FENIANISM IN ITS ECONOMIC ASPECT.

Otago Witness, Issue 852, 28 March 1868, Page 8

FENIANISM IN ITS ECONOMIC ASPECT.

(From the Economist. )

It would be difficult, or even impossible, to exaggerate the importance of Fenianism as anew offence, but it is quite possible to exaggerate the political and economic effect. That we should have in. England a horde, or even a group, of men banded together to secure an impossible object by attacks on property, order, and the triumphs of civilisation, is, no doubt, a mortifying or even a disheartening reflection, but it is not one which ought to affect public confidence either in the security of our finances, the success of our commerce, or the ultimate stability of our institutions. Phenomena like Fenianism are always by their very nature temporary and exceptional, and this for two unanswerable reasons. No men not supported by a very great or a very holy principle "will ever undergo for long terms the terrible penalties involved in •warfare with society.

The übiquitous and undying forc^of the s nation invariably puts other opponents down, with more or less of sacrifice or effort, but still effectually. Such a strength ' of principle may, no doubt, be credited to a, few oL those led away by Fenian plans, but „ then those few will be the first to shrink from the appalling mischiefs war with civilisation inflicts upon the innocent. The deaths of children in the Clerkenwell outrage have impressed men who previously . sympathised with Fenians ; and really dangerous Revolutionists, men like Lord Edward FitzGerald, are as hostile to assassination as is the party of order. No successful po-. licy was ever based upon crime, and the killing of the innocent is clearly crime. Secondly, such attacks i.rrariably end in an immense, usually ia an undue, increase of strength to the Executive. Even the SeptemLrisenrs, a faction indefinitely stronger than the Fenians, only succeeded in establishing military rule. No police id su strong as society when roused to do police work, and such, attempts always iv the cud rouse society. At this moment Government in "Great Britain is indefinitely stronger, more likely to get its , revenue, to pay its debt, to maintain external order, than it was a fortnight ago. Even if the Fenians should' succeed in causiog some great public calamity, such as the burning of a dockyard, the effect would be the same; * the nation would be more strenuI ously bound together, and the loss would Ibe a money loss, like the fall of a great | firm, and the injury only temporary. ' The great sources of English prosperity can no more be affected by such attempts : than the prosperity of India could be affected by the rise of Thuggee, the most formidable secret society, perhaps, ever known, but which, nevertheless, was ! crushed. Fire raising, with a view o£ alarming Government, is an experiment which ha 3 been often tried, once, at least, on an enormous scale, and. it has always | failed, because for one man intimidated ten are maddened by undeserved suffering.

We do not know that it is necessary to point out these facts to Englishmen, but some of our foreign friends seem to believe that Fenianism being in one sense a political offence, its audacities threaten to shake the Government itself. Acknowledging the argument about society, they ask whether the Fenian spirit does not indicate an increased possibility of rebellion in Ireland, or even a vague chance of the ultimate loss of that country. We may dismiss the last idea in a very few words. It is our moral duty to keep Ireland ; but our economic interest is by no means strong on that side. Irelands costs as much or more than she brings, and her independence as a completely separate State would be no more a danger for us- than the independence of Fiviuce, which, with sixty times her power, is just one-fourth her distance off. An Irish Channel fleet would not cost what the garrison of Ireland costs even in cash, and we should be without her a homogeneous psople of twenty-five millions, ten m'llions more than we were in 1805. We, of course, merely state this to exhaust the subject, not as a serious consideration, but it is one our foreign friends can thoroughly understand. The question of rebellion is more immediate, and we reply that it is because rebellion in Ireland is so hopeless that it is being tried in England — that every desperado who, in London, asks a prayer for his soul because he is going to be blown up, is an instrument of revolution the less in Ireland itself. It is not when the Red are in Geneva that Paris is dangerous to Napoleon. In Ireland, these English outrages, so far from weakening the State, only serve to justify its attitude of repression in the" eyes of men, who might otherwise hold, repression needless or severe. So far, then, from the Clerkenwell outrage being an excuse for want of confidence in Great Britain, it ought to strengthen that confidence, as tending to increase the best ground of commercial trust, the readiness and the competence of the Government to mavn+ain external order. As a commercial question, the riot in Hyde Park, of last year, which did not cost a life, but did weaken authority, was a hundred times as dangerous as this one, which has already cost us ten lives, but has strengthened authority tenfold.

In noticing the death of Mr George Marshall, the well Utiown cricketer, the Melbourne Argus says :—": — " Some years ago, while engaged in a match on the Melbourne Club's ground, he sustained a sunstroke, which was not thought at the time to be serious. Since then, however, his health has continued to decline, and for a longtime post he has been able to take only th« smallest amount of interest in his favorite game, or in matters of business. Latterly, the progress of bis disease had become painfully marked. 'George,' as he was familiarly called by every cricketer, was a native of Nottingham, and born in 1829. He was much respected both within and without the, , cricketing circle."