D'ARCY McGEE AND GAVAN DUFFY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 38, 17 January 1874, Page 10

D'ARCY McGEE AND GAVAN DUFFY.

wi:he they kexega des ? TlUv 'Boston Pilot ' and its correspondents ha\o been discus.»ing tlua i question. In the course of an article en " Li»h lieio worship," in ■which the ' Pilot ' showed how such popular leaders were often gods of , uJav, chosen on the impulse of the moment, and often tho coat seat I picked and tho softest baked it passed from men of that class sue li as ' Jairep Stephens to D'Arc\ McOee and Duffy. Of the Litter it spoLo | us follows :—: — i For more than twenty years an Irish exile and gentleman has , been curving a name and fame m Australia, that must, redound and that does redound to the credit of his countrjnien. Ho lwogcises the fmtl 1 .t the men of Australia have interests. .--eparatu from those of ICtirop* 1 : that the Irishmen in Australia owe a duty to the land of ihtir udoptiou as well : v lo the land of their birth. And because he has taught this doctrine lor twenty \ears, Charles Giivan Duffy has bcuii commonly called "a. tntitor " and a " turncoat" by the masses ol his people. And a few months ago, when tho Government of his adopt id country acknowledged his great Australian services by confciring on him the honor of Knighthood, a foolish howl was raised by thoughtless In-hinen aL nh:it the*y called this "payment lor his tri-in In :y." A correspondence ensued on <lii-> article*, and the 'Pilot' next eauie cut with mi article lit'.-ided " D'Arcy WeGeo and Gavan Duffy. — \Ven> they Renegades?" The article (which contains the pith ot thu corie-pondencc) is as follows : — The. manner in which thf inas-e* of the Irish people judge the i"nir"e of their public men calls for «*\aniinat:ou ami, il need be, relorlii ituvi. Six out of ten Irishman in America and in Ireland have formed .•:vi opinion, or rather lime taken up an opinion tn it sumu fuiiatiru.! pi'Lplo formed for them, with regird to two us able lrishmoii us Piii ccuu.iy has produced — D'Aioy McGce and Olmilcs Gavan JJuify. T!i' *<* men are cemir only spoken ola»l a» "traitors," *' renegttehs," .mil '• b.vl liishmeu"" Why? The reason commonly given is simple and brief: because " they rr-M'pted office under the English Gcne-nnient." An mteh «i'nt mil rof 'The Pilot 1 wiote- to us last vei'k, and we. published hi: I .tur saying amongst other things* - '• I shall p.iss over jour allu&iona to J>c.Vrey IvlcGec, and tliuse

who found fault with his acceptance of office under that government, the ruin of which, he so often told us, his days should be dedicated to. In a word, why do you not deioud the O'Donoghue of the Glens, just now when you take us to task for saying that D'Arcy McGee and Sir Charles G-. Duffy should have despised English gold and English honors ? • And another writer on the same subject, in o last week's ' Pilot, says : — " Thomas D'Arcy SlcGee honestly thought out the question of his country's destiny, and ciuno to recognise, as must all men do who think cleurly and honestly, that Irish independence could not be obtained by force of arms. But ho did more, and by no means what necessarily followed the result of his maturer conclusions. He accepted office, practically, at the hands of those from whose justic* he had once fled, ana displayed what always seemed to me a very super-serviceable devotion in their behalf. He could have served h» nice quite as well, if nor, more effectively, without following the dictates of his personal ambition, and enrolling himself among tho prominent supporters of a government which had cursed his land with its blighted rule. For me the moral of his life is a disappointing one. It affords another illustration of the fact that thero are few men great enough to avoid extremes." This is the case against McG-ee and Duffy, clearly enough stated. Is there any force in tlie charge ? Is it a crime or a treason for any man who is a Young Irelander, or a Fenian, or an Irish "rebel" in any way, to live in Australia or Cauada? If it be, McG-ee and Duffy, and hundreds of thousands of Irishmen must be regarded as criminals and traitors. If not, the whole objection to their course is mistaken, and is based on false grounds. D'Arcy McGee might be called a traitor and a renegade hud he " accepted office " in Ireland from the English Government. It was against the English rule in Ireland alone