Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 1

Current Topics AT HOME AND ABROAD.

We are continually bearing of the many exceld d lenciea of the nowspaper press, and yet it we may bkpoßTebs 1 jadge by the decisions of several people who should be authorities on the subject* it after all appears to be a direct waj to perdition—at least for some of those connected with it. But we may hope, perhaps, that the reporters, to whom we allude, are an exception to the role, and that all the other members of the profession stand in no particular need of salvation. The Sal* vation Army prays for the reporters ia a manner that if reported aright, bespeaks their utter perdition, travelling revivalists occasionaly refer to them as past praying for, and now we fiad a lady who wanders about preaching here and there describe those who had for some days attended her meetings in one of the Victorian towns as being "yet unsaved." She offered a prayer for the "dear reporters who were as yet unsaved.'* "We do not know, however, at to whether the expression " unsaved reporters " may be taken as an equivalent of the words "d d reporters," although, perhaps, if such be not the ca*e we have an example of a distinction without a difference. And after all it would sound rather odd to hear a lady, even when declaming from a platform, speak of anyorfe or anything as d d, — If, neverthless, the " converted " are to be looked upon as saved at once and for ever it is extremely difficult to avoid the conclusion that a logical view of the matter must result in classing the unconverted with the damned. It will, meantime, be interesting to keep an eye on reporters generally so as to lemi what may be the particular experiences of whatever member of their body it is who eventually attains. to being saved. Of their experiences ia the contrary state in which they now find themselves a report would also be interesting and we would suggest that someone or other belonging to the profession should give it to the world. A well authenticated limbo should be a very interesting realm to find described, and, according to the decision of all these extremely pious people of whom we have spoken, there can be little doubt but that such a place exists and that the reporters inhabit it. Bat it would seem that this great fact of salvation, is not fully agreed upon by the world that is led by its private interpretation of Holy Scripture. According to another authority that we have at hand it would be quite possible for a reporter to be saved without giving outward and visible signs of the matter or even without expjriencing any particular motion within, and for the credit of the calling let us hope that it is so, in some instances at any rate. We have at hand, then, an article from an Anglican publication named Church Bells in which the whole matter of sensible conversion is ridiculed and a belief in it pronounced to be exceedingly mischievous. " Few persons conversant with the popular Christianity of the uneducated classes, « says the writer,' can be ignorant of their conviction that a sgnsible experience of conversion i 3 a necessary prelude to a reformed life. In consequence of this, many remain year after year in a state oE comparative indifference to religion, waiting for the sensible experience of conversion, which never comes. They believe that God gives and witholds this sensible experience on arbitrary grounds ; and their idea, if not their language, often is, *Ah ! neighbour Smith has been converted, and I, alas I am where I wa?. My time perhaps may come, and then I shall be converted too. 1 Meanwhile there is no real, strenuous effort to resist and conquer what they know to be wrong. Others often suffer anguish and sorrow from the terrible doubts which cross them. ' I know that conversion is necessary. I have never experienced it : without it I have no hope.' Others are strengthened in a sense of presumptuous assurance. ' Thank God, I have experience 1 the sensible effects of conversion. Jesus my Baviour has visited my soul ; lam safe.' The effects of such a belief are indifference, fear, presumption, intensified by the popular theory as to the results of conversion. A very common opinion prevails that conversion insures ' salvation : ' once converted, saved for ever. I have heard sometimes from the pal pit the exhortation of popular Christianity, which, if parodied, would sound like life-and-death, calls to enter a lifeboat. ' Leave this moment the sinking ship.! Ijt £s Roomed,, doomed everlastingly ! Enter the lifeboat ; Christ 1b at the helm ! Once there, safe forever—everlastingly

safe !' " Popular Christianity for the uneducated classes then is a very dangerous and ridiculous thing, and the troth is only to be found in the select Christianity of the classes that are educated. Bat the Christianity that betrays the masses that receive it must be acknowledged to be but a doubtful gift to mankind. And how shall we distinguish between the disputing judges, to whom shall we appeal to reverse the decision of Mrs. Hatapson ?— To the Archbishop of Canter > bury, or his superior the Queen | To her Majesty when she attends the Anglican Church in England, orjwhen she sits under the ministry of the Kirk Jin Scotland'? for mayhap there is some difference of opinion according to the chi|a4o£ communion. How again must, the, masses have fared th ongh •Wj«B ages in which it was impossible, for them to have been even in 'slight degraa educated, had there been no sure authority to guide them ? and under such circumstances, how many grotesque caricatures of Christianity must have emerged from those ages ! As to the reporters meantime between all the authorities it is quite impossible for us to coma to any decision about their real condition,— we shall hope for the bast therefore, and that they are at the very worst — •' unsaved."

