THE IRISH MONOMANIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1361, 27 March 1868, Page 3

THE IRISH MONOMANIA.

The following powerful article appears in the Anglo-American Times. It will be seen that this journal does not flatter England, but, at the same time, gives forth matter for consideration. It says : — Last Saturday the Dublin -Nation, Irishman, and Weekly News, bordered with black, came out with articles appealing to the passions of the Irish on the execution of the patriots at Manchester. Of these the most characteristic and forcible was the Nation's " Gone with a Vengeance," In it, with considerable literary ability, free expression is given to a hatred and malice carried to the verge of fanaticism. The English Government is denounced as framing and executing laws in aid of a detestable tyranny; the people as hypocrites and liars ; the Press a disgrace to a Christian land, and all, including Judge and jury, described as alike reeking and hissing with a fiery spirit of revenge. The glaring contradiction given to its diatribe by the impunity of its circulation will strike others — though perhaps not the writer. The spirit manifested more concerns the English than such insane denunciations which those who have inquired dispassionately know to be untrue. Recognising the animus, the real object is to ascertain the cause, and, if possible, the remedy. If ever a strong instance

has been given of the sins of the fathers being visited on tho children, it is supplied in this case. Cromwell and William 111. were great statesmen, yet they made the most fearful and irreparable blunders ever committed by English rulers. The injuries they wore mainly instrumental in inflicting on Great Britain by the courso taken towards Ireland is the root of the present evil. That tbey represented the policy of ' tho period, to crush out of existence the Celtic race, makes the nation an accomplice in the crime, and is a reason why the retribution should be borne patiently. In those days of wholesale spoliation, when the appeal of the Irish proprietor was answered by the brutal exclamation —" To —or Connaught," the seeds of tho bitter fruit were sown. Contemplating that period we are constrained to admit that, great as is tho punishment, it is not undeserved. The life of a nation extends over centuries —of an individual over decade, and both reap what they sow ; but it is the misfortune of national crimes that the inheritance ofwoe descends to far-offgenerations. When the bleak liill-sides and bare rocks of mist-covered Connaught were thronged with the dispossessed fugitives—when the exiles were crowded in Cork, bidding an eternal farewell to their native land—it is strange that no statesmen foresaw the fatal effects of a policy so cruel and injudicious. In overy nation of Europe, Irishmen rose to fame; and in every council where an Irishman sat, there was a bitter enemy of England. The Jacobite plots dorived vitality from his undying animosity, and beneath every standard borne against England the foremost soldier was a Celt. Great, however, as has been the injury thus inflicted on British interests in the Old World, it is trilling compared with that wrought in the New. The persecuted Puritan who founded the New England Settlements has been swamped by the people who owo to their fierce animosity tho worst measures of legislation which have alienated the race. In proportion to the growth of tlie United States in population, the numbers of those increased whoso strongest sentiment was a hatred to everything English, handed down as an lieir-loom from father to son till it passed into tho hearts of generations who know Ireland but as a name, and its history but as the tale of a distant country. So it came to pass that men enjoying an unequalled material prosperity —with an unbounded liberty —have cherished as an inheritance this passion, and sacrificed much to gratify an animosity against those of whom they know nothing except what books and tradition have told them. And thus, too, it happened that a party grew in the United States resisting external influences, till they became in the nation but not of it, having objects and aspirations not American, but Irish. To them the strength of the Great Republic was a matter of hope and of anticipation, for they saw in it not the elevation of their adopted country, but the degradation of that they so detested. Ireland's miseries inspired the muse of their poets, the pen of their historians, the imagination of their novelists, till the tale circulated over the world, and shuddering generations had listened to the great crime which demanded so great a retribution. Wherever England has stood forth as the champion of nationality, as the protector of the oppressed, Ireland has been flung in her teeth. Everywhere the Irishman has settled—everywhere advanced, but, alike in prosperity or adversity, he lias cherished tli'S hatred even as his faith; and there are those who allege that it has furnished the chief reason for the tenacity with which he has clung to his belief. A nation can no more afford to have a deadly enemy than an individual ; and it is England's greatest misfortune to have thus made a foe who has more spread himself over the world than any family of the human race. Recognising the danger, anxious to remedy the past misgovernmcnt, desirous earnestly to conciliate, what courso is England to pursue ? Reforms are scouted, forbearance misconstrued, appeals to reason met by fierce invective and declamation. In vain England points to equal laws and taxation, equal representation, and a full and patient hearing for any grievance. Every profession and branch of industry she asserts is alike open to all; and more than a fair share of the places the country has to bestow, falls to the Irish. The question is met by fiery and seditious appeals to the prejudices of the populace. The orator deels freely with the past or with the future—with anything but the present. Reference is made to the days when Ireland was the school of Europe, and the people tho most enlightened in the world. This fable is used to point the contrast when the hated Saxon appeared on the scene, and the ruin began. In vain they are recalled to the practical questions of the day, the present is vaulted over, and in the mind's eye the sun of liberty is seen dawning on the Emerald Isle, shining on an Irish Parliament legislating for an Irish Republic on Irish soil.

It is time that this injurious agitation should cease—in the interest of the human race. England once persecuted Ireland, and Ireland has retaliated by a bitter persecution of .England. Allowing that the latter does not as yet equal the former, let Ireland compound for tho balance, and bring in a bill of grievances. It is worth England's while by any measures of concession short of the disruption of the United Kingdom, to attain this end. Instead of shooting policemen, murdering informers, organising invasion, conspiring for rebellion, and keeping the country in a perpetual turmoil, lot both parties take stock of the matters in dispute and square accounts. If Fenians refuse when invited openly to come forward to discuss practical measures, they assume this position. They say to the Saxon, " Your forefathers have cruelly injured mine ; the only remedy we will accept is to work on you, their descendants, the same ruin. In not benefitting ourselves, we injure you, and this is more agreeable. Though unable to raise a successful revolt, we can keep discontent alive until the accident happens by which we hope to precipitate the United States with you. The world will be set in a blaze, and both nations vitally injured, but we will gain our object." In former days the Irish endeavoured to use France as they now desire to use the United States. It may not be gratifying to the great Republic to be regarded by a section of its own citizens as a mere tool for Irish vengeance, but this is the true issue of the agitation, and unless the United States discountenance the insane movement, the nation can scarcely refrain from becoming involved in war. The errors of a former age may thus be repeated in this, and fresh crops of bitterness be again sown broadcast to be reaped by comma generations. The persecution to which Ireland is subjecting England is producing a result which may hereafter lead to great trouble and suffering. No people can patientlj/ endure for ever, thei- law* violated, their motivex misconstrued, their character slandered, their territory invaded, and tho ventjeancc of another people threatened. The insane hatred will generate in those against whom it is directed as intense a dislike. If the war of races begins, the weakest will most suffer ; and even in Ireland, if those born on the soil were left to fight out the question of the English connection, it would be found that the advocates of an Irish republic had not even the strength to carry their own island against their opposing countrymen, without Englishmen moving hand or foot. If the Irish agitators would but come down from their stilts, and, in a calm and judicial spirit, bring forward their grievances, the present is peculiarly favourable to any just measure of reform. But should they continue this criminal agitation, they may generate among the persecuted people of Great Britain a dislike similar to their own ; and can any human being suppose that anything but suffering to all can spring from such vile feelings, cultivated with such a pertinacity as to strike unprejudiced persons as a monomania amounting to insanity ? —St/dney Herald, February 21.