WHAT SCOTLAND THINKS OF FROUDE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 65, 25 July 1874, Page 12

WHAT SCOTLAND THINKS OF FROUDE.

m ,«• t. . . " ATROCIOUS ERRORS." The ' North British Daily Mail,' of April 10, one of the leading Scotof VnT^ 'i • ?e? c , foll JOWJ 0W1 S& Bcathia g r eview of Mr Fronde's history of English role in Ireland. We expected no less from Scotland. Such Celts a -- eS * the heartS of Iri3hmen t0 their brother „," ? a ma I n . '"JJ ™ ite history, he must not start with a foregone conclusion, which he v sure to enforce and illustrate. He must not aim at being didactic. He must not seek to write an epic poem, or compose a philosophic treatise. His object ought to be the discovery of facts, and his duty is to relate them in their natural sequence, and with their just proportions. In so laborious an undertaking, he is all the better of some imaginative power, just as a laboring horse is the better of a dash of blood. But he must take heed that fancy does not supply him with facts, or color such as he possesses. Disregard of these obvious rules, or inability to observe them, has proved the bane of many ancient and mediaeval writers; nor can it be said that their modem successors are entirely free from such weaknesses. A large part -of Livy is pure legend; much of Tacitus is romance. The medieval historians did not perhaps even aim at truth. Eollin wrote a religious epic; Gibbon a crusade against the Gospel. Niebuhr removed from Roman history many brilliant legends, but substituted, it is to be feared, romances of his own. Mr Froude has fallen into the came errors, though he has perhaps carried them further than any wnterof this century— not excluding even Thicrs or Macaulay. Of this his work, "The English in Ireland," now concluded in three volumes— the first volume of which we noticed some time ago— is a striking example. It is perhaps not intended to be a history at all, but a philosophic treatise to justify certain notions of political scienca to which the author is fanatically attached. If so, its purpose and Zta* c? aro no * the reprehensible, whether regard fl; i t?? P rmci P lea advocated, or to the narration of so-called .n?n% yfl ? 7f? T ghfc t0 be vindicated. Perhaps the only I™, \^flection contained in the whole work-and certainly often enough repeated-is that it was a - great misfortune for Ireland, and, consequently, for England, that the Irish, seeing they were S£?!w ' ? dn ? t ,^ c , n emiTßl * eub Wted by the English-that is, tnat their national hfe has not been entirely annihilated, so that they might have become completely English in thoughts, habits, and 3S -I* i? U ww eU T6T 6 the faCt is admitted, and the question presents itself-What, after all the mischief brought about by the S T™?? a ? d weakne8 * of Plantagenete and Tudor? had ™Z f £ m b i ood y aDar^J of the 17th century, was the proper policy to be pursued m the interests of Ireland and England itself'n«Lrvf° 1P i 6 ™>»}d. enforce aad the maxims he would adopt astonish us no less by their errors than by their atrocity. You *ught i2tJL V T dd T Qt Y Irißh ty the Stro °c "and; vol ough? to have fo P Ly« Pe ° P If!? 6 ? -T1?T 1 ?* 1 kw; drun >head court-martials ought oJhIZ P T d tm , l jUl y ; the reli & ioQ of the vast majority 2rl rft" pushed out. These were the principles which, according o Mi- Froude, ought to have been adopted in the last, and even, to a large extent, m the present century, "in other words, the ?w y °^i "n arCk -° Ugh^ t0 have been carried ou t with the vigor of t^r 6 - fi At 6 18 , nothlD g ne " or o«ginal in such views : the only wonder is that they should be resuscitated in the present day, and by aLn /. tl Ug J ISh «""«*"»• T hey have been tried again anfl again from the days of Caesar downwards- sometimes with success, wiTHr ?°£S b f 1U all cases > cxce P fc those of actual savages HoLr, m ? sfc dlreful /<fato. They succeeded in the case of the Roman provincials, and the result was the emasculation of the people, and the conquest of the empire by foreign barbarians. They succeeded in Moorish Spam, and the result was the Inquisition and national decay. They succeeded in Protestant France, and the upshot was the Revolution of '93. They were tried in Holland, and the consequence was the loss of that country to Spain. They were tried by Se unL w m r , Sc f Ot ; aQd aad fc he result was the internecine war and 2fJ : *< S ff ° Ur centuries between kindred peoples. But, En? *™1 mm ° te im ? ov ? &nee *° matter in hand, they were tried in IreZLZ L Perseveringly acted upon from the time of Cromwell till within £^ - Oiy S eD) aDd the results are precisely those which Mr Froude in common with every well-wisher to England and to civilizatmYnf^T? Blyde P W W^h the exception of Scottand in the X ? Ife btewarts, and the low countries in the days of Alva, it may be doubted whether any country was even more completely held P? ?f ,f co "l ueror fc han was Ireland during the 18 h century. PhysieaUy, religiously, intellectually, the great body of the £SS. Tf elj PP r ° Btrate< De P ri ved of arms, and of most of the 2&S, !T mem ' thfl y were °°t even allowed the consolations, of religion, and were even denied the benefits of education. OwJi T Pe -l laW8 .T re .' inde ed, a masterpiece of tyranny, which the £?Ki ?? ° r mi f bt , ha ™ envied. That they were not carried out to the letter was no fault of their framers, bnt because human nature ?h n P . m J ed aS *° Oan r oat in Pr a °tice what it may conceive in theory. What jnore could Cromwell, what more could Machiavelli what more could Mr Froude himself have devised? That they hatS «r a f f d Or S aniaed P e W, that they produced undying hatred, secret societies, assassination, and ultimate rebellion, was what aZ™ c . X r C-fC -fft' t Whea the insurrection at last broke out, it was accompanied with features of cruelty and ferocity-perhaps unparalleled! soldi^h^ ft? pr ° Toked e « esses on the part of the English S,7^? y - C^ dlbl f >WWe the y nofc t0 ° well authenticated. The Pitch cap, the racks the lasn, the picket were the ordinary means of deemcZ apUtbor^a p Utbor^- The spy system, with all its detestabl^d fxfense Ld wT)!^ 8 ' Carried Out * the Government at w t n«?Zwf ? the m Os t unblushing effrontery. Mr Froude dm s no attempt to deny these thinga-they^re undeniable-but he m Is to palliate or even justify tkem as necessary in the times. The atrr c" uoprefsion of°Th ff o*™'0 *™' sicke^«g horrors that attended <! a 2hZll ndmn mutin y' and the Jamaica insurrection, .f which EpghabHxen are now ashamed, might on the same terms be