that he rebelled. He nover dreamt of rebelling against the English Colonial Government of Canada, which has always been warmly supported by the Irish population. Gavan Duffy, when a rebel in Ireland, calling on hi-* cDuntrymen through the ' Nation,' never dreamt of calling on the Irishmen of Australia to rise against their governments there. When D'Arcy McGee became a resident oi' Canada he wont there in good faith as a law-abiding cituun of Canada, though ho might still preserve his old animosity to the English Government m Ireland. He had no reason to be a rebel to the Canadian Government. "But ho accepted office," urge the objectors. Let us see : what office did he " accept ? " One would think from the phrase that an office must have been offered to him by tho Government: else how could he "accept "it? What was the oflico or the oiler? Half the truth may be a lie in the absence of tho other half. McGee had been struggling in the United States fur years, and had not succeeded lo his wishes or to tho wishes of Ins friends and fellowcountrymen. He had earned for himself tho admiration and esteem of the liishmen of Canada, and they urged him to take up his abode amongst them, in a country where iho mui easing Insh-Citholic population stood in need of his services, and had the power and the will to advance his interests It .vas not the Government that asked him to Canada : it was bio own countrymen — the Irish Catholics. Ihey asked him to take up lus abode in Canada because they wanted a good lepresentative m their Parliament - a representative who would earn respect for them whilst protocti ig their rights. Was this a on mo or a treason to Ireland ? and if so, which sii-o was ciiminai — the lushmou ot Cauada or D'Aiey McGcu? lie wont to Montreal, aud started a paper theie. Before the end of the lirst jear his J'riendi, and countrymen, against all odd-,, returned him to tho Canadian Parliament as one of tho three members lor Montreal. "Was this a crime or a treason to Ireland ? it was nut tho Government then, that induced him U* take part in ii. Canadian Legislature : it was his own friends and countrymen. Aii 1 li it was not a crimo to represent his people m Parliament, was it i treason, boing there, to show that he was the ablest man it conLuncl Had D'Arcy McGee not risen to be a distinguished man ho woui i never be called a renegade. The bume is truo of Gavan Duffy in Australn. ]Iv found himself in a kind far from Euiope, with totally dillerent ends, urns aud resouices. Ho louud thousands of his couutryuiuu theio, who had ea.3f, their lot for lile with the now country. They wantod an at>lo representative, and they wont to him aud askud him to take mat pace. Oiiee in tho Go\ eminent his own geuiu* made him the bost man there, and ho rose to tho highest place iv the co on) Had he b<>on a clud, unaljk' lv ) ise, ho never would bo called a curuiuj.l. He never deserted tho interests of the men who elected him ; hu couido never displeased them. Ho was raising them as he raised himself His c.car liund saw the needs of the young couutry ; he set about his work I like a statesman. The colonists, ot all cli&sf's, soon owned Lis j superiority, and placed the reins in his hands. They made lain Chief Jsccieliiry ol Yietoiu, and finally Premier. Tho English Government, in acknowledgment ot' his great services to the colony, offered him the | decoration ct the Order ot Jit. Micbail, which ho declined. Then they ottered him a knighthood, which he accepted. At a public dmner in Melbourne, ou last Sr. Patrick's Day, Ciavau Duffy mado a speech, | from which we take tho ioltowiug extract, having reference to this ! acceptance : — " Upon that question there was the very strongest feeling amougat ' two sections of my friends. My own couutry meu were of opinion that, having boon lour times a Cabinet Miuister, and haviug beeii ' auiu.ig tlit 1 fust iucu of my race and creed who hud won that distnucj lion, in jiiv BiHish cuiiuuiMty amco the Revolution, 1 was bound tv accept this permanent testimony that I had performed i he duties i j undertook with integrity aud Uibcretion. And some English and [ Scotch lricuds, to whom I owed constant aud steadfast support in 1 public life, urged that if I declined it, the very persons who wore ! bursting with spite and disappointment that tnc honor had be cm j piolfe:, d to me would misrepresent my refusal, and use it lo provoke.

