AMERICAN OPINION,

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 7, 8 June 1883, Page 5

AMERICAN OPINION,

(" Jacob Terry," in the Otago Daily limes.) The other day 4000 immigrants landed at Castle Garden. Fourteen hundred landed another day this week ; and so the stream of Euro* pean emigration pours in without abatement. Borne thousand Irish emigrants were dumped ashore at Philadelphia and Boston laat week, and more are coming. They are partly assisted to emigrate by the Government, being victims of eviction or driven fr«m their homes by famine. I perceive that the English Government is looking" at this exodus of the Irish people with complacency, and regard " emigration as the only possible remedy for Irish grievances," according to the cabin dispatch of the debates in Parliament, but it is viewed in a very different light by Americans who are, on the whole, friendly to England. I have conversed with many of them— journalists, professional men, merchants, bankers, and politicians : all friends of England, — and the unanimous opinion is one of stiong condemnation. They maintain that England is not justified in persisting in a policy which gives Irishmen in their own country the alternative only of pauperism or expatriation. A body of laws which reduces an entire nation to this condition cannot be either politic, just or patriotic, and therefore the violent measures resorted to by the Irish -in America are regarded as being in a measure justified by the unbridled tyranny of England. Not that they approve of the dynamite policy by any means, but that, as impartial spectators of the contest, they see clearly the errors and faults of English rule. As one gentleman remarked : "It is brute force against brute force ; craft against lawful organisation ; the adder biting the heel of the rider ; and while human nature remains the same, similar conditions will produce like results. Let England grant Ireland the right of Parliamentary, government as she has granted Canada and Australia that right, and ' there will be an end of agitation. If a Constitution had not been granted to Canada, do you think that England would have held it, or that the United States would have permitted the adoption of Coercive measures against it like those now in force in Ireland 1 It would not have been tolerated for a moment. I tell you Canada would have rebelled, and there would have been war with America ; for no administration could have withstood the whirlwind of national enthusiasm on behalf of liberty and constitutional government which a Canadian revolution would have evoked." " But you checked the Fenian invasion," I replied. 11 Certainly we did, and should do so again. Bat that was a very different matter. The Fenians were not in sympathy with the Canadians, who had no grievance against England; and'tlks~country~ could not permit its citizens to invade the territory of a friendly power. The days of unofficial war are ended on this 'Continent. Filibustering received its death-blow in Nicaragua when Walker wag executed. But let Canada raise the standard of independence, and you would soon see an American army in the field to resist the English battalions should they venture to land. England could not send an army to Canada that we could not blot out of existence ; but as there is no probability of stxch an occurrence, we need not discuss that point. The truth is, however, England is doing herself great injustice in this Irish affair. It is discrediting her own civilisation to say that the Irish people are incapable of self-government at home after 700 years of English tuition, while they are abundantly capable of it the moment they set foot in Canada, Australia, or America, The positiou is untenable. It is illogical, and unjust to English methods. With what face can England hereafter stand up before the world and pose as the friend of constitutional government in Europe when one of the United Kingdoms is being depopulated by her misgovernment, and held in check only by martial lavr and the total disarmament of the people ? Arm the Irish people and you can no more perpetuate the present tyranny than you could enslave the handful of Transvaal Boers or whip the Afghans." There was much force in this, and much of justice also, and I did not pursue the subject ; but I perceive clearly that English leaders do oot understand American sentiment, which is fast crystallising in favour of Irish Parliamentary independence. The effect of the wholesale depopulation of Ireland upon American domestic politics is not at all satisfactory to the American people, because it introduces a foreign and disturbing element accustomed to seditious conspiracies and bound together by ties apart altogether from political affiliations in this country. Republican institutions are being endangered from this cause, and it will very soon become incumbent upon the Administration and Congress to deal with this matter. I should not be surprised if a very forcible remonstrance were presented to the British Government on this question, and that they should be requested to find some olher domicile for their disaffected Irish population, reduced by misgovernment to the brink of starvation, than, the United States. Were such a remonstrance presented to the Court, of St. James' what answer could be made to it ? And what effect would it have upon the domestic and Imperial policy of England? I leave you to reason out this problem upon the higher plane of international polity. It is one which must suggest itself to the minds of statesmen wheD the passions of the hour which blind them have cooled down and reason resumes its sway. And in this connection it should be borne in mind that England recognised the capacity of Slav, Bulgarian, and Roumanian to organise and administer constitutional government without any preliminary training after 400 years' subjection to the Turks. Surely Irishmen, with the example of England before them, and some practiaal knowledge of affairs, might be equally trusted to manage their own affairs, and to take this black thorn out of the side of Britannia. I think the experiment is certainly worth trying, because it is fast becoming evident to all -that the United States, in self-defence, must enter a protest against the consequences of Irish misgovernment, whatever may be the cause.