POOR PADDY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 52, 25 April 1874, Page 10

POOR PADDY.

Thh following letter wua/ published some few months since m thtf •Ovenis .Sppe^ator^ # yujtoywn journal, in the BtM-h »orth district, Ibeingia-defeivce^aaintatfthp^uiputatjons cu«t upoi the lii-.li race Mr Fro.u^t'^^^stpn-ian.;,,,'! hfl letter, .though leng'liy, is an able OEty and wiltiaiupiy repaj aperusul :— , , r . "<" Slßl-nln ,an ( -artjuie. wlucK recently up peace i in the 'Ovens Spectator,/ >I find so»ne st,ric<uiea on the, oh tract ristics o[ the Hi^efnwCeltfQ jgiqe, -with the.s)uru an^, avytuuient ,of which I regret to any I cannot agree- i'lh tfnf §v&l pl^i-q I liolil tlnu in nnu.w country like. t^tis, ivhere, popple of difforeivf ixa.tia.n;i|i if s uu<J different religious beliefs ara occupied, ip, tj^e, foi marion of a, ijey. ("(>inin,<>nvnt'a]th, it is 'the -duly fof the tress^ ratihur to, a^lay arei< n,r rt)i.iiiinsi,ti»'a and seotjarian difforenpes, rathw thi\n,quicke.n iji«o ma|«volenct! thu. <,lang« irou3.p,r.eJQdicus of th,« Qld-.Wori(;J,, bjji'^idio^s ivflections on ,my pmticulap.race oi"i«reed. ■ Ev[en thenio»t eji^ghtened and, liberal mnids alfc not ixpa from those rWeAknv-^a; whic.h [are incidental to their birth } and. ti^e meanest s»nd most detused ,«ill .oci:u>iunu!lj iisu ir urms against any: undue Birjcju»;eft on tlieir o}ii Jiorpe, .or on the iMiurcl), Df wbich. t^iey are .but uomkml members. Siirciih^n, be ft ever ?o mild \ ,tidi^ule, e,?pn' ihougli it p^oyokje n^t.^siTiile;, are nwtr so keenly ox; so bitterly fe|t ( , as, when lev^lled,^t t^, whole, jieyplti A'i affront oifered to an.,individuiil 19 'easily ji,toneil for, und quickly forgiven ;, i|ut^ w-nen a nation is publicly taunted and deiided, the suseepubility of offence ja greater-) the wound inflames, and, is ( n'>fc, readily or easily cui;ed.. I\\ mixed cflinmUiiuy, to preserve, a gootjr iindeivtfandiii" and familiar intercourse, without whu^h there iB neither general peaue nor prospejiiiy, it is abso■luiely necessary, to nvoid contrjUTfr^iesi on n.itioualuifs or,,religiop. Ther,e is no,r,eftl beneQrt to-be derived from them, and they are bound to provoke discussions, if , no where else, in pulilic-hpuses. Theresa something pecttha^ly irritating ip these analysei of national character. They are invariably one-sided, therefore unjust ; >\n '. even where the inquiry ia > enlarged, su as to include a'l classes., and a comparison, i liberal and fair, be drawn between, the merits and (demerits of each section, with a, view to arnohoration, they give offence. ', I do not think, I rtni wrong, therefore, in* saying :that such inquisitions are impoliti* aud unwise, ftnd I cannot but >regrst that by your comments on Mr Ifnoude's article you fha-ve, opened the ground for discussion. You have, unintentionally, no doubt, by }ouv witiiism, offended many Irishmen ; aqd lin attempting to refute your charges, will, I fear, give pain ro many, whom it is far from my intention to iiritate or annoy. I do not claim for thie Celtic race any >uper excellence or virtue, but I will not allow , that "it is monstrous and alone in crime " I hold I that men are prone alike to vice ; and though the weeds of evil beac different flo,wers of .ditfeient colors in different climates, yet in all they are- of th» same genera, aud equally noxious, I, Sir, am an Irishman —•a " Poor Paddy," as with supercilious sympathy you are pleased to style vs — 'md though in my intercourse with the world I have been derobod of much of what has been called bigolry, I cannot sit calmly by, and allow your animadversions on my race to renviin unchallengedI do not possess the ability of tlw writer who h-ia handled "Poor Paddy" so roughly., Hud I his flowing pen, or where I master of the logician's seieoce, aB he ia, I "would not be afraid of the result ; for, like all hypei'cuitics, he has been ha-dly just or generous, and he hae disfigured naturei and distorted history. However, though I fear I shall make as sorry, a figure as did the Knight of La Mancha when he charged the windmill, I must c'en break a lances for the love of the Niobe of nations — the dear old land of sorrow — for with me She's not a dull or cold land, No ! jt >yarm and bold iand. Oil! she's a trap and old land, This native laud of mine. Two thousand years ago the Grecian Thcophrastus discovered thirty vices or w eaknesses in his countrymen. The foibles which you have found in th« Celtic race, and have hit off with no little skill and wit, bear a wonderful likeness to the failings which Theophrnstus found in his generation — with this exception ) That yon employ a stronger noI menelature, aud whereas you hold that the Irish stand alone in the enormity of their crimes, .Theophras-tus believed th.it the offences j which lie condemned in his brethren were common to all mankind. | Had you followed the course of the ancient critic, aud drawn up your charges mildly, and with less amplification, there would have been little to say against you, for, stripped of the superlatives, the mortal sins which you lay to Paddy's, conscience, are cosmopolitan. You would, however, seem to be a lover of thesuperlatite. Your smallest words have magnitude. You distr'butc magnificent virtues as lavishly | as if you held the keys of Jupiter's treasury ; and jiour prnise is so ) exceedingly soft and sweet, that one ca-uuot help thiuknig that you

