The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1868.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 77, 1 April 1868, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1868.

What is Fcnianism likely to coma to ? This is a question that has frequently been asked within the last few days, and to which hardly any oue will ft^el inclined to hazard a reply. No one cnu deny that it is one of the most mysterious conspiracies ever organised, aud each successive event which reveals itself to our knowledge makes it, if possible, more complicated. One thing, however, is certain, that the Feuiana have at least been successful iu one respect, that they have entirely ruined the cause they desired to advance. It is to th ; s wo desire especially to refer. We have ever acknowledged the necessity of ; doiug justice to the Irish people, and have always felt the most sincere sympathy for them in their great wrongs. Knowing the demoralising effect which a lengthened career of systematic persecution is likely to exercise upou a people, we have not beeu wanting in making due allowance for the unaccountable follies, to call them by the mildest term, which sometimes throw a dark shade over the Irish character. The Irish people have long since lost all faith in Parliamentary action. They do not believe in the existence of such a thing as political honesty. It may therefore be easily understood why it is that they have recourse to such lawless aud chimerical means of obtaining redress. It is difficult, however, to bring ourselves to believe that a people of such natural intelligence — of sucli shrewdness in detecting those who try to impose upon them — should still consider it possible, after all the trickery, cowardice, and chicanery on the part of their leaders, to obtain the redress of their grievances through the Irisa-Americau knaves who are in reality entrusted with the command of the Feniau movement. There are certainly no determined bounds to Irish susceptibility and credulity, else they would never persist in identifying themselves sviLh a set of miserable swindlers, and unpriucipled scoundrels who have nothing but their own personal aggrandizement at heart. Have they not examples enough before their eyes to conviuce them that they have been betrayed by men more trusted than any now belonging to the organisation ? Stephens was once the idol of the Fenian dupes. But where is Stephens now ? Living iu a country villa in the South of France, upon the cash he succeeded in taking trom the pockets of 1113 houcst but too gullible countrymen. And such are the other knaves, who, under the garb of patriotism, are making out a livelihood by a mean, crimiual, and mercenary imposition upon the generosity and credulity of their less experienced and less intelligent countrymen, and, what is still worse, by exciting them to deeds of violeuce which humanity must abhor, have almost succeeded in rendering the very name of Ireland and its w^rrn-hearted people 'abyeword among the nations.' The Irish servant maids in America acted rightly in protesting against the unscrupulous appropriations of their hard earnings to the sumptuous maintenance of the Fenian leaders. And for what end? To free Ireland ! Can any sane man seriously believe that such adventurers as . those who caused the riots at Manchester and Belfast, are able to destroy constituted

! authority iu Ireland? On the contrary, does it not strike every one who is not utterly blinded by prejudice, that such inea are the greatest enemies to the country they are supposed to serve ? They have unquestionably been instrumental in doing the most incalculable injury to the cause of Ireiand. The Clerkenwell affair, by which the lives of so many innocent persons were sacrificed, and the late attempt on the life of the Queen's son must, it is only too plain, have a most injurious effect upon the development of popular feeling throughout the civilized world iu behalf of j Ireland. A feeling of sincere interest in Ireland was fast gaining ground in liberal J minds throughout the British Empire, and it is not unreasonable to conclude that the disendowment of the Establishment, the settlement of the land question, and the introduction of the system of denominational education would have been.accomplished before the end of the present session of the Imperial Parliament. Was it wise or politic to check the growth of public opiuion in their favor by such mad and desperate acts as those which have lately cast such odium upon the cause ? • Perhaps we could hardly more appropriately conclude this article thau by quoting the following remarks from the London Examiner : — Feniiinism is utterly foolish in ail its forms, but we have; hitherto believed, and still believe, that there «re more dupes than rogues, and that the rogues are chiefly sharpers who make the flock of their own dupes their prey. Together with the better sort of those who have mistaken the road to the well-being of Ireland, we think that many of the dupes wiil have wisdom enough to retrace their steps, when they see men in their trout in company with dastardly assassins.