I SUPPOSE YOU HAVE BEEN IN GAOL?.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1735, 10 May 1888, Page 3

I SUPPOSE YOU HAVE BEEN IN GAOL?.

(Wanganui Herald.) It is strange, but true, that the highest honor that can be conferred upon an Irish patriot in this yeir of grace is to send him to gaol for th'rea monhs with or without hard labour. The Pall Mall Gazette say# that it is now quite a common question in the House of Ocmmocs when members are enjoying themielyea in the imokeroom, for an English member to put such a question to an Irish member as the following; “I suppose jou have teen in g-. 01. ?" lo faot, it has become a standing joke in the House that the Irish Home Eulo members under Mr Balfour’s regime are graduating for their country’s gratitude and honor by passing through Her Majesty’s prisons. The most pure, unselfish, high-minded, honourable men that over breathed the breath of life have served their sentences in gaol. It is a badge of honour, auro passport to political reward, and to the House of Commons, if the vio'.ims are not there already. This it called tlie art of government." Why, such a thing is not known in any country of the world save in the so-called home of freedom ! It would disgrace Euida, create a revolution in France, ai d the Sultan of Turkey wou'd bowstring the grand Vizier tbat oouli not rale better. To make convicts of honest and honorable men by the score, to make tbs gaol the vestibule of Parliament, is to degrade the country and cover it with a disgrace which can never bs effaced. We begin to feel that it would neither be safe nor honorable for th« colonies to confederate with a country where such things could be done at the close of the nineteenth century.