ST. PATRICK' DAY IN AUSTRALIA.

New Zealander, Volume 13, Issue 1156, 16 May 1857, Page 3

ST. PATRICK' DAY IN AUSTRALIA.

[A Melbourne correspondent signing himself " lerne," has asked us to publish the following report of the last anniversary of the patron-saint of Ireland, that the numerous sons of Hibemia who are settled in the Province of Auckland (in the prosperity of which " lerne" feels a deep interest) may see, that their brethren in Victoria, however much they may dif-ler in minor matters, do not lose their love for the old country, far distant as they may be from her.—Ed. N.Z.]

St. PATRICK'S DAY IN MELBOURNE. The annual convivial gathering of Irishmen in celebration of the memory of their patron Saint, took place at Mr. Clark's New Assembly Rooms in Elizabeth street. Although the weather was very unfavourable, about a hundred and ten persons displayed their patriotic attachment to this long established custom. The arrangements for the banquet were very liberal and obtained, as they deserved, the approbation of the company. The decorations of the room consisted of the usual banners, that above the Chairman showing a harp enclosed in shamrock with " Creed mille faille," and opposite a harp with " My own my Native Land!" There were, however, none of the garlands or festoons which used to grace the scene on former festivals; their absence, would however, be more than compensated by the presence of a number of ladies who occupied the gallery on entering, and appeared to take much interest in the patriotic appeals. In the opposite gallery was a brass baud whose music was lively and appropriate, but far too powerful, and at times almost defeating. Mr. John Davis presided, and was supported on the right by Mr. Deniehy, M. I'., and Mr. Robertson, M. I'. Mr. W. M' Curtayne, occupied the vicechair. After the more substantial portion of the repast had been done justice to, The Chairman rose adinidst loud cheering. He said he felt his incompetency for the important position they had assigned him, but as that festival had been got up under the auspices of the Australian Celtic Association, of which he was proud to be a member (loud cheers), he would do the best in his power to carry out the views of his fellow-members. He considered that one of the most important meetings of Irishmen at which he had ever attended (cheers). His countrymen did not seek for patronage, for place, or for power ; what they desired was simply to forward the interest of their native country in this foreign land (cheers) i and they could not find anything so calculated to advance the interest of Irishmen and their children here, than the Association under which that dinner had been got up (cheers). It was only by such societies that men could get to know one another, —to find out their minds and sentiments, and to be able to defend their mutual rights whenever a stand should be made against them. He would propose a toast which was drunk with enthusiasm in every British community—" The Queen." The toast was received with the usual loyal demonstrations. The chairman, in proposing the next toast, said there was not an Irishman present who would not heartily respond to it. The condition of idolatry and ignorance in which their forefathers were when their patron saint first visited them, and the happy results of his arrival, in the establishment of churches schools, colleges, monasteries, hospital, entitled the memory of that great man to be held in lasting respect. He would therefore give—" The memory of St. Patrick" The toast was drunk in silence. The Chairman then after a short speech proposed—" Father Land." The toast was drunk amidst warm manifestation of patriotic feeling. Mr. Jeremiah Moore responded. The toast of " Father Land," he said, came home to the heart of every-oue, no matter what his clime, his country, or his creed. Every good

man at all events, loved the land that gave him birth. (Cheers) :f we looked at that splendid nation, France, we should And that Frenchman loved their native land ; they would incur any privation, and forego their hopes of aggrandizement for the sake of la bella Franca. With Germans, too, the word " father land" had a magic spell, and had often driven them to deeds of desperation and bravery. On looking to our own island, where was the Englishman that did not love Eneland?

I —particularly if he recollected that she was called " Merrie ! England"; and though unfortunately, in later money-loving days, a large portion of the working classes had decried that name, she still retains it and long may she be proud of it. (Cheers.) And though it might seem strange to use the expression, he would say that were he an Englishman he would be proud of England, for though the Government of that country had inflicted many wrongs on her own children, and on his unfortunate country, —still he admired and loved the frank, manly character of the Englishman. (Cheers). Looking to Scotland where was the Scotchman who did not love Scotland ? The patriotism of Scotchmen was proverbial, and the remark of Mr. Fisher Murray, though intended for a reproach, was a fine tribute to their love of country, that "they loved truth less than they loved Scotland." And Irishmen, too, had reason to be proud of their country. (Cheeis.) It was well known tint at one time she sent out missonaries to convert other countries ; an evil day it was true had fallen upon her, but it

was no evidence of her inferiority that she was under bondage to another country. Still she was a noble country. Crimes were committed in other countries that were not known in Ire-

land; she enjoyed largely of the higher virtues, and history had produced finer examples of fidelity toone another than were displayed by Irishmen. He would point, in proof of this, to the large sums of money sent by Irish emigrants in America to their starv : ng lelatives at home. What sight could be more beatiful than that of one member of a family goingout toAmerica and hoarding his hard-earned savings knowing that his firs' five or ten pounds would go home to bring nut a sister or i brother ? (Cheers.) The Government of England would one day repent of the laws that had driven these people away. He would now speak of a far more important question—the posit ion of his countrymen here. He hoped they would conduct rhvmselves as became Irishmen, and that by the example they set to their fellow colonists they would remove in their own person the stigma which was endeavoured to be cast upon them

