THE IRISH IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 202, 16 February 1877, Page 19

THE IRISH IN ENGLAND.

(From Correspondent of ' Ulster Examiner.') The doctrine of O'Connor with us in England was, as near as we can recollect, " Universal suffrage, vote by ballot, equal electoral districts, payment of members, no property qualification, and annual parliaments." The meaning of the first proposition was that every man twenty-one years of age, untainted with crime, was to have a vote. ||^pt« by ballot, you will perceive, has now become law. Equal electoral districts is also a doctrinal point in Parliament which cannot long be evaded. Payment of members of Parliament is in abeyance till it works better in America, and no property qualification was passed into law in the time of the elder Lotd Derby. Annual parliaments, it is thought at present, would cause too much confusion and stoppage to trade and speculation and general commerce, but three years, or triennial parliaments, are advocated by most of our Liberals of any note ; so that you see we are progressing favorably, though slowly, in our country, which is the best kind of making haste and our work sure. You cannot do better tl.an recommend your countrymen to do the same.

Again, with regard to the doctrine of universal suffrage, already our females holding any property can rote in municipal affairs, and are eligible for serving in office on School Boards, or any young man can vote who is a householder both in Parliamentary and municipal matters. Now, with regard to Home Rule, in the abstract, which means doing your own business in Parliament in Ireland, subjected to the higher powers having one " head centre" in England or elsewhere, for there must be a head, or we have no law ; for if we have a Republican form of government the head centre is there, and much dearer in taxes to-day in America, where every police officer has to be bribed even ; and two shillings in England or Ireland will go as far at least as three in that even highly-favored land. What are these but Home Rule pom's ? If they are not the end of Home Rule, they are the beginning of it, which means ruling your own business well at home, and see that every man does his duty in Parliamentary elections, in his municipal vote, and his parish School Board. Sending good and true men into Parliament to make an impression upon the leading and dominant powers which have the ruling hand, then you will soon have an impression upon any question of Home Rule, foreign or colonial, and domestic. If you go back to " feudal times " you have nothing to show but horror, anarchy, and bloodshed, according to Scotch history, which is only a reflex of Irish nnd English and Continental form of government. But the great central leader of our times, Feargus O'Connor, in England, with other g od men of the same shade of opinion, was in times past to watch well the dominant parties extant — Whig, Tory, or Radical — and cpntralise his forces of voting power so as to squire with his country's interests and his party, for it is well known that Tory, Whig, or Radical means nothing jess than getting into power, and bidding more for office. Let the Irishman look well to his cumulative vote in Parliament when the foregoing interests clash, for thereby he is at "Home" Rule for his country any moment.