RUSSIA AND IRELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1206, 26 September 1867, Page 5

RUSSIA AND IRELAND.

The fol l owing paragraph from the Pall Mall Gazette appears to afford a clue to the canard received from New York via Panama. The Allgemeine Zeilung, of Augsburg, publishes a startling bit of news—that Russia has proposed to France and America an intervention in the " Irish question!" The despatch containing this astounding intelligence is given in full in the AJlgcmenie, and purports to be a communication addressed by Prince Gortchakoff to the Russian ambassador in London, and dated the 22ud of May, immediately after the settlement of the Luxemburg difficulty at the London conference. This curious document begins by expressing tlie satisfaction of the Eussian Government at the successful result of the conferencc, and its belief that similar means might be adopted " for drying up the sources of general danger which lie in certain conflicts that at first appear to only disturb the internal peace of soni" .European states, but on a closer view ( are seen to contain elements which arc threatening to all of them." The "Irish question" is then quoted as one of these conflicts. This question is not, it is true, a European one, but no more was tlie Polish question which was " created " some years ago, when " the Governments of France and England got up a diplomatic coalition against us, the object of which, was to intervene in the so-called question under the plausible pretext of treaties, but in reality in the name of suffering humanity, an oppressed nationality and a persecuted religion." Kussia accepted an international examination of the events in the kingdom of Poland; " foreign Cabinets became convinced of the paternal designs of our Sovereign towards all his subjects without distinction of race or faith and the " so-called Polish question has disappeared, Poland displaying to .Europe the spectacle of tlie most perfect quiet and harmony between the rulers and the ruled." Now the " Irish question" is not like the Polish, a sham question ; it has existed for centuries, and the real sufferings of Ireland are as groat as the alleged grievances of Poland. "it is now nearly two years that the constitutional guarntees of which the British nation is so proud have ceased to exist for tho Irish people. Insurrections follow each other and are crushed with difficulty 15y overwhelming military power, and notwithstanding tlie most unscrupulous application of the severest measures of repression, Ireland has been abandoned to terrorism, indignation swells in Irish hearts, and the sentences of death daily pronounced by English Courts of Justice are accepted by a heroic people that does not fear death with defiance and scorn . .

. . . . Lord Russell formerly laid down the principle that the basis of every Government is the confidence it inspires in those it governs, and that the predominance of law over arbitrariness should be the foundation of every political system. But are these principles to which we subscribe, the basis of English authority in Ireland, and do we not rather see there in practice that arbitrariness which, is in such strong opposition to the far-famed liberties of the British regime ?" An " examination by the powers "is next proposed of the following points:—(l) The Irish Church; (2) " the oppression of a Celtic race for the advantage of a Saxon oligarchy (3) the tenure of land; and. (4) emigration ; and the despatch concluded by stating that similar communications have been addressed to the Russian ambassadors in Paris and Washington, with the object of " eliciting an exchange of ideas on the condition of Ireland from the French and American Governments."