The: boot is no doubt |an important article of the touching man's attire. Whole columns might be written in | the connection with the history of the boot. Dean boot. Swift, if we recollect aright, was accredited with a power of writing an interesting essay on a broom* stick, if it so pleased him, but the man who should write an interesting essay on the boot need be of no very lively imagination.— facts and fancies- galore would be ready to his hand. Prom the times wben the noble savage in his wild condition wore no boots owing to his uncultured jjiate^dovm to Jfce present day when Madame Sarah Bernhardt personating Lady^Macbeth horrifies refined audiences by coming out on the stage without a tack of a shoe or stocking to her foot, owing no doubt to her extreme [culture, there is no end of things thatjmight be said in this connection. We can fancy a thrilling romance woven on the theme of a pair, of moccasins, foi example, and in this instance we may remark in passing, the i- .c^le savage did wear boots or something like them- See the faithful squaw how she embroiders the deerskin leggings tar h»er dusky mate, beneath nature's canopy of the might/ foret. Or something pretty might be imagined in connection with the sabot. Even the patten on which the thrifty English housevife' (mounts in order that she may remain dry-shod while she mops tte flioors is not unworthy of notice, And, as for the brogue, what nig^ht not be repeated in its praise, as it kicks thj deve from the sbamoctcs ? Tne dainty high-heeled invention, again, that seems especially ? worni'for the purpose of enabling our maids— and even our matrom themseljrer —no feather-weights [either— to display the skill with whi/jh tiey avoid tumbling down on their noses, might afford a subject to |he novelist, or still belter, the poet— and we recommend the matter <to the attention of several of our rhyming friends. They will find their muse take to it most suitably and con amore, and whether they choose to ring the changes on the heel or the toe the poems produced by them will do honour to their powers. The boot and its kindred wear form decidedly a topic on which it would be possible to dwell infinitely— commemorating the wearers, and not by any means forgetting the makers. Did not the Bishop of Melbourne glorify the. shoemaker immeasurably the other day when he declared that had he had one for his father he would never think of denying .the fact, but would almost invariably stamp the episcopal seaLin cobbler's wax. But long before the Bishop of Melbourne's time tfl Battle of Agincourt was fought on St. Crispin's day, and the pat^n.of the cobbler wa9 for the nonce the especial patron of the King. Whatever \rca had known, nevertheless, about the boot and its connections we we're, still unprepared to learn that it had been known to enter very deeply into theology and to act an important part in the religious life of a very eminent man. The boot, in fact, was the cause of the famous Emerson's renouncing his connection with the particular church to which in his earlier years ne. b.ad belonged : " Emerson broke with the organised religion of the 'cnurch,bnton a point not of faith but of form. He was a born idealist and was offended by the deacons' creaking boots as they bore round the consecrated elements in their hands." Such is the historical fact related the other day at the Concord School of Philosophy by a certain learned doctor. To comment

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on the matter wholly surpasses our power nor shall we stay- to inquire as to whether the deacons in. questtoo covered the cloven foot with their creaking boots— but it will at least be admitted on all hands that a more remarkable case of conversion or its contrary has never occurred — and that is saying a great deal.

One of the most amusing articles we have read for A DBEADFOL a long time is that in which the London World disPHENOMBNON. usses Mr. Healy. Amazement, indignation, disgust,

