CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7648, 27 May 1886, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

HOME MISRULE. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I think it ia timo that trail- ...! common sense should speak out on tht subject of the Irish agitation as imported into Auckland. Our friends of the Misrule party are cabling to the Grand Old Muddler (formerly Grand Old Man) by way oE strengthening hia hands in the effort t3 disrupt the Britieh Empire. Of course the agitators are the more active, and it is to be hoped that it will not be supposed at home that colonials in general concur. Let me remark in the Bret place that the asuumptioa of Leinater, Minister, and Connaught not being now in full possession of freedom is bosh, and is right well known to be bosh Lv the agitators. Leinster, Manster, and Connaught are just in the same position, with reference to Parliamentary Government, as Scotland, as Wales, as Ulster, as Lancashire and Durham. £ach of these ii ruled by a legislature in which its own representation is fractional, but each has equal privilege in jointly ruling the whole. Why, then, do Leinster, Munster, and Connaughfc, save a minority who are swamped, clamour and agitato and perpetrate or encourage crime in order to gain Home Rule, while Scotland and Wales and Ulater and Lancashire, etc., prefer to be fully privileged Britons ? The reason is simply this : that the bulk of the population in Leinster, Munster, and Connaught have an innate hereditary hatred of .England and of its institutions and religion. They are not much to be blamed for this. It is the outcome of original invasion followed by many centuries of oppression, jobbery, and alienation. But all those things belong to the past; and all that is required now ia order to heal Ireland is ten years' perseverance in combining two things that poor Ireland has never yet seon combined—first, perfect equality and fair play, and secondly, the rigorously firm maintenance and enforcement of liberty, law, and order. To grant Home Misrule would be ruinous to Ireland or the greater part thereof; it would be most meanly unjust to the Loyalist population, whose forefathers colonised portion! of the • country by English invitation and as British citizens ; and the reuults would be gravely pernicious to Britain and the British Empire. I shall, with your permission, on a future occasion explain the actual position of the Ulster folk in this matter; and meantime it may be observed, in passing, that the Ulster Presbyterian who goes in for Home Misrule is either a little knavish or else he has " * bee in his bonnet." I have only to add, for the present, that throughout Ireland there is a yearly increasing portion of the Roman Catholic population who are desirous of being perfectly loyalist, but are under coercive restraint.—l am, &c, Liberal Ulstkh,