extenuated. It is not in Scotland, with her traditions of Bothwell Bridge and the Grassmarkot, that such acts'are to be justified or vindicated. There is a cuiious circumstance" in the history of the Irish Hebellion which more than anything else throws light upon its true character, and whioh wts too well known for Mr Froude to pass over without notice, though, straigely enongh, it faih to awaken, him from his dream. Sir Ealph Abercrombio, one of the bravest Scottish soldiers that ever upheld England's flag, was, while the insurrection was at its height, sent over to Ireland as commander-in-chief. No one till now ever accused Sir Ralph of weakness. The stout soldier, who afterwards overcame the Cuirassier with his own sabre at Alexandria, whose genius drove the French from Egypt, and who died in arms as a soldier should die, was not likely to be a dreamer. Yet, no sooner had he landed in Ireland than he expressed his abhorrence of the entire system by which the Viceroy was exasperating the Rebellion and even went so far as to prohibit the troops, under heavy penalties from carrying out the instructions received from the Castle. Those in authority tried to cajole and threaten him ; but he stood firm, and when his remonstrances were unsuccessful, he at once threw up his command and returned to England. Mr Froude narrates all thisf and gives it as an instance of deplorable weakness, by which the " blood and iron system " was, unhappily, checked in its salutary career " Credat Judceus ! " J ' He gives sickening pictures of the horrible, treacherous, and fiendish atrocities by which the Irish Rebellion was characterized • but he fails to see that the penal laws, the spy system, and the torturings long maintained by the executive, formed the school in which such practices were taught and enforced. Though living in the second half of the ninteenth century he has yet to learn the rudimentary lesson that brutal laws produce brutal acts, that lying begetß perjury, and treachery treason; that you cannot repress crime by crime, or the fanaticism of one sect by the religious madness of another. He has yet to learn — what not one Englishman in a thousand would now dispute — that the only antidotes to the fanaticism of contending sects is the spread of education, and the enforcement of free toleration ; that when a people are fevered by injustice they can only be restored to quietude by conceding their reasoaable demands, and rendering all equal before the law, whatever their creeds or their politics ; that as the end and' object of all Government is the welfare of governed no Government deserves the name, or can indeed be long carried on, which is maintained by violence, and enlists among its supporters the worst passions and most degrading instincts of human nature. These jus* and obvious principles, very alien from the maximi of the Tudors, of Cromwell, of Dutch William, of Camden, and, we regret to say, of Mr Froude — have been more and more acted upon by the British Parliament since the repeal of the Penal Laws, and have calumni&ted in many acts of justice during the late administration. Unbending firmness of rule, rigorous, evenhanded, justice to all, absolute indifference to parties and sects, the spread of sound education— these are the indispensable conditions of Ireland's present and future prosperity. The G-overnment that is strong and wise enough to play this part will deserve well — not of Ireland only, but of Great Britain. Meanwhile let the curtain of oblivion fall over the old tale of Ireland's wrongs and England's folly. It is not the part of a wise physician to uncover old sores before they are skinned over ; and we cannot but think that Mr Froude might find better employment for his marvellous power of historic painting than in re-touching the fading picture which portrays Erin's grief and Albion's shame.