MR. JAMES REDPATH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 430, 8 July 1881, Page 11

MR. JAMES REDPATH.

We take the following from the Irish- American : — Mr. James Red path, the eminent journalist, philanthropist, and agitator, is an extraordinary man. As a newspaper correspondent be has, for many years, held an exalted position ; as an Abolitionist, his labours in the anti-slavery movement were incessant ; as an active and enterprising business man, and in originating or developing various useful ideas, he has proved an energetic and useful member of the community ; while in his enthusiastic and persistent labours towards the amelioration of suffeiing and oppressed humanity, and more particularly in behalf of persecuted Ireland, and in denunciation of British tyranny, he has endeared himself to all lovers of justice and liberty, and has played an important part in the history of the land agitation. As a lecturer, particularly during the past year, he stands, perhaps, unrivalled. During the past winter he delivered about one hundred lectures generally, seven lectures a week, and on some occasions speaking for three hours at a time. All have been delivered at various cities throughout the Union, and, though he haß spoken on all these occasion on the Irish question, his audiences were of the most miscellaneous kind and always unusual kind — quite frequently numbering from three to five thousand. Probably no lecturer in so short a period ever addressed so large a number in the aggregate, and certainly no lecturer ever addressed more enthusiastic audiences. He leaves for another tour in Ireland the first week in May, but will lecture in the Athenaeum, Brooklyn, on Sunday evening, May Ist. A representative of the New York Sunday Democrat has besn interviewing Mr. Jas. Redpath. During the interview the Democrat representative asked :—: — •' Did you read the Parliamentary debate m which Sir W. Harcourt quoted your speeches 1" " I read the speech," replied Mr. Redpath, " in which he quoted what probably some of his own spies reported as my speeches — sentiments that I never uttered. I am writing a reply to it to-day. For instance, he said in Parliament that I said in New York that it was ' perfectly legitimate to shoot landlords because the landlords were only beast of prey ;' that ' Irishmen are cowards,' because 'in Catholic Mayo, where a Protestant could not be found, they elected a Presbyterian minister to Parliament — a Protestant, Charles Stewart Parnell, as their leader ;' and that ' I was a very active agent of the Land League in Ireland.' Sir William lies almost as boldly as Simonton, of the A&sociated Pre&s of New York, who telegraphed that in my lecture here I repeatedly advocated the assassination of landlords. You heard that lecture, and you know how false that statement was. Imagine the audacity of reporting that I said there was not a Protestant in Mayo, when I have sat at table and travelled with Protestant ministers there. " However," Mr. Redpath suddenly exclaimed, "in spite of lies and misrepresentations and jealousies, this great war for human rights will go on, and time will record who are true and unselfish, and which policy was wise and victorious."