6 bkve'robW Blarney of its stoned "Fern aidorn l the Gelt with 1 'virtu* a that would grace a demi-'gpd ; and 1 then' chftr^ftihi' With'-' Crimes tha would disgrace a gallej slave 1 ;' 'Your Irish maViiS'^giaiit without strength, nn OlynVpinn labou'ringiri' hell: -He'ifc d'tStiiiipfoii m'the rime of Daliliih. and a He'riutersphimng ■ W 'ChAfißtM. Ttf jutlgf*» him from your point of view, 1 lie^ojjgHVriot 1 only to ti»- ! ti?fe'Tii6blejfc!, L b'ut the, foremost man in the world, wWereiis he " itr the' vilest' slave, the basest wretch that crawls the 'earth ** • '1 will not' attempt 1 to 'foUow -you miputely through lengthy-fault-finding, nor will Iseefk to unravel the vexatious web of contradictions in -which it 'is ihvolvffa*. You, ill pardon me, therefore, if I do not take your problems 'and their- eolu-, tions in, their regular sequence. All that I seek to establish •?«, that your delineation of the Irish character is incorrect? that tlie Irish 'are "Trot in Arty wny distinct and sepurate from other people ; and that rfceir 'Cttnies are fiot ns atrocious as you represent them to be. To this end I will take the liben'y, while respecting their integrity, of using your." arguments as they come most readily to hand. You preface your icathing criticism wi'h the assurance that you are " not going either to flatter or abuse ; that you are trying to p*int from history and from Nature," and, you add, " if we offend any partisan, we'shall endeavour not to offend truth." This advertisement concludes With the salutary admonition "If any one bo dissatisfied with the colors we l«y on, he must compare the picture with nuture before he bliirea us." As to these prefatiry observations, I have only to say you have violated the compact. You have both flattered, and well, yes, almost abused. You have placed history out of court ; you have painted nature as Been through the prism of your imagination, and you have left truth where the philosopher found it — at the bottom of the well. No doubt you will call me a partisan ; but an Irishman is always a partisan when his pen or his voice is employed for the defence of his country. But, though partisan you may hold me to be, you will allow me to know something of the land in which I was born, and of the people amongst whom 1 have been reared. I have done as you required, and have compared jour picture with nuture; but I regret to ?ay I cannot compliment you on ihe result It is neither true to mature or to art. The chiaro-obscuro is not pleading. Like Sir George Beaumont, you are a lover of the dark and gloomy ; and like him, with Iteubeu's grand landscape of the Chateau of Stein, you have besmeared the bright tints of the original with liquorice-water and yellow -ochre. A patch of the heavenliest blue flout* in your sky, amidst a ruck of storm-clouds ; dusky shades fall upon the sunbeams, and sombre shadows coinn •thwart the biiijhtness of th* green of the grove or the sward I'ou invite us 10 '• 1-ok calmiy at tliis people ; a people who have suffered much, and made others suff< r." Looking, then, a theuj calmly, let me ask you to put aside pnrtiality and prejudice, mid to say on which side has been the greater suflVnnsi ?— on that of the Irishman or ot those whom he ha* made to eutf.r ?— by whom, I suppose, jou mcmi the English Who was the originator of those sufferings ? who was the cause of their prolongation ? and whose was the policy that intensified ' them ? Though an Irishman, lam nei'her a bigot nor v fool, i know the dark as well as the blight side of " Poor Paddy's" nature. I am neither an enthusiast nor a 2\mc, and can distinguish a goose fioin v swan. I can. therelore, review your article calmly, and withuut the loa9t disturbance ti my bile. I believe every impartial man, who knowß am tl>ing of Ireland and the Irish, will agree with me tu.it}our Irishman is v mere caiic.iture. Tuere are Irishmen, and conventional Irish m cu. Your " Poor Paddy" is of the latter class ; for whilst you clothe him with many of the national virtues, you rob him ol some ot the most prominent traits of the lush character, and load him with viced that are not indigenous to our soil. Lord Lyndhur-t, whose haired of the Irish was undying, described us as " aliens iv