DEFENDERS OF THE DYNAMITARDS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 17, 15 August 1884, Page 15

DEFENDERS OF THE DYNAMITARDS.

A correspondent who claims to have a very wide acquaintance among the London workiDgmen sends a London evening papar the following :—: — There are many persona of great political activity, chiefly in the extreme Radical ranks, who, while holding that the recent outrages are inexcusable, do not believe they are inexplicable. Even so sober * a journal as the liberal morning paper declared, in a recent spasm of delirium, that the explosion at (Scotland yard was quite " natural " ; and tbeie are not a few British subjects with pretensions to political wisdom who have what Carlyle would have called a " mischief -joy " at the cowardly attempts to destroy public buildings and imperil human lives. They are obviously of the extreme school of politics, and believe that the demands of Ireland should be granted to tbe fullest exten*. lush movements have always found desperate supporters who wera Dot Celts. A Continental refugee was a principal .actor in the Fenian movement of twenty years ago, and one of the most important manifestoes then issued by the '• Brotherhood " was drafted by a leading Kadical, who lately has been, and still is, very prominently before the public. Those who are acquainted with the active spirits of tbe English proletariat know very well that there is a wide-spread conviction that little can be obtained from Governments more Whig than Liberal, except by a display oE force. Quite lecently, at a discussion on trade unionism, the sacretary of a wellknown and not insignificant society declared that the principle of unionism was so languid that a Broadhead, with his canisters of gunpowder, was necessary, and ought to be forthcoming to produce a desirable stimulus. The sentiment met with some approval, and no expressed disapproval. It is but right to say that no leading trade unionist was present, or so abominable a doctrine would have met with a condemnation as jusfc as it would have been Bevere, The inci-

dent shows, however, that there is a fire smouldering, which, in some circumstances, might bnrst into dangerous flame. The logic of the British working man is of a rough-^nd-ready kind. If there be one thing clearer to his mind than anothar it is that outrages are not committed for fun. Men do not assassinate or blow up buildings for mere amusement. The British working man may believe that the miscreant dynamiters are mercenary : but he recognises a cause far deeper that explains, not perhaps how it is that assassins can be hired, bat how it is that there are persons who hire them. It is maintained by these that if the disaffection that produces the outrages were removed the outrages would cease, and that that is the prudent course to follow. To many persons it is a far more heinous offence to evict, and perhaps starve to death, two hundred and sixty families on the stony height ol Carraroe. than to break two hundred and sixty panes of glass in Downing street. The dynamite and dagger men are considered by those who sympathise with the oppressed as but little worse than the " wolf of Counemara," and the fact that the latter carries on his outrages with the help of the military and the police, and with the sanction of the law, does not soften the bitterness of that feeling. There is a high authority for the dictum that when laws are essentially bad it is merely a matter of prudence to obey them ; and it is nob surprising if men of fervent spirit strain that doctrine to the utmost. It is the feeling above indicated that led so many ardent politicians of the proletariat cl«i3S to prophesy that the last Dynamite Act would be followed by more outrages, and who still maintain that all coercive legislation will ultimately result in increased disaffection. Oppression makes even wise men mad, and an undue exercise of force is certain to create forcible resistance. The '• men of order," who advocate " moral suasion," are frequently reminded by persons of the class here referred to tbat " force ' is tbe most constitutional of all methods. It is the method most used by Government itself. If force be improper and unjustifiable, why, they ask, do we pay so many millions a year for our battalions and bayonets, our infantry and ironclads ? Men who suffer, or who sympathisa with suffering % are not easily persuaded that force should be a Government monopoly' It is admitted even by historians that rebellion is legitimate if it succeeds, and this is a doctrine that tinges the opinions of those who do not rebel only because they know that failure would be the result. All this may be very fallacious reasoning, but it is, nevertheless, the argument openly advanced every night in almost every place where working men congregate, and is an argument, too, that receives considerable support. Much of this characteristic of the Extreme Radical is attributable to the cosmopolitan nature of working men's organisations. The officials of .Nihilism, or, at any rate, aome of them, are active members of the political clubs of English working men — institutions that have also among them a fair sprinkling of extreme French and German Socialists, many of them prosciipts. The influence of these men is everywhere apparent, even evident, and it is no uicommon thing to hear it said, ♦• ifivery can o£ dynamite helps on the cause," and to hear more than a half-hearted satisfaction at the dynamite outrages. It may be asked, how is it, theu, these opinions are not more loudly asserted 2 If they are so widely held, how is it that they are not proclaimed more openly than they are ? The answer i 3 at hand. The causes which, the working men recognise are too remote to exert a persistent influence of sufficient power to induce action. It is not in England that the shoe pinches. If the British labourer were oppressed as the Irish labourer is oppressed, there is no saying what excesses might not be committed The men who threw down Hyde Park railings for the sake of a vote ; the Jingoes tbat broke Mr. Gladstone's windows, and would have mobbed Mr. Gladstone himself, if they bad had the chauce ; the operative* who set fire to a manufacturer's house at Blackburn for an advance uf wages ; the ironworkers who, a year ago, took possession of a foundiy in Staffordshire ; and the women who, with faces bleeding from the blows of policemen's stare*, held Palace Yard until the ma f ch tax was abandoned, are not made of the stuff that would readily yield if they suffered as sotns people suffer, and were oppressed as others are oppressed. This they boldly declare. At the present time these men are patient and observant of the law, because Irish law is not English law. They do not suffer, and therefore they do not rebel. _ The spirit, however, is willing, and on adequate cause, would assert itself in the future as it has done in tbe past. They are abiding in hope that the n°xt Parliament will give to them, and to others who netd it more than they, such improvement in the law as will make their lives easier. In tbe meantime, it should not be forgotten, for it cannot be ignored, that they regard the dynamiter, not with kindly feelings, but as an instrument that will force on an unwilling Lejrislatuie the wisdom of removing all the causes that prompt murder and foster outrage. To their view the dynamiter is a necessary evil. It remains to convince that he is an unnecessary evil.