The New Zealand Tablet. FIAT JUSTITIA. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1880. IRELAND, ITALY, AND GLADSTONE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 403, 31 December 1880, Page 13

The New Zealand Tablet. FIAT JUSTITIA. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1880. IRELAND, ITALY, AND GLADSTONE.

■■ ■ ♦ HE trial of Mr. Parnell and thirteen other traversers on a charge of conspiracy, has commenced in Dublin ; and inquisitive people will ask themselves and others too, what good result does Mr. Gladstone's Ministry hope to derive from this prosecution. Under one point of view a ready answer can be given. The necessity under which the traversers labour of being present in Ireland during the prosecution will prevent the attendance of such as are Members of Parliament in St. Stephen's ; and thus a great obstacle to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland will be removed. Beyond this the Government can hope for little more. Ultimately, no doubt, the Habeas Corpus Act will be suspended in that country, and the lives of its people, and their properties to a great extent, will be placed at the mercy of the English Minister. Freedom of speech and freedom of action will be at an end for all who are dissatisfied with the misgovernment cf England. It may be anticipated that the absolute power placed in the hands of the Premier will be moderately used, but it will be used according to his will, when and wherever he pleases, and in such a way as to gag all who give him trouble or draw the attention of civilised nations to the atrocities ot English rule in Ireland.

But this will not remedy the evils of the country, create confidence in the justice and wisdom of English statesmen, encourage trade, manufactures, and agriculture ; and reconcile

Irishmen to the government of England. It will not heal dissensions, make men forget the past, patiently accept the present, or hope for better things in the future. The suspension of the Habeas Act may produce a calm, and no doubt it will for a time, but, nevertheless, the people will become only in reality more exasperated-, more impatient under the tyranny that deprives an entire nation of the protection of law and a settled government, and places it under the heel of one man, even though that man be Mr. Gladstone. It is not only an injury, it is also an insult to the nation, which will resent it as such, and long remember it bitterly. In fact, it's only permanent effect will be to alienate the nation still more from England.

Mr. Gladstone's career is a curious and instructive one. In words, and also in deeds so far as foreigners are concerned, he is the advocate of freedom, of nationalities, and of fair play. Yet no sooner does he become Prime Minister of England for the second time than he proposes to Parliament the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act in Ireland. But why not in England also ? Relatively to the population, more murders and more robberies have been committed in England than in Ireland, and consequently there is more need for the suspension in England than in Ireland. There is another point of view in which Mr. Gladstone's conduct may be viewed. He has sent the British fleet, manned partially by Irishmen, to support nationalities in the East in their rebellion against the Sultan. Yet there is no starvation in these countries comparable to that which periodically desolates Ireland, and as to religious liberty the Government of the Turks stands in favourable contrast with the conduct of several of Mr. Gladstone's allies.

A few years ago Mr. Gladstone and the party he leads exerted themselves to overthrow the Italian Governments, and afforded substantial aid to the rebels and revolutionists of the Peninsula from the Alps to the extreme borders of Sicily. Yet Irishmen seeking for mere justice, asking to be permitted to live like civilised human beings in the land of their birth, which they have fertilised by their sweat, and where their fathers have dwelt for thousands of years, are by this same Mr. Gladstone and his party amidst the encouraging plaudits of the Tory faction to be deprived of the protection of law and placed under a system of government from which even the Turk and the Russian recoils except in very extraordinary circumstances.

Mr. Gladstone's admirers say he is a great statesman and financier. We do not dispute his claim to the latter title. We readily concede that he possesses the commercial instinct in a high degree, and entertain no doubt he would have made a very successful winkler. But we dispute his claim to statesmanship. One of his grand projects was the unification of Italy. This was most certainly to bring liberty, prosperity, and peace to that country ; to lighten her burdens, put an end to brigandage, and develop all her resources. These were the ostensible objects in view. We knew they were not the real. It was injury to Catholicity, particularly to the Papal power that was intended rather than the promotion of the objects enumerated. But let that pass for the present, and let us examine the result of Mr. Gladstone's policy. It will be seen on investigation that this famous politician has been egregiously deceived, that he has ludicrously miscalculated, as wiser men told him at the time, would most certainly be the case. When the revolutionary party patted on the back, aided by Mr. Gladstone and his liberals, initiated active measures for the overthrow of the Italian Governments , there was no starvation in the country, the taxes were light, only one-fourth of wlut they are now. In most cases, notably in the Papal States, there was no debt whatever, tlie rights of property were respected, trade, commerce and agriculture were protected and encouraged ; in a word, the national, political, social and religious interests were well cared for. Now, how great is the contrast between this state of things and what actually obtains. Starvation is now no stranger ; life is insecure ; the life of the nation is being steadily trampled out by crushing taxation ; the population is fleeing from the country in tens of thousands ; innumerable properties are being sold for non-payment of taxes, and universal ruin is staring the people in the face. Some time ago Mr. Gladstone quoted the testimony of the celebrated Protestant writer, Professor db Laveleye, against Catholic governments. We have not heard that he has quoted this same authority as to the results of the Liberal policy in Italy. Professor db Laveleye has just travelled throughout Italy, and published