blood and religion," and denied us the right to English sympathy aud consideration. -But you go farther, and declare we "have ever been a distinctive people, separate from other people on the earth, distinct as to religion, whatever ui.iy be it s form ; nistnut in genius, m their large virtues, auU in the em-unity of their vices." This is, to say the least of it, a very reckless assertion. Iv the Cm place, as to relig'on. II you look mto history you will find that in the pre-Christian trra the prevailing worship ol the Irish pagans was a foim of Druidism, similar to ihut uf the Britons ; and since the advent of St. Patrick, in the beginning ol the fifth century — for more thun 1400 years — Ireland has betn in communion with Rome. At the present day, to far fiom being diaiinoi in religion fiom other people oil earth, she belongs to a laitli \viiicli numbers in its fold 150,000,000 of the human family Secuuuly, jou aver that they (the Irish) are di*tinct in genius, and their large \ntu t -s. This is \cry soft and fluttering, thought it sounds ver\ ujuch like v blarney." But it is a compliment on crutches ; for, in another paragraph you annul the commendation when you say : '' Whut ilie Ueits were in France, they arc in Ireland ; the nations assimilate." Therefore vie do not stand alone as prodigies of genius und virtue. Certawl> , )ou admit a little superiority of head ana lieurt in ihe irishman, owing to climatic influences ; but this you stultify by y our allegation that we are separate irom other people in eriuie. jt'or since tlie French cha-actcr assimilates to ours, there must be a resemblance between ein c id both countries. And what are those enon uus crimes in winch \cu declare Us to be without peers? You lime been atmudi pains in the diagnoses of our mo^ul diseasis ; but a» 1 mv my eje o\er the ii^t ot s\ inptoms, I cannot help suiiung at \our knowledge of the curriculum vitcE of the leading incidents ot ''Poor Paduy'B " hie, and ot Ins antecedents. Ido uot uphold my cuui.tiymen as pui.igons of virtue. 'Diey are after all, but frail mortal.*, us liable us hi oilier people to traii6gress the laws of God aud inuti ; but that thm f iiilts ai.ri vices are i.i any way exceptional, 1 most emphatically utin. Jhe charge is monitions aud untenable For the lirst time in m\ life 1 learn that the Irishman makes a bad husband. Of coui-i', ii uividmtl persoi s liuve held such an opiuiou, but only because individual casis were broiitrht to bear upon s>uch an Ojimiou that gn\e b.ith 'o v c idea ; and the assumption, though unloriuuuu y true m i.-oli.ttd cast-b, can bcaicely be looked on as a national failing. Xhacktnij, who has- s-o often und so pleasantly lampooned us, and who laughed tit liiuch und sneered at more that he saw in Ireland, adu i ed ihe domtrt-u Viitues ol all classes — both rich and poor — that he lell iv

with during his tour in :tb*t country, sfiid lore testimony above all to Jhe love cf both men and women-for their children. You, Sir, are the Srst pourtrayersjof, lrish, cliaracl^nw^ hair ventured to make thi« Jharge, and thus stigmatise my, counfrytnen. t }At and:: Mrs H»Uj'orof« :on,Croker,;and even the terrible i c Times' correspondent,, or ijnather :ommissioner, who wa» specially deputed to .jrisit, amd: pick *, hole in poor Iraddv's thread-bare coat, have borne 7 alike testtmorfyv iand , paid :-ribute to their virtue. . Ou* own, gentle,^enderrbear ted Olirer Goldimith, predicting the exodus from Ireland to the land of the west, lescnhes the virtues that belong fo the peasantry of his native land :—: — Contented toil and hospitable care Aud kind'ioiii'tibial tenderness "was there ; A«d piety. 1 *flth wish* pl'aeed above, ' I - 'And steady loyalty and faithful love,. ■ . . m > is the Irishwoman makes a> chaste amji faithful wife, so does the Irishman make- a fond and devoted husband, and. in no cases in Ireland are thrre charges of wife-beating and brutality, such as occur in the siatar isle, and which are a blot on humanity. Under the most disheartening circumstances, for «ho dear. love of wife and children, he struggles bravely o>\ and all that a brave heart and willings hands can do, he does. Adversity may conquer hiin> but it cannot crush out his. love. When, famine and fever mude its ghastly mart throughout the land, men who before the dire visitation were the beaux ideals of sturdy, honest peasants and manly strength, were worn by sickness and bowed with care, gaunt and spectral ; but suffering and piivation could not rob them of their noble characteristics, and countless instances. are known where, though a wolfish appetite was tearing it their bowels, and gnawing at their vitals, they would not touch the miserable dole which publio chanty had given them. They held it criminal fo touch themselves what their wives and famishing children