THE POLITICAL TRIALS.

West Coast Times, Issue 838, 30 May 1868, Page 3

THE POLITICAL TRIALS.

\\,fj (PEOII THE WEST COAST TIMES, MAT 21) s^Ehe first and, we trust, what will prove to he the last, political trials, in Hokitika have been begun and ended, and in every respect the result has been most satisfactory. The two prisoners charged with seditious libel followed very judicious counsel, yesterday morning, in pleading guilty to the indictment, and offering as they did an apology for their misdemeanor. Had they attempted to justify the seditious articles for which they were notoriously responsible, they would have placed themselves in relations with the Court demanding and necessitating a much heavier visitation than befel them. They admitted that the articles for which they were tried, were seditious, and pleaded in mitigation — not in defence. We will say so much for Mr Larkin and Mr Manning, -that they were probably unmindful, at the time they allowed these articles to appear in their newspaper, of the legal responsibility attaching to them as publishers, and were probably unconscious of the tenor of what they wrote and printed. Mr Larkin states that he was favorable to the project of establishing an Irish national paper on the West Coast ; and no one could complain of such an enterprise. In all parts of the Queen's dominions the principle of nationality is asserted. Englishmen have their St. George's celebrations ; Scotchmen their St. Andrew's ; Welshmen their St. David's; and why not Irishmen their St. Patrick's ? It so happens unfortunately that Ireland is the past of the empire which has at once constituted the "great difficulty" of statesmen, and the perplexing problem of political philosophers. That the endeavors of the Imperial Government, and of the British Parliament, during the last quarter of a century, have been honestly directed to the redress of Irish grievances, will, we think, he disputed by no impartial thinker. But the seeds of disaffection have been sown too deep, and have been germinating too long, to allow them to be easily eradicated.

The work of rendering justice to Irish

interests is one that requires time to accomplish on the one part, and patience to wait for on the other. The

reforming mind of Great Britain is one

slow to give effect to its policy ; the Irishman, asking for redress of wrong, is impatient of results. One people feels keenly, and acts impulsively; the other thinks slowly, and under the control of a certain conservative instinct. The true policy of Irish patriotism would be to form an alliance with, that large liberal party in England which advocates fearlessly — in and out of the senate — the re-

dress of all the practical grievances of

which Irishmen complain, without going ■ to the length of demanding either separation from Great Britain or a repeal of the Union. The great injustice involved in the maintenance of the Established Church in the midst of a Catholic population, is recognised and admitted by the political party in. England, which, if not always in power, is perhaps even more influential iv opposition. There is no cry that could be made more popular throughout the length, and breadth of Great Britain than one calling for the establishment of a perfect religious equality amongst the whole of the "Queen's subjects in Ireland. Such a cry would carry every election, except in a few close boroughs and a few landlord-ridden counties. What right have the Irish people or their leaders to assume that the people of England desire to be unjust to them — to maintain any one law that operates oppressively, to withold any one redress ~ of grievance ! What has been the attitude of the people of England towards Ireland during the last twenty or thirty years? Was not Catholic emancipation carried through the support of the liberal • party in England, who fought as valiantly for that cause, as they did for the repeal of their own oppressive Test and Corporation Acts." The great fault of Irish agitators of late years, has been their refusal to make common cause with the English liberal party, and — by their violence of proceedings, and their greater violence of language — their alienation from them of all reformers who can discriminate between a peaceful demand for reform, and sedition. If an Irish reform movement were initiated on a basis involving no disloyalty ; no attempt to set one class of Her Majesty's subjects against another ; no effort to upset the organic institutions of the empire ; we believe such a league might be formed as would prove irresistible. It might demand redress of acknowledged grievances, in a voice which could not be withstood. It would rally in Jts support, not only the whole of the great Liberal party at home, but the mass of the population of the Colonial empire. Here, the people are freed from all the shackles that fetter freedom of action in the old country. They have become acclimatised to social conditions that are independent oi religious inequalities or national distinctions. There is no established Church in the Colonies. There is no religious denomination to which a preferential place is given. There are no disqualifying Ordinances. The moral and material support of the Australias would be given to any Irish national movement which aimed at absolute freedom for the Trish people, under the British Crown, without adopting sedition as its creed, and assassination as its policy. Irish patriots in the Colonies have committed a profound mistake in adopting tactics calculated to alienate from them the support of the liberal party. There are some things we will uot have, We will not have a Queen whose character we re-

vere aspersed: we will not have the memory of a Prince whom we believe to have been a good and great man — and who was an honest v friend of Ireland —dragged through the mire : we will not have the injustice done to the English people of assuming that they are the enemies of Irish patriotism. We repeat, that Ireland could have j rallied no firmer or more determined friends around her national cause than the Englishmen in the Colonies, who know how to advocate, to battle for, and to conquer, reforms — without laying aside their loyalty, or resorting to the weakest and least respectable of all weapons — viz., sedition. We shall say no more of these trials, and we hope to have no occasion to say more of the causes out of which they have arisen. Fenianism at home is dying out. In America it has ceased to be an exciting political topic. In the Colonies its first open manifestation has been decisively checked. Henceforth, we believe we shall know it no more ; and, strongly as we must reprobate the acts of those who have within the last few days been placed on their trial, we must express our entire approval of the lenient course adopted by the judge in passing sentence, and our hope that the late political excitement has altogether passed away. The judge was lenient ; the prisoners were penitent; and so, happily, ends this chapter of our history.