IRELAND AND ENGLAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 216, 15 June 1877, Page 15

IRELAND AND ENGLAND.

A proposition i 3 going the rounds of the English papers which, practical in some respects, show bow completely the English people, even those who are fair-minded, how completely even tnese persons misunderstand Ireland. The proposition is that matters affecting Ireland, such as gas and railroad bills, we suppose, should be settled by a Board of Commissioners, who will sit iv Dublin, and | who will thus relieve the Imperial Parliament in London of much j business. If this is carried out, it is argued, then the strength of j the Home Eule and the National movement will be weakened, and j the Irish people will be satisfied. j There is really something amusing in the way this scheme is j advocated. Its advocates say : "We admit that the time of Parliament is very fully occupied, and that Irish affairs do not meet with the attention they deserve. We recognise the fact and we propose a remedy. Let the Irish attend to their own gas and railroads, harbours and tramways. We will let them. Surely this ■ will be satisfactory, and they •will forthwith abandon all vain schemes of independence and forget the past." Now it appears that, so far from this scheme being received > with shouts of joy in Ireland, it is laughed at by the people there. ' They do not seem at all enamoured of the proposal, and in no way \ do they believe will it promote the proposed end or satisfy the ! national aspirations. { A Parliament in College Green would be a symbol of national | independence, and would exercise real powers of legislation. A " Board" would represent nothing at all, and would have very limited powers. In order to comprehend clearly the difference between the two, consider what occurred in 1867 in Hungary. Hungary had been an independent nation for centuries, and the Hungarians had j a long line of kings, they had their national traditions, they had j their national pride, they had their national customs and cere- 1 monies, and they had, and still have, all the characteristics of a | people and a nation. In the course of time the Hungarians and I the Bohemians, the Austrians, and other peoples became the subjects of the same sovereign — the Emperor of Austria. They were not conquered, but the Austrian sovereign succeeded to the throne of Hungary. In course of time it was sought to Germanize the Hungarians, and what was the consequence P The effect was what might have been anticipated ; discontent and frequent insurrections. At last, after long and patient struggles, the attempt was abandoned, and Hungary was granted a separate Parliament, and the Emperor of Austria went to Pesth, and was crowned in that historic city as King of Hungary, and the ceremonies that took place were of a most imposing character. The emperor-king, crowned and robed, having girded on the sword of the ancient sovereigns of Hungary, drew it and struck to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, signifying by this action that he was ready to defend the country from its oacmies from whatever quarter they would attack the realm.

Ever since then Hungary has been peaceful and contented, a source of strength and not of weakness to the Austrian Empire.

There we have a strict parallel to the case of Ireland and England. Ireland, like Hungary, has her history, her traditions, and her national instincts. These are ineradicable and inextinguishable, and must be recognized. If anyone thinks they are dead, let them read the history of Ireland for the last twenty years, and they will find abundant evidence to satisfy them that Ireland is still a nation in feeling. Had England been wise, had her statesmen only exercised the same judgment that the Austrian sovereign did in 1867 in regard to Hungary, then, centuries ago, even a few generations ago, they would have recognized these facts, and, perhaps, succeeded. But they never did, Even in the school-books used in the national schools in Ireland Irish history is ignored. The English people never put themselves in the place of others. They talk about forgetting the past; but do they forget their past ? Certainly they do not, and why then should they expect the Irish to forget the past ? No nation ever forgets its past. Even France, between whose present and whose past the great upheaval of 1789 has occurred, does not forget Charlemagne and Louis IX. and Louis XIV. and the Chevalier Bayard and other great men and great events that occurred in her early history. America does not forget her history, nor Spain, nor Italy, why then should Ireland ? She has a history and heroes ; and these heroes did not die in order to make a huge vestry at Dublin, but to make a nation. — Exchange.