the result of his observations. We take the extracts given below from the London Tablet of the 6th of November last. Professor de Laveleye learned at Padua that " thousands and thousands of workmen were without occupation, that there was a continual war between labour and capital, that bankruptcies, ruin of every kind, want and misery, were spread throughout society." This was the testimony of the editor of the Italian Journal of Economists. At Venice he learned " that little by little all the palaces of the Grand Canal are passing into the hands of the Jews, and that a third of the value of the whole city is already the property of Jewish families." The Prefect at Bologna told him : " There is real misery, and there is no longer a spirit of resignation . . . In town and country a sudden irritation against the existing social order is developing among the people." At Florence, he says, all the world spoke to me of the frightful crisis through which Florence was passing. There was universal bankruptcy. Signor Vallari, the Professor of History in the University of Florence told him that the state of the working classes was everywhere deplorable, that in Lombardy the food of the agricultural labourer is so bad that it gives them a kind of leprosy ; that in the Romagna the peasantry are covered with rags, and live in holes in the ground." " Everyone," he continues, speaks to me of the enormous taxation of landed property." The number of estates sold up by the Exchequer for arrears of taxes is something horrifying. In Rome, the Professor heard the foremost men in the country discussing tlie social question. "The secret societies spread their ramifications in all directions, and penetrate into every class. All are more or less saturated with socialist ideas." Even the confiscation of the Church property has turned out badly. "The Italian Government, in laying hands on the property of the Church, might have created a system of peasant proprietors. Unfortunately it only thought of making money. The ecclesiastical lands fell into the hands of wealthy people. The rich grew richer, whilst the poor remained wretched." " The Italian debt," he says, "is held by foreigners in all the capitals of Europe, and the native Italian has to toil and endure crushing taxation in order to supply wealthy men in London and Paris. In proportion as the debts of the State, of the towns, and provinces, increase — and this is happening with frightful rapidity — there is also an increase of the multitude of idlers, who live at the expense of the working population." This is the appalling state of things which Mr. Gladstone and his party efficaciously helped to bring about. He did not foresee it, and this speaks volumes for his statesmanship. Everybody else not blinded by hatred of the Pope and Catholic Governments foresaw and foretold it. It is not surprising, then, to find this great Liberal politician at the present time prosecuting Irish gentlemen for endeavouring to ameliorate the condition of Ireland, and suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, in order to stifle all agitation in that unhappy country. But the result may be expected to be, what it has ever beer tinder similar circumstances. An apparent peace may be effected, but discontent and disaffection will smoulder till another" opportunity of bursting into a flame presents itself. Thus the unsolved problem of Irish misery will be permitted to anger men's minds till in the end thete comes some dreadful catastrophe.

Owing to pressure both on our time and space, we are obliged to hold over to next week the letter of our Ohriatchurch correspondent. It is well for us to find that our American cousins are not to hare it all their own way here with regard to machinery. Our worthy fellow-colonist, Mr. P. J. Dungan, of Timaru, for example, has succeeded in inventing a mangle that quite surpasses anything of the sort we have seen imported from America. The machine is a boxmangle, always recognised as much the superior kind, but fallen into disfavour thiough the heavy labour necessary to its working. Mr. Dungan, however, has quite overcome this difficulty, by turning out a neat invention that a child might manage -with ease. The machine is worked by a cog-wheel, that acts upon a bar fitted into the middle of the box, and whose weight goes towards making up the pressure brought to bear upon the rollers, and which is further contributed towards by other portions of the mechanism — there is no weighting with stones or anything of that kind. Half a. revolution of the handle brings the box down its whole length, and the handle is turned with very little effort. A lever, worked by placing the f t once on a step made for the purpose, and the simultaneous pressure with the band of a knob attached to a falling rod, raises the box when it is desired to remove the roller, and the falling rod acts so as to keep the box elevated, without any assistance from the person who works the

machine, for such a length of time as is desirable. The method of working may be perceived at a glance, and the mechanism is extremely simple, and free from liability to go out of order. The appearance of the mangle is, moreover, very neat, and its size convenient and fitted for a room of moderate dimensions. On the whole the inventor is to be congratulated on his ingenuity, and we were by no means surprised to learn that his machine had gained much admiration at the Melbourne Exhibition, where it was one of the first exhibits entered at the New Zealand Court. The machine is known as Dungan's Patent Paragon Mangle, and may be seen at the establishment of Messrs. Briscoe and Co., Princes-street, Dunedin.

