AT IT AGAIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 38, 9 January 1885, Page 15

AT IT AGAIN.

colonies. It is not for m to undertake the defence of any but ourselves ; but this may be said In the Australian colonies there are only about six or seven newspapers that advocate justice to Ireland and defend the cause of Irish nationality. These six or seven newspapers represent at least half a million of the inhabitants of these colonies, and though these papers may be insignificant and contemptible in the eyes of the Star, it may be very well doubted if in all Australasia there are to be found any other six or seven newspapers of which as much can be said. But let that pass : it is a matter about which we need not entertain any concern. But the misrepresentation as to the administration of justic; in Ireland is another matter, and it cannot bo tolerated that such a misrepresentation should be allowed to go unchallenged. Of late the rule in Ireland in political and agrarian cases is to barefacedly pack juries. The Evening Star says in effect that in Ireland no jury is considered to have acted properly that has not acquitted ail the accused, guilty or innocent. This is a gratuitous and groundless assertion, and one most insulting to the Irish people. We do not go the length of affirming that in the eyes of the fcnglish Government, as it is known in Ireland, no jury is considered to have done its duty which has failed to convict all accused persons, whether guilty or innocent. And yet this would not be an altogether gratuitous assertion. There would be in favour of it the notorious fact that in every instance the juries have been packed. In one case, for example, the Crown ordered 24 Catholics to stand aside, in another 46, in a third 49, and so on. In the eyes of the Crown as represenented in Ireland, no Catholic is worthy of credit on his oath in trials for political and agrarian crimes. The Crown manipulati s juries by excluding all Catholics from the jury box, in order that it may be filled by the religious and political enemies of the unfortunate accused. Is it any wonder, under these circumstances, that men have been convicted of crimes they never committed, and consigned some of them to the scaffold, others to imprisonment for life? • f other cases we forbear to speak, although the leniency of the Government towards notoriously wicked men is the opprobium of Government and the scorn of all decent people. It would have been wiser for the Evening Star to have omiited this part of his review, than to have misrepresented and slandered a nation and its representatives. Such conduct as that of the Star in this instance is little calculated to promote peace, or mitigate asperities. The Irish know too well the sad history of their country, have drunk too deeply the bitter cup of English misrule and tyranny in their unfortunate country to bear patiently the misrepresentations and taunts hurled at them in a Dunedin evening sheet remarkable for its hostility to everything they most value. What can be the object of this unceasing »nd bitter hostility ? Is it the hope of inducing Irishmen to cease to love their native land, *nd, oblivious

N reviewing the events of the past year, our old friend the Evening Star was unable to resist the temptation to have a fling at Ireland. Our contemporary deprecates the Irish agitation for justice, and showers its contempt on the agitators ana the Catholic Press in the Australasian

of its wrongs, to hurrah for the misgovernment of England ? or is it the gratification of an old, wicked prejudice, or an overweening pride of race and country ? The Star tells the world that England is doing its best to be just to Ireland. Well, if so, its best is but a poor effort. At the present moment the government of this people, doing its best to be just, is only maintained in Ireland by the suspension of the constitution and an overwhelming military force, by jurypacking, and the hanging of innocent men. Can any sane man believe that any people justly governed would be so hostile to the just Government ruling them as to be kept in order only by such means ? No, a discontented nation, a nation always ready to escape from the control of its Government, is the most striking comment on either the folly or the tyranny of its Government. And in Ireland it is not a mere party, or an armed force recruited from abroad that opposes the English Goverraent, but the nation as such. Ireland asks for justice — nothing mire. Ireland asks for that which England has granted to New Zealand and almost every other colony under the Crown — nothing more. And for dbing these things she is perpetually exposed to the pelting of every journalist, pettifogging and otherwise, belonging to the dominant race. Of all the journals with which we are acquainted the Dunedin Evening Star is the very last that should contain one word reflecting on Irish agitators and Irish agitation. The Star, the persistent enemy to justice to the Catholics of this country, should be careful to avoid provoking contrasts little to its credit. But it would appear it knows not shame, or, confident in the power of the prejudices of its readers, is reckless in its assertions.