The New zealand Herald AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1868.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1313, 31 January 1868, Page 2

The New zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1868.

SPECTEMUR AGEHDO. " Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice : Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all,—To thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

England seems at the present time to be in a most peculiar position. It is -worth while pausing a little in our Colonial and Provincial disputes, and to cast our eyes over the state of the mother country. Society there is more agitated at the present moment with different questions, each of vast importance, than it has been for a very considerable time. The cords which have hitherto bound the body politic together seem to have been generally loosened. The Eeform Bill agitation of last year was remarkable from the audacity of some of its leaders and the masses who followed them, who tore down Hyde Park railings, and virtually defied the Government. This in itself would not be a matter of very much consequence, did not other results show that the same spirit of impatience of control was evidenced on other occasions. The conduct of the Fenian deputationists in forcing their way into the Home Office, ond holding a meeting there, and making exciting speeehes condemnatory of the Government, is another instance of this lawless spirit. Then, again, there are other serious displays of power for evil, such as those trades' unions whose members determined to maim or bill their fellow-work-men who dared to act in opposition to the unions. This is not a feeling of the working class against the capitalist class, of democ- | racy against an aristocracy, of poverty which incites to bread riots, but a combination of working men against working men, and a fierce and eold-blooded determination to brook no opposition of the demands which trades' unions may make. If financial and commercial matters are looked at, we see the same disorganization and an utter want of confidence existing, and instances of gigantic frauds committed by men occupying high positions in society. Financial companies witli supposed large capital have been proved to be mere bubbles, collapsing under pressure, and spreading ruin and distrust. Railway peculation and mismanagement have made sad havoc with many a company in which ie deposited the savings of thousands of people. The want of confidence generally is so great that money is a complete drug. People prefer having it lying idle to entrusting it for use iu the usual way, and heacc for real hona \ fide purposes ib can be had for less than tv?o j per cent. Investors now turn their eyes to colonial securities, and prefer them, feeling that confidence in their safety which they no | longer feel in the usual channels for invest- j ment at home. Were this great cheapness of' money merely a temporary state of the market, lasting a week or two, it would not be so significant, but it has lasted for months, and it thus conclusively proves to what an extent confidence has been shaken. The necessary corollary to this state of things is less work, less wages paid to the bulk of the people, and, therefore, less general prosperity. It is not merely that holders of capital are losing their accustomed interest for their money, but also that the general industry of the country loses the use of that money, loses the profits which could be made by its occupation in trade and commerce. The Fenian conspiracy is another great and serious fact. Discontent in Ireland is no new tiling. Excitement and agitation there is no now thing, but there seems to be something quite new about Fenianisin. Among their leaders are found no such men as Emmet, O'Cor.nell, or Smith O'Brien. The gentry of Ireland, of all classes and

creeds, keep aloof from and denounce - Fenianism. The- Eoman Catholic Bishops and clergy denounce it, and tell their flocks - the crime of belonging to such secret societies. But yet, notwithstanding this ab- - sence of leaders among the gentry, and the warnings of the clergy, Fenianism has taken hold of the mind and the imagination of numbers of Irishmen, although Irishmen of position and of the dominant religion in Ireland, have pointed out the vast power of England to quell insurrection. There is evidently a wide-spread Fenian organization, in England herself. A perusal of the most influential English journals would suggest the notion that the ultra-radicalelement in, the English population sympathise with the Fenian movement, and if this be so, the strength of the English social edifice will be tested severely, sooner, perhaps, than may be anticipated. Irish-Ameri-cans are, however, undoubtedly the ■ great concoctors of the scheme, and the prime leaders. In all the larger towns of England there is a large Irish population, belonging, for the most part, to the lower classes, the very classes that are most easily impressed with Fenianism. Here, then, is material for keeping England in a constant state of alarm, and the rescue and escape of Kelly and Deasy speak volumes for the determination and union of Fenians. By the Panama mail we learn that England was in a state of distraction. Fenians had threatened reprisals if those convicted of murdering the constable Brett were executed. And it appears that these were not idle threats, for Clerkenwell jail in London has been blown up with gunpowder, the work it is believed of Fenians. Manchester has been kept as though in a state of siege, and Liverpool is threatened with destruction by fire. The press has added to the excitement, and if this state of things continues, there is very great danger of what will yirtually be a war of races being inaugurated —the Irish Fenians on the one hand destroying public property as much as possible, and on the other a demand for the speedy expatriation from England of every known Fenian or Fenian sympathiser. The wealth of England, in her docks, her warehouses, factories, workshops, stores, and shops, is enormous. Fear may run away with the reason of the people, and things may be done in anger and under the influence of terror which may be most disastrous ■ in their results. Whether the Fenians may proceed to execute their threats or not, it is quite clear that England, which, with the exception of occasional disturbances easily put down, has had no internal commotion for two hundred years, will not sit easily and quietly by while the Fenians from the Sister Isle and America promote dissension and defy the law. Fenianism is fed, not so much by the suffering of any present wrongs under which Ireland labors, as by a desire to revenge past wrongs. It is nourished by a sentiment, and it is all the more dangerous on that ground. Its demands are not for reform either in Church or State, it demands separation from England, and Ireland would no sooner be separated from England than she would be torn to pieces by internal' factions, and she must of necessity be taken either by England or France. England would fight to her last man - and last shilling before she would submit to a French occupation of Ireland, for that would mean, persevering attempts made for a French occupation of England. The prospects are by no means pleasing, but it is to be hoped that for the sake of both England and Ireland the present ferment may cease, and that an honest determination will be made to remove every evil' which a Government can remove from Ireland.