HOME RULE AND ROME.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 304, 20 December 1912, Page 2

HOME RULE AND ROME.

■ ■ n (To the Editor.) t Sir, —If there is one thing more ob n jectionable than any other in letters 01 * Empire subjects, and for which you ver; 13 graciously give space, it is those com f municationi" culled from rabid partisai 1 journals, and used a3 " unbiassed opin •s ions." Of such appears your correspond t~ ent "J. G." who writes under the ver; c appropriate and inseparable headline o 1. " Home Rule and Rome." As a Pro n testant I see no reason why Ulster d which has ever fought the good fight fo: o England and the Protestant cause .1 should be compelled to place herself c willy nilly, in the hands of a people dif v fering in religion, and to a great exteni; in nationality. As an Imperialist I agaii r fail to see reason in risking internal dis t, ruption and Empire separation for wha' is largely a matter of sentiment, ant 0 which would long ago havo died a natu c ral death but for agitatoTS, who, havin{ . left the country, tsir up strife from t „ distance under some sentimental or yin dictive feeling inherited from theii grandfathers, and who would not returj to Ireland if their incomes were increasec _ to do so. . Prom a geographical point, Irelam must be in the hands of the Imperia authorities. Some thirty-six times ir 1 history has Ireland been used as a bast of attack against England. The grea struggles for liberty under the Stuarts were assisted and nearly wrecked b; c French and Irish troops using Ireland a c a base, and the chastisements of Essex * Cromwell, and William of Orange * though severe, were necessary in the " light of the events and manner of the 5 age. * Of late years the English taxpayer has ■ poured out money to a land that seems 1 incapable of gratitude, and if Home Rule . is granted, the payments .will for man; >' years have to be increased. It is not it '■ the keeping of the rule of the Catholic 1 Church to stand by and not to take a - hand, as " J. G." somewhat naively puts s it. Irishmen have always taken their ) politics from the parish priest, not but t what they, as a body, are kindly earnest i men, but they have the Church steadily 3 in view, and all their adherents place i the wishes of the Church firat. It is f true, there are, as "J. G." states, "no i inquisitions, no rivers of blood." Th( i Church has spen the folly of this suicidal . policy, but it never forgets and never ! ceases to strive and plot. More thar . half a century ago I remember looking out of the window of an English farmI house, watching the " Irish invasion ' r taking up its quarters in the barn opposite. They came to reap the harvests of England. There was a bit cf reaJ j Limerick for the mistress, and a bottle , of potheen for the master. An advance was demanded, and it bit of a spree re- ' stilted. In the morning some half-dozei. T men had to be bailed out of the village f lock-up, and work began, was fin- ' ished, and the invasion moved on. Witt , the coming of free trade in corn, the advent of the Teaper machine, of dearth and sickness at home, those hardy rougl " peasants spread throughout the Britishspeaking countries and colonies. What is the condition of their children to-day! j Removed from the surroundings of theii parishes, rubbing shoulders with their j fellow men, freed from want and superstition, they are to-day the best and brightest of our colonists. Xo Home 1 Rule has done this; just the same laws ' just the same old Flag, but better means 1 of education, and better opportunities ; for advancement. The greatest blessing that can be conferred on the labourer of Ireland, Eng- : land or Scotland is to get him out' of it, and leave elbow room for others. Had ■ the money squandered on Home Rule agitation been used to enconrage emiTation, we aud they would be the better. ■ —I am, etc, j. v. (To the Editor.) Sir, —Having lived in both the North and South of Ireland, I fully concur with the opinion of your correspondent "I G." that there is more and far more tolerance among the Irish Catholics than in Protestant Ulster. The bigotry of the Ulster Orangemen is so rabid that it repels anyone accustomed to reasoning in a rational, moderate way. It is at times so fierce that it really looks like a sort of mania or obsession, and makes | one thankful that it is confined to so I small an area as about the half of lister. Ulster returns thirty three members, and of those at present sitting 17 are Unionists and 16 Nationalists. Speaking recently at Reading upon the fear of Catholic intolerance, Sir Rufus Isaacs said:—" They had recognised from the first that the best safeguards against oppression were those which rested in the minds, the spirit and the heart of the people. They recognised, from the j tradition and history of the Catholics in I Ireland, that there was no danger of j religious oppression, and, moreover, I those who were well able to judge (he ! had in mind at least four Tory Chief j Secretaries of Ireland) had never said that there would be religious intolerance lin Ireland if Home Rule were granted I What Mr. Walter Long had said was j worth quoting. It was the testimonial ! not from the Libera] camp, not from one who had not had experience, but one who held a deservedly high and distinguished portion in the _ry party, and who held office of Chief Secretary of Iroland j during the lant Tory administraiiion. He isaid: 'Mr. Redmond complains that we talk about religious differences in Ireland, and that we believe the Catholic majority would trample upon the Protestant minority. That is an argument to which i have never attached importance. I know Ireland well, and I have a great many relatives in Ireland and friends, both Protestant and Catholic. I believe that in this and in any other country religious difficulties will always be settled by the general common sense lof the people.' That sentiment did credit to Mr. Long, and absolutely refuted the wild statements that had been made again and again on the platform during the past fortnight. Professor Lecky, the great Unionist historian, said: 'Religious cries have been sometimes raised, religious enthusiasm has been appealed to in the agOny of a struggle, but the real causes have usually been the conflicts of races and classes, the struggle of a nationality against annihilation. Amongst the Catholics, at any rate, religious intolerance has never been a prevailing vice, and those who have studied closely the nature and character of the Irish people can hardly fail to be struck with the respect for sincere religion in every form which they have honestly evinced.' " —I am, etc., AN IRISH PROTESTANT.