and, if possible, to alienate my English and Scotch friends. I accepted, nHd I have since received letters of congratulation from every section of this community ; and 1 am not sure whether I felt more satisfaction at the 1 congratulations of representative men among the Protestant democracy, who. gave me such generous support when I was last in office, or the congratulations of Irishman who would have renounced and repudiated me iff had accepted any distinction on the terms of forgetting my allegiance to my native country. I may remind you that when the present Mr Justice Fellows levelled a vote of want of confidence against the Government, I told him that I would not desert tlte fortunes of my native country for anything that Parliament or Sovereign could beslotc " These words no not savor of the traitor or the renegade. On one occasion, when a narrow-minded bigot taunted Duffy in the Parliament House with having once been a " rebel," Jie arose and declared that he was proud of having been a rebel when he lived under a bad government. On a similar occasion, in reply to the same taunt in the Canadian Parliament, D'Arcy McGee calmly said : — "It is true I was a rebel in Ireland in '48 I rebelled against the mi«-govemment of my country by Russell and his school. I rebelled because I saw my countrymen starving beforo my eyes, while my country had her trade and commerce stolen from her. I rebelled nguiust the Church Establishment in Ireland ; and there is not a liberal roan in ibis community who would not have clone as 1 did, if he were placed in my position, and followed tho dictates of humanity." This was not the tone of a traitor or a renegade, but 'he manly tone of an honest and far-seeing man. In 1865, McGee's countrymen in Montreal showed their appreciation of the irnn and his ser\Lvs by presenting him with a handsome residence, suitably furnished, in one of the best localities in the city he so ably repie-ented. But, it will be said, McGee did wrong to desert the cause he loved in his youth. Who says he deserted it ? Surely nobody who has followed his course. Instead of deserting it, he only tried another and a surer means of helping it. Mrs Sadleir, in speaking of the- American Celt,' which McGee began to publish in 1850, says :—: — "During the first two years of the 'Celt's' existence, it was characterised by the same, or nearly the same, revolutionary ardor ; but there came a time when the great strong mind aud fur-seeing intellect of its editor began to soar above the clouds of passion ,md prejudice into theregions of eternal truth. The cant of faction, the fiery denunciations that, after all, amounted to nothing, he began to sty in their true coloi s ; and with his whole heart he then and' ever after aspired to elevate the Irish people, not by impracticable Utopian schemes of revolution, but by teaching them to make the best of the hard fate that made them the subjects of a foreign power differing from them in race and in religion ; to cultivate among them the arts of pence, and to rake themselves, by ways of peaceful industry ani increasing enlightenment, to the level even of the more prosperous sifter-island, Wlio will say th-at he was less a patriot, less a lover of Ireland after than before this remit kable change fram out-and-out radicalism to that calm conservatism which was the result of no pelfirh motive, but simply of matured thought aud the sago counsels of fruch profound Christian thinkers as the late most eminent Bishop Fit/patrick of 80-ton ? As this change in Mr McGee's principles has hern, and still is, gros-ly misrepresented by the revolutionary party, whose ranks ho quitted then and forever, aud as many even of those who most admired his genius and his poetry have accepted tho views of hi* unscrupulous enemies, I think it my dutyjio dwell ot length on this particular point." It is a sad reflection that {McGee and Duffy are condemned by many Irishmen — condemned nDt for a fault, but for a virtue. It is wn.vorthy of the Irish people so to judge. There was no man living who loved Ireland better than McGee. He was one of the few Irish political leaders who grew v»rse from experience. Ho began, naturally, ac a radical revolutionist : he lived to see the utter folly of that course, and he baa the manliness not to hide the change. He ihouaht it better to be true than to be merely consistent. His jiltered policy displeased those who had not reached bey in J the point where ho had started from. One of their hands took his life ; and that lmnd should be for ever lwld accursed by thoughtful Irishmen. McGee aas a man of great mind and great heart ; and to the cud, these were u*ed for the honor of his native land. Ling before he died hi- exprosed his policy in abe lutil'nl poam — " To the Rirer Jiorne,', from which we take two stanzas: — " Our trust is not in musket or in enbre — Our fi.ih is in the truthfulness ot labor, The soul-stirred, willing soil ; In homes and granaries by justice guarded, Iv fields from blighting wiucK and agents warded, In franchised skill and manumitted toil. Grant us, O God ! the soil, and sun, and seasons ! Avert despair, the worst of moral treasons, Make i-ounting words be i<ile ; Grant us, we pray, but wisdom, peac/ 1 , and patience, And we will yet rc-hft among the >'.vi >ns, Our fair, and fallen, and forsa'u> n isle. We extract from ' Les Missions Catholiques ' the following correspondence of Mgr. Spacrapietra, Archbishop of Smyrna. " The 2-lth of April last, I made, in company with eighty-four persons — priests, religious and laics — a pilgrunagc to Fphesus. Our design was, in the last truls which overwhelmed the Church and Us beloved Head, to go to implore the assistance of Mary, help of Christians, iv the very place in which her Divine Muternity was solemnly proclaimed. " Formerly it took two days to go on horseback from Smyrna to Ephesus, across an arid desert plain. At present the journejMs performed in an hour and a-half By the railway from Smyrna to Aidin. 41 The pilgrimage was an easy cne. The weather was everything that could be desired ; not a cWid, not a breath of wind ; the beautu CiU aim of tho east shone u_uon v*, aud the soul raised itself naturally