The Dominican Sisters acknowledge the receipt of remittances towards their Art-Union from the following : Mrs W. WaH, Ludstone, Messrs J. Hussey, per T. James, Westport ; P. Enright, Arrowtown ; J. Corr, Chiistchurch ; W. Smith, Ludstone ; G. Willis, Invercargill • — SieveTs, Wellington ; M. Clune, Kensington.

Particulars of the Orange march to the rescue of Captain Boycott are very amusing. They are as follows, as reported by the Suez mail news :—": — " The expedition in aid of Boycott was received with intensely hostile demonstrations, and would no doubt have been attacked but for the strong force of infantry, cavalry, and police by which they were protected. No less than 7000 troops are stationed between Claremorris, Ballinrobe, and Lough Mask, to overawe the hostile peasantry." From this it will be seen that the Orangemen afford the members of their creed as much, protection from furious " Papists" as does the paper on the inside of a room's walls afford to its inhabitants from the weather. They are ornamental only. The rebellion of the Boers continues to spread ; they have now seized upon the town of Utrecht. Let us hope there were no unfortunate English residents there to have their throats cut also.

The trial of the land-leaguers has commenced. The jury is reported to have been fairly selected, but on the report we set only such a value as is deserved by the usual tenor of the European telegrams, -which is anti-Irish and anti- Catholic in the extreme.

This is what Mr. Collins told the electors of the suburbs of Nelson when addressing them at Richmond the other day, as reported by a local newspaper :— '• Regarding education he Baid he would yield to no one in New Zealand in an earnest desire to see every child educated, but under the present Act a number of the children of those well able to pay were educated free, and he held that whilst every child of those who were poor should be educated without charge, still those able to pay should do so. He said the annual expenditure on education was £239,897, and he thought they ought to see whether they could not reduce that vote without injuring education. At present every child cost the State £3 9s. 7£d. annually ; very freely would he vote this amount to those parents who could not afford to pay it, but he was sure others would be willing to pay. (Applause.) He was also of opinion, although he would not interfere with secular education, that there should be a payment by results. He knew he was enunciating an unpopular doctrine, but he thought if any sect, and he spoke without intending any disrespect, was prepared to say we will educate our children and bring them up to the standard required by the Colony, that they would then have a right to their share of the cost of education. (Applause.) " We do not know Mr. Collins personally, but he has the reputation of being a ripe scholar, and a gentleman in the best sense of the word. That he has the courage of his opinions is evident from the above extract from his speech, and it is equally clear that he possesses a keen sense of justice.

The Catholics of Auckland have resolved on enlarging the pro« cathedral. A bazaar held in aid of the building fund has realised the goodly sum of £800.

Oy the Feast of the Nativity several Masses were celebrated in St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin, commencing at 6 a.m. At 11 a.m. Pontifical High Macs was celebrated, Hia Lordship the Bishep of the Diocese acting as celebrant, -with the Rev. Fathers Purton and Walsh as Deacon and Sub-Deacon respectively, and the Rev. Father O'Malley, S.J., as Assistant Priest. Mozart's Twelfth Mass was sung by the choir, and the Bishop preached a sermon suitable to the occasion. In the evening there were Vespers and Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament, with an eloquent sermon, preached by the Eev. Father O'Malley, S.J.. who has now for many months filled the office of Preacher at "Vespers.

The fete of the H.A.C.B. Society, St. Joseph's Branch, Dunedin, at the Caledonian Grounds, Kensington, on Boxing Day, was most successful ; there was a large attendance, and much interest was excited by the various events, which were well contested. Those members of the Society who were engaged in carrying out the arrangements, are to be congratulated on the very satisfactory results of their labours.

A striking- feature in the trial of the Land Leaguers will be the examination of several of the most prominent men of the day. The Irish Times reports concerning this as follows :— " It is stated to be the intention of the Traversers to organise their defence so as to make it a grand Land Commission. It is said they will examine Mr

Gladstone in reference to his Midlothian speeches, Mr. Bright upon his Manchester speeches, and Mr. Forster upon his writings and observations in the. House of Commons. A number of landlords, it is said, will be examined, and also tenant-farmers. And it is alleged that among the witnesses called for the Land League will be the Duke of Leinster, the MaTquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of Kenmare, and Mr. Mitchell-Henry, M.P." The trial, it may therefore be seen, will, in more senses than one, be a cause celbbrc.