horror, and despair, have all evidently contended for mastery in the writer's mind. For the newspaper in question Mr. Healy is an eighth wonder of the world, and it cannot tell what to make of him, that is, beyond making him an excuse to slander the Irish cause exceedingly— which it is glad to do. The World first of all holds Mr. Bealy up as a phenomenon who without having had any educational advantages to speak of is still master of two foreign tongues, and of English to the extent of securing a sale and a reading for whatever it may please him to wtite. And the admission forced from an enemy as to the manner in which Mr. Healy has educated himself may be taken as a very fair homage t) his talent 0 . The World would have been glad to call him an ignoramus if it had been possible and we may be sure it would not have been at all particular about Btraining a point in the matter. Into Mr. Healy'a course of self-edu-cation, eminently successful as it all too evidently was, the World does not seem to consider that hints on politeness entered to any very great extent, and it refers in a way that bespeaks strong distress of mind to the chastisement administered the other day in Parliamen to Mr Trevelyan. Mr. Healy, s.iys tbe World did not in the least care about Mr Trevelyan's accusing him by implication of being no gentleman. Surely thickness of hide could be no greater and callousness had reached its climax. But, perhaps, in addition, Mr, Healy did not even care about the World's accusing him, in turn, of endeavouring to incite to outrage, and of having called on the people over whom his influence reaches to have recourse to the blunderbussMr. Trevelyan's implication as to his want of gentility was hardly as severe or scandalous as this, and yet perhaps it was as much regarded by Mr. Healy. It certainly deserved to be so, for nothing is more contemptible than wilful misrepresentation and of that the World was certainly guilty. We need not wonder that it also repeats the hackneyed old falsehood conceraing the way in which outrages followed on exciting speeches made at Land League meetings, for that forms part of the stock in trade of anti- Irish writers generally, and must be repeated as a matter of course. — It is however, the direct opposite to the truth, as all who know anything about the matter mutt know— even many of these writers themselves, but not all of them by any means for a considerable number of those who esteem themselves capable of dealing with Irish affairs are complete knownothings. The point, however, on which the World is particularly sublime is that touching the payment of members. To this pitch of iniquity it announces with despair the Irish are approaching, and the mischief of it all is that Mr. Healy bids fair to be the pattern after which the future members will be elected. And, we may observe in passing, that if such be the case even on the Worlds own showing Ireland will have nothing whatever to be ashamed of in her representatives, but on the contrary may be very proud of them, — independent, fearless, able men as they needs must be. But, shrieks the If arid, fihere is the very worst of it all ; they wiil not be Irish representatives at all. They will be a wholly unnatural element in the staid | House of Commons, a brood from the outer darknes3, and representative of the wild trans-Atlantic revolutionaries. What a disturbing influence is here over every time-honoured British prejudice and how strangely the old successful rebellion of the States makes itself felt in the Government it cast off. Verily the Irish people have gone with a vengance and we agrje with the World in the belief that it is by this very payment of member.* by the funds largely raised abroad that the avenging blow is destined to be most powerfully struck home. The World asks, in conclusion, if when the Parliament is filled with members paid from abroad and elected on the pattern of Mr. Healy, it will be any longer possible to " con- ■ trol Ireland by the present social and political machinery," And, for our own part, we answer that we believe as we hope that it will be found wholly impossible to do anything of the kind— indeed, it is in this very hope and belief that we desire to do our part in raising the necessary funds. Our only doubt, meantime, is lest men of Mr Healy 'a stamp may not be so plenty as the World fears. But, at least, we may hope to find men sufficiently up to the mark and in sufficient numbers, for even though a man may fall short of Mr_ Healy'a standard that need not prevent him from being a very energetic, good, and useful man. It will not be because he is so much worse than other men, but because Mr. Healy is so much better.

Whether the news of General Gordon's defeat

SOUDANESE and capture has bean confirmed truly or not by the complications, reported message of the Khedive to the Queen, it is

impossible for us to say at the time when we are writing. The report, however, seems to have something of the tone of