to Him who has deigned to style himself Deus em alto, and bovrod down before the dazzling beauty of the works, of God. The road traverses a plain bounded on the right by the heights of Corat and .Gallerus, and on the left by Teuolus, whose lofty crests and granite flanks trend majestically towards the east. In the middle of the twelfth century the valiant and unfortunate army of the French crusaders, commanded by Louis VII the young, traversed this plain. It halted at Ephesus to celebrate the feast of Ohristiaus. The place is still pointed out where the Knights of the Cross first encounteiod the Saracens and defeated them. " We arrived at Arga-Salout, at present a poor village inhabited by Turkish and Greek families. Its origin dates from the thirteenth century. Ruins everywhere, and ruins whose stones wore brought from the more ancient ruins of Ephesus. At the foot of a hill,°on which is seen the remains of a castle of the middle ages, there ia a very grand majestic old mosque. It is supposed to have been originally a church dedicated to the Apostle St. John. It is in tbe Moorish style, which indicates that ifc was not built by the Christians, But perhaps the mosque was constructed on the site, and from the ruius of the Christian basilica, raised by the Emperor Justinian, of which Boeopius, a great historian of the sixth century, speaks. Quite closo to it, on the side of the h'll, are the ruins of another church. May it not, have been that dedicated to St. John ? The Greeks believe it was, and within the last five years they have built a little chapel on tho spot. I make no positive affirmation on this matter, I state a ample probability. " When we were in the midst of the ruins of themosquo— iotne on horseback, the greater number on foot — I prepared to celebrato Mie Holy Sacrifice. An altar was arranged on a block of marble u>nder an arch. "Before commencing, I addressed n few words to tho pilgrims. I reminded them of the ancient glories of the city, converted to Christianity by the preaching of the Beloved Disciple, and of tho apostle St. Paul, who was near receiving the crown of martyrdom there, when the populate exclaimed — ' Great is Diana of tho Ephoshins.' I recalled to them that it had been for some time honored by the sojourn of the Immaculate Virgin ; that there her divine maternity was solemnly proclaimed against the impious Nestorius. I spoke of the numbers ot martyrs who were immolated within its wall. What has become of all her glories ? ' You have, 1 I sa-kll, ' but to look around you ; ruins on all sides. No other inhabitants than venomousreptiles. Can we iail to recognise the cause of this desolation? Is it not that fatal schism which separates this beautiful land from the centre of Catholicity, from the Apostolic See of Peter? Behold in it n sensible commentary of the words of the Gospel. Si guis in me -nonmcinserit, mittaticr forces sicirt palines- eC arescet.' (Joan, XV, 6.) " 1 recalled to them the solemn words of Pope Nicholas V to th» Emperor Constantine Paleologu*, in 1451, on the miserable stdto of the empire of tlio east. • Tantim nationetn qnce olim abundabat innumerabilibus santissimis et doctitimii viris, in prcesentiarum ad id miseriae de venire permiserit (Dens) ut sit miserrima omnium gentium '' This was the last warning of the justice of God. Two years after Mahomet II entered Constantinople as a conqueror — ' Alas,' I added, 'Italy is drawing on herself the same fate in trampling under foot the immortal crown which Jesus Christ has placed on her head, tho primacy of the See of Peter. 1 uoed not speak to you of tho impious, suvage, panicidal war, which is waged agdins-t the vicar of Jesus Christ, our common father. We know that the gates of hell shall never prevail, because there is no power that can: prevail against tho power of God ; neither is there any brute force which can overcome the moral iorco of that sublime sentence, Non possumus. 13 at, in the combat, how many scandals-! What evils! How many sorrows for the father ! What apprehensions for tho faithful ! Left us pray, then, let. us pray. It is for the triumph of tho fdtlier and the happiness of the children that lam about to offer the holy sacrifice. Unite your prayers and supplications to mine.' " Daring the Mass the pilgrims chanted tho Magnificat in beautiful harmony Surely tho titulary angels of the place must have exulied with joy, on hearing those hymns of praise addressed to their Queen, in the midst of the ruins of ages and the ravages of schism and hereby. May she receive our prayers for the glory of truth and the triumph of that beloved Pontiff who has added the sweetest ilpwer to her immortal crown. . " Tho ceremony terminated with the episcopal benediction. "Having thus accomplished the chief end of our journey, we