(Cheers.) He would say, he never had been insulted about his country or his creed in Australia ; he had always met with the greatest respect from his fellow-colonists, and he was very glad to express his belief, that nowhere in the world had Irish ren so much fair playasin this country. (Cheers.) Why should the\ not be an example to the world, to show that they desei ved theii liberty? If they were labouring under any political disability it was their own fault ; the power of removing it was in their own hands. (Cheers.) There were equal laws and equa; justice for all men ; and for God's sake, let them above al

things determinate to keep down the pseudo-aristocracy. (Cheeis.) There was a great privilege and a great work before them. He had great pleasure in responding to the toast. (Cheers.) The Chairman, in introducing the next toast, said, the subject affected every man and woman in the country. The love of the land of our adoption did not make us love our native country less, but there was a new generation springing up, the bone and sinew and strength of this country, and he hoped to see many of the n occupy as honorable a position as the gentle man on his right hand. (Cheers.) He would now propose—- " Australia, the Land of our Adoption." The toast was heartily received.

Mr. James Hart was called on to respond, and referred in the course of some brief observations to the unequalled climate and natural advantages of this continent, and to the rapid strides which it had made within the memory of man. Rome was not founded in a day, but they might say Australia wai founded in a day. They were the pilgrim Fathers and had to perform their duties; let them be but true to themselves, and their names might be hereafter pointed to as the founders of—- " A new Britannia in another world'' (Cheers.) The Chairman proposed, " The memory of Daniel O'Connell,'' remarking, he wassure the toast would be received with the respect and veneration which it deserved. (Cheers.) The toast was drunk in silence. The Chairman then proposed " The Patriots of Ireland.'' When he remembered he was speaking before a community of

Irishmen who had the history of their native country, he was sure they would respond to this toast with true feeling.

(Cheers.) The toast was drunk amidst loud acclamation. Mr. Deniehy, on rising to respond, was very enthusiastically cheered- He said—Mr Chairman and gentlemen—What terms of impassioned pathos shall I borrow to respond to your toast, " The patriots of Ireland ?" How shall I find adequate expression for every loved mournful image,—for the melancholy memories,—for noble and touching vindications of principle, even when the Right went down in the storm of battle—for the wrecks and the struggles upon which wait " the tears and praises of all time," that those words bring before me! But there is in the fact of your calling upon a native bom Australian to respond to this toast of " The Patriots of Ireland''—to the memory of those that are no more, and the health of those that survive,—blending with all that is so unspeakably affecting in the subject itself, something to cheer. There is a shaft of

light, piercing and warming the mournful cloud, that to speak of those who died and those who live and suffer for Ireland, brings about us. This commemoration, in this our newest world, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, and this testimony of mine, in terms too feeble to convey the sorrowing love—the impassioned admiration—with which I fain would freight them—from one who has but a right derived from descent, to speak of Ireland at all, does at least show this—that those sacred spirits of freedom and human right, at whose behest your illustrious countrymen rose, and in whose august presences they fell, even walk to this extreme end of the earth walk with Irishmen wherever they go,—abide not only where Irishmen, but where the descendants of Irishmen are met. (Great cheer-

ing,) It shows recognition of heroes who never knew the world's triumph— to whose glory, success and the victor's palm were wanting—these are everything doubtless in the world of fact, but in no shape deteriorate—in no form take away from the moral and spiritual greatness, —the will to have done, of the great spirits we drink to, to-night. It shows the sympathy of the men of England now sitting with ns for deep patriotic