trutf^About it following as it" does 6n a message from O'Kell^to t% Daily Nem to tbe effect that a battle was raging in which' although beaten back With great loss again and again the forces of the Mahdi returned to the fight in ever increasing numbers, Tbe news, if it finally prove true, will bo disastrous in it 3 consequences- to the government of Mr. Gladstone, and may ]go far to counteract the popularity arising to the Cabinet from their action on the Franchise. The delay o£ the expeditioa of relief until it was too late would, indeed, reflect most discreditably on any one accountable for it, and to excuse it in the eyes of the people would be a difficult matter. But* according to Sir Samuel Baker, the time had been let pass in an iuexplicable manner, and, if the wrong route had not been finally decided on, ? which, supposing Sir Samuel Baker to be a competent authority, would seam more than doubtful, the expedition had, at least, sst out too late and been, moreover, jimproperly organised. In a letter to the Tvmes last August the traveller in question explained that the route to Berber from Suakin was a comparatively easy one, to be traversed by an army of relief in some twenty days, and over a country not unpleasant to travel at an advanced season of the year, and even capable of being crossed without unbearable inconvenience during the heat of August. The way by the Nile he explained to be difficult unless it were begun in good time and by means of a boat called a " nugger " especially fitted for ascending the cataTacts, and capable of accommodating a large number of men. That British soldiers should be employed to row up the river against a stream of three knots, and in the intense heat, he pronounced a most cruel enterprise, and he asserted* the statement as to tbe Bel River boats being more ■uited to a low Nile than to the river at flood to be a mistake, There would be no chance, moreover, of the oarsmen's obtaining relief from the use of sails, for the wind blows from the south from April until the middle of November, The writer also points out hoy the expedition could be harassed by a force of (hostile Arabs mounted on dromedaries and attacking the smaller boats from the high banks, but this danger he does nob anticipate as likely to occur until the expedition has passed Dongola, where we are tnld Lord Woleeley with his staff has now arrived. But beyond Dongola Sir Samuel Baker states it' will be impossible to proceed by the river route as the season is now too far advanced. Hence, the desert march to Shendy must be adopted, concerning which he has no information to give. His reliance, however, oa the wisdom and resources of Lord Wolsaley is strong, and he has certainly shown us that the General has undertaken no light task. The question, meantime, arises as to the course tbat will be followed if it turns out to be true that General Gordon has .fallen into the hands of the enemy as reported. Supposing it to be so, and that he is kept prisoner rather than put to death as it seems not unlikely, bis rescue of course must be attempted and the expedition will probably continue oa their way to Khartoum, or even beyond it if necessary But in event of Gordon's death will it be wise to retreat without exacting vengeance, and to leave the Soudan in the hands of tha the victorious prophet ? The complications of the situation, then, seem to be serious — and, in any case, it is evident tbat Lord Wolseley and his men are engaged in a matter that masb bs most trying to the soldier and require on his part a stern attachment to dnty for its own sake only. Tnere are all the hardships and risks of war while the glory to be gained by victory is altogether out of measure with the shame to be incurred by defeat, and can win but inferior laurels. It would, nevertheless, be something to bring back General Gordon safe and sound, an 4, notwithstanding reports to the contrary, let us hope that such a possibility still exists.

The intelligence that the Imperial Government chastisement have determined to punish the murderers of Mr. called fob. Bethell, and that a regiment is in readiness at

Chatham to bs embarked for tbe Transvaal, seems to indicate a resolution to try conclusions once more with tbe Boers. The murder of Bethell was a very horrible affair, and following, as it did, on a long course of threats made against him— his presence amoDg the natives and fearless opposition being most formidable to the designs of the Africanders— it was of no light significance. It occurred on the occasion of an attack made by the men of the Transvaal on the people of Montsioa, in which Bethell was wounded, and was committed by two Boers while he lay upon the ground. They asked him what they should do with him now that they had found him at last, and on his replying " Shoot me if you like," after consulting with each other they blew out his brains, both of them firng together. On tbe same occasion Montsioa's tribe were plundered of their cattle, and the herds«boys, little fellows of 12 or 14, who who drove them at the command of the enemy, were wantonly and cruelly butchered. Montsioa was afterwards invited to accept of the protection of the Transvaal in favour of which he must relinquish that of England — whioh, indeed so far does not seem to have profited him much, but he resolutely refused to do so. There are, then, quite sufficient reasons why the Transvaal should be called to account for its doings, and if Eogland gives its inhabitants and its friends in South Africa generally a severe lesson it will be no more than they

richly deserve and the preservation of her own prestige demands. Indeed, it can now be clearly Been to have been a very serious mistake that was made in concluding the late war so rapidly and by yielding to the demands of the Boers. The peace that was thus made resnltad only m persuading the people ia question that England was afraid of them. Their peculiar style of warfare, bearing to the regular tactics of the day in some degree the same relationship borne by the warfare of the Parthiaas to that which obtained amon» the greater armies] of old, was, in fact, apt to mislead them-and by the striking successes gained through it to give them false views of their own prowess. The battle of Majaba Hill, itself, their greatest victory, was no fair stand-up fight ; they hid behind stones and rocks, and from under effective cover opened their deadly fire upon the British troops. With perfect horsemanship and an unerring aim-made more useful by a minute.knowledge of the country, it is inevitable that the Boers must for a time prove dangerous enemies, and if there were nothing worth fighting for at stake it would be a reckless exposure of life to attack them. But there are the fate and fortunes ,of British colonies. There are the lives and freedom of countless native tribes, and civilisation and humanity require that they shall be taught to conduct themsslves with moderation. Nor, in the end. will it prove difficult to sublue them ; they are aot, in fact, by any;means a brave people, but as their cruelty toward the Natives is of itself sufficient to bespeak, they are at heart arrant cowards. All that is needed to bring them to their senses is a prudent general who shall know how to avoid giving them the advantages they need, and will take care to provide against their sharp shooting from under cover and their hasty retreat. It is, moreover, full time that steps were taken to curb their insolence, and the power they so freely use of shedding blood, with every circumstance of brutality and desteatable cruelty.

