, and that again turns the key of a prison on William O'Brien, is grasped with enthusiasm amidst a hullabaloo of congratulations when it offers an endowed Catholic university to the Church whose priests Balfour has wantonly insulted. I confess this is somewhat amazing to me. Ib seems that the entire position taken up in the programme of the single plank of Home Rule in 1886 is abandoned, and we are again bargaining with two English parties as to which will peddle ua the most concessions for pur votes.

This abandonment of the single-plank position of Home Rule for a mess of Catholic university pottage is, together with the vote on royal grants, a sorry exhibition of Parliamentary opportunism. Little surprise will be caused if the democracy of Great Britain, who have helped us convert the Liberal party toHomeßuleprinciplee, should turn their whole attention now to pressing social reforms affecting their own material welfare, and leave us to carry out our peddling policy with the Tories under the more potenb auspices of the Sacred College of the Propaganda. This policy landed the cause of Home Rule in a bog hole in 1885, when the Tory ignis fatuus enticed Land League votes into the landlord ballot-boxes, and ib will be a matter for agreeable surprise if a repetition of the fatal mistake which gave power to the landlord Government in 1886 will not destroy all hope of winning Home Rule ab the next general election.

Mr Davibfc goes on to argue that the English Radicals will certainly do that. The question was eminently one to wait) for a Home Rule Parliament. This scheme is regarded in a double light. First, as the price the Salisbury Government is ready to pay for the papal rescript against boycotting which was obtained some time ago, and, second, as an easy moans of sowing dissension and discord in the Home Rule party.

Mr Sullivan's paper, the " Irish Catholic," publishes a' reply to this onslaught in which it attacks Davitt's statement that the Irish leaders are taking a fatal course in helping Mr BalLur to drag the university red herring across the course of Home Rule. It declares that Mr Parnell would have assumed a very serious responsibility if he had denounced Mr Balfour for admitting that there was an Irish grievance and for promising to remedy it.

The bone thus cleverly thrown promised for a time to produce considerable disorder among the Home Rule ranks, only that it began to leak out that the Cabinet were not agreed upon the University scheme among themselves, and a substantial section of the Government party were opposed to it. Earnest appeals, moreover, were addressed to Mr Paxnell, echoing the spirit of Mr Davitt's manifesto. One of the most stirring of these was. from Monsignor Bernard O'Reilly, a& eminent American' prelate, in which he states:

1b is plain from Mr Balfour's remarks that the Government ha.ye made up their minds to do away with all the regulations in the National school system against which the Catholics of Ireland have so long protested, such as the prohibition to recitaCatholic prayers,, to teach the Catholic catechism, or to display Catholic emblems of devotion even in schools where only one Protestant pupil was in attendance. This is a move in the right direction. It is great strategy in the Tory Govern-, ment, but it behovee the Irish Parliamentary party as well aa the religious guides,of the Irish people see to it that this promised measure, unspeakably importantae it is, does not have for its immediate effect the, farther breaking up of the party under Gladstone, the creating, of dissensions between. Darnell himself and his ''followers* the strengthening of the Tory majority in the Legislature, and, theee results once obtained, the giving to the Catholics of Ireland of an education Bill differing aa little as possible from the various educational schemes tried in Ireland since 1831.

i O'Connell, or rather his numerous land needy following, were deluded by •Whig promises of concessions and instalments of justice to the long - op>pressed; Catholice, and for these a repeal was practically given up. At this moment, just as; the British PariMament) is , closings its labours and Ireland is left under the pitiless heel of Arthur ißalfour, of that" sanguinary juggernaut the! llrieh' judiciary and magistracy, and of their farmed thousande of constabulary and soldiery, what is the delusive hope held out ;to the religious and political guides of the Irish people? That Irish hierarchy and clergy are to be bought off by the promise of a- legislative schemeVof national education, in accordance with the just claims and" religious principles of Catholice. I would say to the Irish arohbishops and bishops, if I had the honour of addressing that venerable body, as I now say to Mr Parnell and hid noble band of followers,, for, the dear love of God and country, pauseere you accept the promise of men who never yet yielded anymeasure of justice tolreland, save through tear and compulsion, and who never offered-your country gifts but.for the purpose' of dividing and , deceiving , it. Standby the great Liberal leader who is pledged with bis followers to r,estior.e. your native" Parliament. Believe; me, thalr a Cathqlfo university for Ireland with atf equitable appor&ioniaenfc of public.money betweenthesphools of every religious denomination in Ireland, is like other vital measures. b£poli&cet«ee«omy— a thing to bo,expeQ,l;ed: from. Iriah ParKsmeiili. Too are, .to he. add fatally dftided by thiff tostalment

system. Forgetful of all experience and memorable lessons of past years, don't turn aside for any other purpose or be fooled by any other boon or bribe or concession until you have wrung from the Legislature of Great Britain an all-sufficient measure of restitution and reparation. This is the only measure ef justice which. Irishmen should ash for, strive for, and labour formal} together, The instalments which the Government are again offering will surely,. if not spurned by the nation,, he the ruin of the Parliamentary party and the destruction of all the hopes so fondly cherished by Irishmen and friends of Irishmen. I write this under the invincible conviction that a crisis has arrived in Irish affairs which ib will task to the utmost the sagacity, generosity and patriotism of the guides of the Irish people to deal with successfully. No, it is njpb from an Imperial Parliament, assembled at Westminster, that the Catholics of Ireland, should accepb a, charter for a Catholic university, but frqm their own representatives assembled in College Green.