MR ELLIS IN REPLY.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7418, 9 December 1889, Page 3

MR ELLIS IN REPLY.

TO THK KDITOB OF TBS FBBBS. Sib, —"Canadian"has another effusion on the Irish question in yesterday's Press that does him as little credit as his former ones have done, and which he calls a reply to my letter of 23rd ult, Let mc point oat a few errors in bis production. I do not cherish the idea that he was raised a pet. 1 doubt if he be raised at all as yet* " Canadian". is some halfexowa schoolboy or else one who has been preserved from contaminating contact with the world daring the process of "raising," for he is still in a state of innocence. Pray observe the guileless* ness of this "Canadian" as he strives to find oat what the word "geni-ass" means. The dear little fellow fancies I meant "genius," bat takes mc for an Irishman, and imagines that I spelled it incorrectly or gave the Irish version. I'm sorry, Tommy, bat Fm afraid that you must go down to the bottom of the class

this time beeontees with a "spud* instead of that beautiful" ban. The ■word "Rsnla«t" doesn't mean "genius" at all, aiad it yon w,ere a man Instead of an inexperienced child you would have known that. Why, bless you, there waa no Intellectual talent in turning " the string of abbreviations ,, into what you made of them. Not a bit It was down* right foolery. You were also astray when you made an Irishman of mc. I can under* stand now the reference to the saddle and potatoes in your last letter, which wu foggy before. The nearest I ever got to Ireland or anything like it was in paytnq a vtalt to Bungaree (Victoria) to see C. E. Jones*" Savages." The only time I ever saw a roaring, whistling, dying, groaning, mistaken mob was at a Ballarat Ssee election, when Mr Dan Brophy was de* feated, and the Irishmen, whom Jones called "savages," were filled with their candidate's whisky. " Canadian " would be prouder than be is were he born in Ireland. How cruel nature h&s been to us both. I have been informed that the Irish get behind hedge* to shoot folks, and if " Canadian " watn't born " in the bogs, there is evidently Irwh blood in him somewhere. How per* sistently he keeps behind the hedire of his norn deplume instead of answering to my challenge and coming forth like a man. I remember a similar instance in which some one got into the correspondence columns of a respectable journal signing himself "Catholicus," and when the cloak was torn off and his identity discovered it disclosed a Roman Catholic priest. What a misfortune if I have been offering a " spud" to his reverence ! If " Canadian" be a clergyman I also am one (heretical o( course.) if he doesn't wear the clerical i curb I frequently appear unclerlcal. Iv I any case I fancy myself Ot to meet htm, I and am also willing enough, but I steadfastly refuse to take further notice of hit ! effusions unless he "puts his name down." I 1 am jU3t as eager "to come to the question proper" as ho is. Just let mc have q few words. When I read " CanadianV* statement "that the loaders of Irleh thought had declared thut the proposed j Irish Parliament would bear the eaout re* lationship to the Parliament at W«*t« minster that the Legislature and Senate Of every American State bear to the heAd authority at Washington, I wan reminded of the wicked little hoy who said that he saw Ananias struck dead for teilll& lies. Why, sir, it is well known that Mr Parnell speaking at Cincinnati in 1883 said:—•• When we have uadermined English misgovernment .we have paved the way for Ireland to take has place amongst the nations of the earth. And let us not forgot that that la the ultimate goal at which all we Irishmen aim. None of us—whether we be in America or Ireland or wherever we may be—will be satisfied until we have destroyed the last link which keeps Ire* iand oound to England." Would Paraftll talk like that here in New Zealand! No sir ! his speeches, like Mr Dillon's, would be " brimful of submission to the Imperial Parliament."

Wβ all remember what a good youfifl man Mr Redmond was when he visited the Australian Colonies some years &R6 on a mission similar to Mr Dillon's present one. Landing in loyal Australia he had $0 curb his Irish enthusiasm and speak like a rational truth-loving person, but apod returning to Britain he broke out afresh. At Newcaatle-upon-Tyne—a city with .A large Irish population—he said, "I WMf t perhaps, be accused of talking disloyal!; in stating openly that the Irish peopletaVe antagonistic to English aims but I prefet to tell the truth though the task be treason." Would he have talked like that in Australia? Would he have told Uβ as he told the Irish people in that English oily that at every meeting in Ireland during the war in the Soudan, the Irish peopl« showed their loyalty to England by cheering the Mahdl to the echo? No, Sir, ne was frightened. Wβ Australians might have sent a contingent of soldiers to Ireland to teach them loyalty. "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart." : "Canadian" asks, "Didn't Mr ParneU declare that the Irish people were content to have a Parliament wholly subordinate to the Imperial Parliament?" Aye, and 1 didn't Mr ParneU confess that he mad* • statement in the House of Commons wStb I the deliberate intention to mislead ? . ■

Let rae quote another good young man, Mr Esmonde said on Monday, "No matte? whether the English Parliament wee pro* pared to do justice to Ireland, and govern Irishmen even better than Irishmen themselves could do it, he as an Irishman would not be prepared to he satisfied/ This man showed his loyalty to Enjdafid and submission to the Imperial FarUa* raent by saying that bad laws made by &n Irishman were better than good latre made by an Englishman, but he didn't say that until the collection had been made..

The mild spoken Mr Dillon, who charmed Mr W. P. Reeves with his " moderation and self-control," was more shrewd. Afraid to call the English " an alien race" i n English Canterbury, he utters the wofda, but artistically turns it off upon Mr Chamberlain. He certainly owes that gentleman a life-long obligation for affording him an opportunity to express his feelings towards the hated English without offending any sympathisers, or endangering his reputation for moderation* Ita afraid I've been somewhat lengthy. &&d will conclude and wait for "Canssia©"

to play the man.—Yours, &c, ; ; . John G. W. Erne, Kimberley, December 3rd, 18S9. ..