Mbs. Gladstone some weeks ago distributed the ax indubitable prizes at the Hawardeu Flower Show, ard Mr pact. Gladstone, in responding to a vote of thanks passed to her, spoke a few words that should hold out no slight hope and encouragement to the members of the fair sex. " I do not understand why the ladies are not allowed to speak for themselves," he said. •« They are getting on in the world. Their case is looking up. There is no saying what they won't get into their hands by-and-bye. But even in days when their position was not quite so much recognised as it now is, everybody knew that they had tongues in their heads." Woman, in fact, has had a tongue in her head from the very earliest times, and it may still happen in the course of Darwinian research that she will be proved to have been the first to cross the great boundary line by breaking from insensate gabble into articulate speech, or, at least there are curmudgeons who have been known to hiut that she has occasionally croseed the line in the directly contrary direction— and that it should be in her power to do to seems suspicious. We should not, again, for our own part, dare to find aDy appositeness in the matter, but we may perhaps without offence quote the saying of one of the sex themselves— that is of a good religious woman of the middle ages who pleaded that even Balaam's ass had been made lo Bpeak wisely.— Whether it would, however, be a question for the theologian or the archaeologist to determine the sex of that particular ass it is not for us to say. But does Mr. Gladstone* indeed, intend to crown his career in this noble way ? When the> Franchise has been won, when Irish affairs have been finally settled by him will he set about the full emancipation of woman, and die with the laurels of that mighty triumph adorning his brow 1 It is at any rate,, not without some significance that he shou.d have spoken in the way reported following close upon Miss Muller's spirited pro. test, and devotion of herself upon tbat especial altar where the' holocaust offered is to be rewarded by the gaining of woman's rights ilr. Gladstone at this most suggestive period proclaims abroad his belief that there is no saying what the sex will not get into their by-and-bje— even their tongue perhaps, but certainly not to hold it. And what if captious critics have found fault with that which tbey have already executed with their hands. Meissonier, the French painter, we are, for example, told judges them by the secondary rank they hold in art. Not one has equalled a great master, not one has equalled Mcissonier, he says— his prejudices, more, over, have most probably been but little moderated by the fact that a woman has since destroyed one of his pictuies, not considering it a sufficiently flattering likeness of her. It; was, after all, not of the hands that Mr. Gladstone spoke but of the tongue, and with that, as we said, woman has from primeval times be«n provided — and tbatit 8 use is facile to her the man who doubts may readily obtain a proof The tongue and the toilet, then, from of old have been the strong points of woman— nor are we to suppose that she will ever sacrifice the one to the other. When, for example, in the century of Louis XV. the salons presided over by Mmes. dv Defiant, De Graffigny Geoff rin, and D'Epiuay, replaced those of the preceding reign, in

which Mmes. de Rambouillet, De Sevigne, and De La Fayette had

shone, philosophy and politics were all the theme, and the tongue of he sex wagged concerning the deepest problems and most abstruse übj ects, but yet the toilet remained supreme. Powder, rouge

patches, no learning was sufficient to cause a forgetf ulness of thesethings, or even to thrust them slightly into the back ground. If Mr. Gladstone really takes up the cause of woman, as we have some idea that he may do when all his other objects have been attained, when the Franchise has been won by. him, as we said, and the affairs of Ireland finally set at rest, and everything else of lesser importance moved out of the way, so that he may go down into the grave like a victor indeed, shrouded osit were in a petticoat, and with the laurels of his noblest triumph freshly twined around his brows, — as well as the Parliamentary oratress we shall see the Parliamentary dressmaker arise, and the coiffeur must practise his art in severe and classical devices. Mr. Gladstone, meantime, is perfectly right. No one on earth can deny that woman has always had a tongue— and far , be it from us to dispute its use with her, let it be parliamentary or otherwise.