visited the debris of the grandeur of the ancient city. " The remains of a magnificent temple have been discovered. Mr Wood, a, 100-rued English engineer, who for the last throe years lias superintended the explorations, believes them to belong to the celebrated temple of Diana, burned by Erostratos, who dejirod to attach his last celebrity to his name, and which was afterwards rebuilt with : o much splendour by th« Ephesians. Tho learned arohoeologist sup« ports this conjecture on a texc of Vansabiiu, and on the Memity oi tne great wiy ot the tombs, which kd from the Magnesian gate to the temple. But other illustrious uu'.iquarians do not admit his reasonings; and, indeed, it is cot easy to form a oertain judgment oa tho mutter, since even the aueienL authors do not agree in their description ct the different purts of the great monument. " Mr Wood had the kindness to accompany us, and to be our guide through the ruins. Oik- attention was attracted by another monument which is near the t'inple of which it forms almost a continuation. In it we see well sculptured crosses on the capitals oi the pillars; which would lead us to infer that it had been a Christian church. May it not have been the very church iv which the divine maternity of Mary was solemnly proclaimed ? "Amidst the ruins near tho Magnesian Gate, w« admire a marblesarcophagus, on which are sculptured a cross and tho heart of aji ox. Some suppose this to be the tomb ot St. Luke. This opinion seJtns 10. contradict the most common ijauition, which points out other places ■ for the martyrdom and tomb vi this Apostle. The Bollandiat. havo not settled the question. Ho? ever, we read in CaJ mat's 'Dictionary-

of the Bible,' that Dorotheus (who lived in the seventh century) says, in his synopsis, that St Luke died nnd was interred at Ephesue. St John Cbryeosfom lamented the want of certain memoranda on the Apostle and disciples of bur Lord. It is so, because the Apostles quaeraiant non quae sua sunt, sed quae Jesu Christi. '' I left my companions to continue their woy »nd to visit the antiquities which I had already seen some years ago, and I awaited them reciting my breviary, in the place where I had celebrated mass. When the pious pilgrims returned, the scene of the desert, where our Lord multiplied the loaves, was renewed in the shadow of the ruins. All seated in groups, not of fifty, a« the Gospel Bays of the multitude who followed the Saviour, but in groups of from twenty to twenty-five, we refreshed ourselves and restored our exhausted strength. Provisions had been brought in abundance from Smyrna, for no one attributed to me the power of multiplying them. "The hour of departure being come, each one sought his place in the waggons, nnd we returned to Smyrna, bearing with us that salutary sadness which the spectacle of the nothingness of earthly greatness naturally awakens, ar»d holy joy at having accomplished a duty. " I have now to t< 11 you of the blessing of the new chapel which the .Rev Fathers, Minors of the reform, have built at Magnesia, where the mission is confided to them. This town must not be confounded with another of the mmc name near the Meander, of which theie remain only ruins. It was to the faithful who dwelt there that Sft Ignatius, martyr, addressed one of his letters. Our Magnesia, built on the declivity of a mountain, is called Magnesia of Syphile. This mountain, where the loadstone, in Latin magnee, abounded, and perhaps still abounds, hap, they say, given it its name. Before the conquest of Constantinople, several Sultans made it their residence. The Hermes winds majestically through the plain, where one of the Scipios, having gained a celebrated victory over King Antiochus, took the name of Asiaticus. The railwiiy which passes close to the city and which is to be carried on to Constantinople, renders it every day more flourishing and increases the populutioo. The same cause will probably increase the number of Catholics, which is at present small. " 'Ihe chapel is dedicated to St Leonard, of Port Maurice, one of the Saints lately canonized by our Holy Father the Pope. It is under the protection of Austria. The Consul- General at Smyrna, M. de Schergen, a Protestant, and distinguished savant, attended the ceremony, attended by the entire consular staff. " I performed the consecration according to the Roman rite, and afterwards celebratod mass in presence of a great number of schismatics. Before the function I preached a short sermon in French, which -was afterwards repeated in Greek by the pastor of St Mary's, Smyrna. The episcopal benediction terminated this beautiful and touching ceremony. " In a few weeks I thall blese another chapel, and the hense of the Sisters of chaiity at Bondga, two leagues from Smyrna, the only {>arish of the diocese under the charge of secular priests. A pious ady supplied the funds for these foundations. This little village is connected by a bianch line with the great railway to Aidin, and daily increases in importance. Several families of distinction puss the fine Ecason there, and it already numbers several hundred Catholics. The schools of the Sisters are well attended : they were much needed. Prottstant deaconesses have been trying to establish themselves in the village, and their piopagandism is rendered easy through the money which they receive from Piussia. At present we meet Prussia everywhere ; aud every wheie she is the declared protectress of Protestantism, and of tl c woiks which support it.