were crying ibr,' and with a heroic self-denial, forgetting their own wants in the necessities of their families, they nursed and tended the sufferers with the gentleness of a woman, and the tenderness of a Sister of Charity.. Yes, Ireland, you say, is a land of contradictions j but not of such contradictions as you assume. There is, however, no rule without an exception. There are in Ireland, aa well as out, of it, men who make but indifferent, even bad husbands. But compare English and Scotch husbands with the Irish husband, and tjll me in what the former excel? Take an Irishman from the wilds of Connemara, aad compare his life with an Englishman from the Black Country, or from the ,c6al-pits of Northumberland and Durham, and tell me which you believe to be the better husband. But it is not oily the Irish Benedict that disp'eases you. Wny the poor Lishnun should ih trry at all seems to puzzle you. To account for this peculia-ity and the bump of philoprogemtnoness would involve a question of natural philosophy which it would not be advisable to expatiate ou ; but it is surficient to say that iv Ireland the social law recognises but one bond of union betweeu man and woman — that winch is smctifipd and blesse i by the Church. Light connections, such us are not unkn >wn and i n-on • raon in both England and Scotland, are called by their proper namrs in Ireland •; the parties to them are placed beyond the pale, and the offspring thereof carry t'roin the cradle to the grave the brand of their disreputable and disnouorable birth. '1 here is another failing iv which 1 think you have been too hard in placing " Poor Paddy " by himself. '" Irishmen," you sny, '' when thrifty are miserly aud exceeding usurer?." You must have overlooked Scotland when you booked these failings exclusively to li eland. Paddy is u.-ither miserly, mean, nor usurious, as you seem to t link. Men who have through li.c Heeii subject to poverty and privations, ana hence, little accustomed to the possession of money, are apt lo be over careful and nervous about tlu'ir gains, when the tide'of fortune tnms in their favor. They In o 'ii perpetual terror of a collapse of speculations and the closing of banks. They are peculiarly sensitive and suspicious, and labour under exttaordiuary hallucinations as regards specie. Witliout money they are more or less happy ; with it they are uneasy and wretched. The poor Irishman who has saved a few " notes " is as subject to this disease as iiny >>ther person who has suddenly become possessed of comparative riches. But- all other people sire equally subject to it, and become meaner under its influence than poor Paddy. As to usurer, Paduy turned u-urer keeps good company, but he, except in rare instances will share his cup and crust with the poor. According to Lord Macau. ay, the celebrated Duke of JVLi'lLoi ough put out at iuteieat the £-±500 which the Duchess ol L'leveiulM — of virtuous renown — gave him for some work not over clean for honest hands ; and*when lie became great and powerful his early tlirilt, stuck to him, aud in all Ins speculations, he demanded usurious interest, in our owu da) s, the fi.st men on change — merchant princes", lawyers, tailors, grass-kings publicans, and even policemen, look for exorbitant interest — m Sue are more or less usurers. They are not all Irishmen ! " Poor Padd} is ulso wanting in thought," say you. This is one of the commonest failings of humauity at large. Want of it has ruined more tUan Pat. A little thought ou the part of Charles I would have saved his head, uud secured the throne of Kngland to the Stuarts. A little thought, ai d Louis the XVI. aud Mane Antoinette had not passed under the guil'otine, and we had been spared the perusal of the atrocitioa of the Ueigu of Terror. A little thought on the part of Austria, and Sadowa had told another tale. A little thought on the I part of I'rauce, mid the Germans hud nevt-v trod in triumph the Boulevaids ot Pan?, her standard still wavid over conquered Stras« bourg and MeU, aud her fallen Einpuror have never filled an alien's grave, A little thought on the part ul britam and there would have i been no Alab mia difficulty, and San Juun uouul still have been ouis. A littlo lnciciful thought ou the part oi England, aud sue »ould have a different tale to ie'l to-day of Ireland, and Ireland a different tale to tell of her. A little thought on your pait, m•, and I had been ; spared the task uf uuiavi'lliug the web oi your sophistry. ■ (Concluded in our next.)

On the 20th Pecember, 1873, the first anniversary of the day when General > )]lo, the Curhst General, crossed the French frontier into Spam, with 2(3 brave men aud uuturled the national Hag, Don Carlos wrote the General a cou^raiuiatoiy letter, cdiing to Lis niemorj' whac they were then and what they are now.