But as to the payment of members which is now the paymbnt agreed upon as necessary by the friends of Ireland of mbmbkes. and which, as we see, is so much dreaded by her

foes, the following passage, taken from an article recently contributed by Mr. T. P. O'Connor, to tho Catholic Quarterly Review an American publication, will give a full explanation, and. we recommend it to the careful attention of Our readers:— " This subject has perhaps by this time passsd out of the region of controversy, and has been practically decided by the instinct and good sense of the Irish race at home and abroad. It is well known that the men who will truly represent National feeling in the House of Commons are not taken from the ranks of the wealthy ; they must betaken from the ranks of the people. It is also known that the expenses of a member of Parliament are heavy ; and it is notorious *' that the demands on a member of Parliament are so great as to leave ■ but little time and le9s energy for the pursuit o£ a business or a profession. It is evident from these facts that the only way to obtain a sufficient number of representatives will be to have a fund for their remuneration. In connection with this part of the subject attention should be drawn to the fact that the amount of attendance a member gives to the House of Commons is one of the most serious elements of his usefulness. The present party is known to be numerically small ; but the complete significance of that fact can only be gathered by looking at the ordinary attendance of the party. There are frequently weeks when the number of Irish members on each day in the House of Commons does not exceed twenty. Now this is a very bad state of things. The real fact is, an Irish member should always be in his place in the House of Commons. There is not a day nor an hour of any day on which he may not be able to do something for Ireland— not so much directly as indirectly— not through what he does himself, but what he can prevent others fromdoing. The House of Commons is so overweighted with work, and is still hampered by rules so antiquated and imbecile, that every Minister and every measure is still at the mercy of even a few members. One single Conservative member — Mr. Warton— by constant attendance in tho House, and by an unscrupulous use of the power of " blocking," doe 3 more to embarrass the Liberal Ministry than any hundred members of his own party ; and is, in fact, a more potent dictator of the fate of legislation than the Prime Minister. In short the. House of Commons in nineteen-twentieths of its work is still at the mercy of a single determined and attentive member. As a single member has this enormous power, it will be seen what might be effected by a body of twenty or thirty men who would always bo in their places, and would always watch the Ministers. Such n body confronting Ministers, if it only acted with judgment, would wring many concessions from the needs of Government. But this constant attendance can only be obtained by having a fund for the payment of members. The reasoa why so many members of the present party are irregular in attendanco is not want of patriotism or zeal or energy. It is that, being men engaged in business and depending on business for their livelihood, they are unable to leave Ireland except at distant intervals ; and the.-i at serious risk to their interests. The indirect effects of the raising of such a fund are almost as important as the direct. Nothing succeeds like sacces*. A cause that has the power of rewarding its adherents, strengthens its hold on large sections : of society b Jth inside and outside Ireland. These sections may be weak and time-serving, and mean. They may have all the vices which French litterateurs are fond of ascribing to the hoiirgcolsie ; that does not alter the fact that they are a very influential po tion of the population of Ireland as of every country. Who doubts that while a great part— grobably the greater part— of the success in the smaller Irish constituencies of the last few years is due to lofty motives — to patriotic purpose and the advance of political education— who doubts that a part of the success was due to the fact that the Irißh Party were seen to have behind them the financial resources of the Irish race in America and Australia ? And the effect of these vast subscrip-./ tions on England and the rest of the world was also enormous. The world will not stop long to listen to the tale of the weak and the oppressed : it has all its ears for the strong and combative. The financial assistance given to the Irish at home "by the Irish abroad

was one of the chief means in the last few years of convincing not only England, but all other nations, that there is Btillan Irish question that has to be settled. It shows that the struggle in which England i$ engaged is not with a small, poor, and helpless country, close to her own shores, and within reach of her rifles and ironclads ; it shows that the struggle is with a great and übiquitous race— numbering millions of men, free from English control— wealthy, generous, passionately devoted to the cradle-land of their race. Finally, as political men are but human, it is an advantage to a cause that the material interests of those concerned should not be in antagonism to the honest and fearless discharge of their duties. English Ministries are able to agree with each other and to keep their party together, partly by the fact that they have wealth and honour to give away ; and an Opposition is maintained through yeara of depression and defeat by the hope of some day gaining the same privileges. In Ireland, too English rule has been maintained by the fact that England was able to buy mo9t of the talent of the country: It is something to see the day when the Irish race can say to men of ability in Ireland that their kinsmen aie wealthy and generous enough to offer a career of honour to those who serve Ireland faithfully and well.'' To this there is nothing for us to add.