THE "WORLD" ON MR. HEALY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 22

THE "WORLD" ON MR. HEALY.

Fbom a London " society " journal (says the Nation} no one could expect a favourable article on a Parnellite member of Parliament ; yet with all its off ensiveness the following article from the World on the hon. member for Monaghan will have a certain interest for Irish readers :—: —

The position occupied by Mr. Healy in the ranks of J the Irish party, if less authoritative than that of Mr. Paraell, is just now more conspicuous and significant. Ostensibly a loyal follower of his titular chief, he is resolved to miss no chance of putting himsslf in evidence : and it is clear that he anticipates, probably at no great distance, the time when what Mr. Parnell has been, or id, be may be. Mr. Parnell is at present enjoying a repose, suitable to the season, in bis beautiful Yale of Avoca. He nominates candidates' for constituencies ; he is possibly el iborating the plan of a coming campaign . But he ascends no platform, makes no speeches: and it might be almost inferred from his attitude— whether it be described as one of masterly inactivity or of unworthy supinenes*— that he would not regret a withdraw.il from active political life under cover of any chivalrous or decent pretext which could be found. Mr. Healy, on the other band, is aggressively on the alert. He is the most industrious, indefatigable, unscrupulous, and gifted of Irishmen. In the course of a few years he has risen from the place of a small clerk on an Irish railway to that of a public personage. He is a contrast to many or most of his Parliamentary compatriots, not merely in his hard-headedness, his absolute indifference to English opinion, and his brutal frankness of tongue, but in the circumstance that he entered upun his present career without any of the educational advantages and opportunities which they have generally enjoyed. He was at none of the schools or colleges, which are as much open to the Irish peasantry as Glasgow and Edinburgh, Sc. Andrew's, and Aberdeen, are at the disposal of the Highland crofter's soa. If he is inferior to several of his colleagues in the gift of oratory, he is their superior in the art of debate, and he enjoys an almost unrivalled capacity of exasperating the Prime Minister and making the life of Irish Secretaries unendurable. His own extraordinary pjwer of will and application have enabled him to acquire two European languages, and to write English so pungent and vigorous that it at once secures him a livelihood from his pen and makes him a power as a publicist. There was never a time when the reputation which Mr. Healy commands and the authority which he exercises were so suggestive — so ominous — and therefore worthy of such close attention as the present. Towards the close of the past sessiou he insulted Mr. Trevelyan with such gro3suess as to cause that gentleman peremptorily to remind the House that though he bad the misfortune to be CJhief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, he was also an Englis-h gentleman. Mr. Healy himself was, of course, gratified at his success upon this occasion. The effect he produced was exactly that which he intended to produce, and it was less than nothing to him that Mr. Trevelyan accused him by implication of not being a gentleman at, all. la the same way he will, we may be sure, have been acutely pleased at the outburst of reprobation which cercain words of his ut ered last week, have elicited. The only trumpet, he said, that could wake the English legislature to a sense of Irish grievances was the rattJe of the blunderbus, and the best appeals lo English justice were bulleis and sings. Everyone will admit that language of this sort is a direct appeal to violence and assassination. If Mr. Healy wished to revive the outrages on whose diminution Mr. Gladstone congratulated his hearers in Midlothian, he could not have employed expressions better calculated to produce such an effect. That his words were criminal in themselves, and are opinto.the interpretation of having had a criminal intent, is piain on the face of them. No action, however, ia respect of them has yet been taken by the Government, and probably the official construction charitably placed upon them is that they Jo not exceed the legitimate limits of free speech. The Irish Nationalist Press has applauded them to the echo, and they have touched a sympathetic chord of admiration in the breast of the American Irish on the other side of the Atlantic. Whac next? we may well be tempted to ask. Will Mr. Healy be permitted and encour igaa to outdo himself? "Will other speakers be encouraged to out-iiealy Heily ? and, in this case, what will be the consequence ? It is a matter, not of looss conjecture, but of positive knowledge and scientific demonstration, that, four years ago, Irish crime of all kindf, murder included, wa3 exactly proportionate to ths inflammatory harangues made in particular neighbourhoods. Where, as was then repeatedly shown, the orators of the Land League denounced English ascendancy, and threatened landlords with destruction, there mutilation and murder followed as surely as night succeeds the day. If, therefore, the argument by analogy is good for anything, one may be certain that Mr, Healy'a hints— emphasised by the example of

Mr. Healy'3 impressively rapid rise and progress — will not be barren of results.

But this is only one of the ways in which Mr. Healy's example will work mischief. Aspirants after his notoriety and power will certainly not be wanting. If he is not a man after the heart of the ■whole Irish people, he is the ideal of a large section of it. It now seems to bs an understood thing that the Irish representatives are to be regularly paid from a national fund formed for the purpose. The chief contributors to this will not be Irish peasants or shopkeepers. On the contrary, we know from the past, and especially from the history of the Land League, that the sinews of sedition and civil war proceed mainly from America. It follows, therefore, that the Irish members of Parliament will cease to be the representatives of their country, and will become in a constantly increasing degree the delegates of the Transatlantic revolutionaries, whose paid servants they are. Mr. Healy, so far as his langnage and demeanour are concerned, may be described as a prophetic pattern of what is likely to be experienced from these new members of the Imperial Parliament. At St. (Stephen's itself the rancour and vituperation of their tongue may be curbed*; but it is not Westminister which is the manufactory of Irish opinion, or to which the delegates will look for a proof that they have earned their money. They will recognise only their responsibility to Ireland, or rather to those patrons on the other side of the Atlantic who aim at making the Government of Ireland by England impossible. Mr. Healy is the most ambitious and capable type of a class of politician with whom we are destined in the future to make an extensively increased acquaintance. His antecedents and his achievements are calculated to attract and to win the admiration of the order to which he belongs, and from which the Irish Parliamentarians of the future will be drawn. This is the contingency with which the Goverment have to reckon. When it is fulfilled shall we be able to control Irela nd by the present social and political machinery? If as they ought to do, Ministers will fairly ask themselves that question, can tney, while according full impunity to an example and language sush as those supplied by Mr. Healy, answer it in a satisfactory manner ?