DUTY OF LOYAL IRISHMEN.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 925, 14 March 1868, Page 3

DUTY OF LOYAL IRISHMEN.

Mk. William Digby Seymour thus writes to the London Times on tlie above subject :— Sir, — You assigned me a liberal space in your columns when I recently addressed you in the capacity of counsel for Allen," Larkin, and Gould. I hope you will now allow room for this letter, which I write in the simple character of a loyal Irishman. I wish to make a suggestion which I would far rather had emanated from one more entitled than I am to claim the attention of my fellow-countrymen. In a crisis like the present, however, I hope I need not apologise for offering a word of advice, the sincerity of which can scarcely be called in question. I think the time has arrived when it becomes the solemn and paramount duty of loyal Irishmen of all persuasions, in London and the provinces, merging their individual differences, to declare by public meeting or formal address their unshaken devotion to the Throne and Constitution, and their unmitigated abhorrence of the Satanic atrocity which, perpetrated under the insulted name of Irish patriotism, has just sent a thrill of horror froih one part of the kingdom to the other. There are obvious reasons, I think, of a large and national character, in favor of such a movement ; but there are also considerations of a more practical and personal kind, which are worthy of grave and immediate attention. A panic is rapidly spreading which, unless checked in its earlier stage, must tend to produce calamitous results among the industrial orders of Irishmen resident in the various centres of trade and commerce in England. Let the notion once possess the public mind that among the humbler classes of my countrymen "Irish" and "Fenian" are convertible terms, and who can say how long the English artisan and laborer will consent to work side by side with men committed on the above assumption to a diabolical policy of secret treason and dastardly crime ? If ships are menaced with Fenian fire, how long will Irishmen be employed in our public clocks? If warehouses are in danger from explosive compounds, how long will Irishmen be allowed to labor in their precincts ? What, in a word, will be the prospects for the winter if thousands of Irishmen are driven from the English labor market under the ban of a national proscription ? These are no speculative questions, nor am I a fanciful alarmist. There are grounds, only too solid, for contemplating the possibility of such a catastrophe. It is not the professional man, whose social position is interlaced with various ties of home relations and private interests, _ who has anything to fear. The mischief will fall on those whose humbler lot exposes them to misrepresentations they cannot confute, and makes them responsible for guilt to which they are no parties. Sir, I believe the vast majority of my countrymen in London are at heart as loyal and as true as any men in her Majesty's dominions. I believe that the miscreants who planned the desperate outrage of Clerkenwell, if Irishmen by name or birth, are the miserable and misguided tools of foreign conspirators. If I am right, can the loyalty of my countrymen be too soon declared ! If I. ana wrong — quod Di prius omen averiant! — can the danger of the situation be too soon exposed ? When assassins are abroad, when " Greek fire " may menace the home, or a Colt's revolver the head, of a loyal citizen, some risk must attend those who take a prominent part in such a demonstration ; but the path of duty, if sometimes one of danger, is always one of honour, and I am confident there are thousands of gallant Irish hearts of every creed and class who are ready to respond to my invitation. The place, the time, and the form of holding such a meeting or preparing such an address as I have proposed I need not now pause to indicate ; but I have made the suggestion, and I am prepared for my share in its execution.