devotion, —no matter how erroneous in its object, they may choose to thmk it. (Prolonged cheers.) Were this testification of love and honour for Ireland's patriots, purely an Irish matter,—even then the face of my buried Irish father, with the old household light, the glow of paternal affection upon it. would rise before me—the mournful notes of old Irish song 1 heard crooned in my childhood, would come with sad sweet remembrances about me, and even then, methinks, I should be hereto-night, helping to do honour to those who fought and thought and worked for Ireland. (Great cheers ) But I rejoice to think that honour to your patriots is far more than a purely national matter, and that 1 am here on far higher grounds. Your patriots are the world's property —(loud applause)—their virtues, their loyalty to principle—their love for their fellowmen, their sufferings for them—their faith in right and justice, are the heritage of the whole human race. (Cheers.) they are yours, but by sound spiritual laws, they ate mine also. (Cheers.) They belong to my distinguished English and Scottish friends who do us the honour of being present to-night, —aye, as fully as the stand for principle of Hampden and the long struggle for the independence of home of the Bruce of Bannockburn belong to us. (Hear, hear and cheering.) There is in the deeds of those men something to hearten us in our struggle for truth —something that challenges us beyond the narrow boundaries of self—something to raise, to consolidate, to justify our faith that this human nature of ours, when most sorely tried, is'not always found wanting,—that some principle of the grandeur which looks calmly in the face the mightiest sacrifices for fellow men, lies under this so frail nature. (Great cheers.) Ireland, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, you all know has been no niggardly contributor to the roll of the world's great men. In the higher political philosophy and in the subtle mysteries of the world of metaphysics, she has given two ot the greatest thinkers of any age,—her Berkely and her Burke. (Cheers.) To letters she gave two of the finest humourists in onr own or any literature —Goldsmith and Sterne. The region of oratory is her own ; in the darkest season of her miseries, when her material prosperity was most broken, the genius of the people vindicated itself:—in Ireland's eloquence and her music, stood two monuments of the power and grace of the national intellect —two living things for which time had no furrow, and tyrants no brand. (Loud cheers.) But though admiring intellect, and all the strength and loveliness around it, as much as any man, I chose to look from the spiritual side of our natures for the greatest men of a nation. On that principle gentlemen, 1 look on the men whom you commemorate to-night,—those apostles of freedom, those martyrs for justice to men—these confessors for the sake oi rights upon which the whole dignity of manhood is built as upon a basis —on those I say, I look as the greatest men of Ireland. (Immense cheers.) The name of Irish patriot is synonymous with that of Irish exile- (Cheers.) Did I wish to enter fully on this phase of the subject—were not the hour late, most remains of what is appropriate to the toast you have done me the honour—these are no idle words, gentlemen, I feel deeply what I say—the honour of responding to. (Hear, hear.) Ah! what images of ruined affection* and broken domestic peace—what images of darkness and desolation in all the sweet sacred places of human love, these words the patriots of Ireland suggest to me ! What engines of suffering more exquisite than the implements of a torture-chamber, their memories on foreign shores, of the land they risked all and lost, to serve. The old church-yard with

its ruins,—the wizard trees shadowed in autumnal waters—the gloom and the glory of the mountain gorges of Connemara—the multitudinous voices of waters in Ireland ever sounding—the forth, which silver-headed old age and golden-headed childhood alike agreed to people with fairies—" the good people"—how all these must have come back to torture the exile of Erin. But while we acknowledge and do reverence to their services to their country and their kind—their personal memories, the memories of the men themselves it is we honour to-night. (Loud cheers.) The gibbetted Emmest and the broken-hearted Wolfe Tone enrich with dust that should be Promethean fire for Irishmen (immense cheers) the graves of obscure churchyards for many a dreary year. Doherty is a wanderer; Meagher, alas ! what is he doing—he lectures at New York ; and Duffy, n.y illustrious friend —1 think I have a right to call Charles Gavan Duffy my friend (prolonged cheers), has left his own dear land, —his "rich and rare land," to touch to great and beneficent issues the national destinies of Australia. But may our right hands—the right hand of freemen, forget their cunning when we forget them. (Tremendous cheers.) In the hour when distrust is darkest, and scepticism in political truth steals most coldly on us, we shall think of the men of " ninety-eight" and the men of " forty-eight," and trust, and be comforted. (Cheers.) But most and fittest, we shall remember them in hours like this—in the hour of jubilation and universal mirth. Upon our festive enjoyment their memories shall come up in relief, not only more splendid but inefl'ably more pathetic, because of the surrounding pleasure. (Cheers.) To their memories for ever an Irish wine cup shall fill and flash. (Cheers.) They shall be remembered wherever, under circumstances of festal gaiety, the strong hearts of men feel every chord within them of the gentleness of bravery—of sorrow—«or forgiveness for long hereditary wrongs, touched, till unbidden tears wet manly cheeks; and wherever the eyes of woman yarn with lustrous pcpths of sympathy and tenderness which words have no power to tell, and for which music in her almost boundless domain affords no expression. (Cheers.) I thank you in the name of

ever y freeman—for every man who loves his country, it matters not where it may be, for the honour you have done " Thi Patriots of Ireland."— "Near all are gone, but still lives on The faith of those who died,— All true men, like you, men, Remember them with pride." Mr. Deniehy resumed his seat amidst loud applause. The Chairman next proposed " The Social and Political Regeneration of Ireland." I The toast was warmly received, and was responded to in an I animated speech by Mr. W. McCurtayne. The following toast—" The Bench, Bar, and other branches of the Legal Profession" was then given, and on being drunk, was acknowledged by Mr: W. G. Pennington in a few appropriate remarks on the high character and ability which the several branches of the legal profession in this country displayed, and on the promises which the native-born members of that profession gave of future excellence. " The Commercial, Agricultural, Mineral, and Pastoral interests of Australia,'' was next proposed and drunk, and suitably responded to by Mr. P. Hogan. The following toasts were successively drunk : —'* The Press," acknowledged by Mr. R. Flanagan ; " the Ladies," responded to by Mr. O. D. Maloney; and " the Stewards," acknowledged by Mr. Thomas O'Neill. The healths of Mr. Clark, the proprietor of the room, and of the Chairman, having been drunk and acknowledged, the convival party broke up, it being then about one o'clock.