THE MONAGHAN EXAMPLE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 47, 13 March 1885, Page 18

THE MONAGHAN EXAMPLE.

(From the Nation.) The lesson taught by the Monaghan demonstration of Tuesday last is one that concerns every popular constituency and every actual or possible representative^ popular opinion in the country. Mr. Healy is no ordinary member of Parliament, and Monaghan county is no ordinary constituency ; and in each case the reason lies on the surface of events. Ever since his entry into the House of Common*, about four years ago, this young Irishman, who now occupies such a conspicuous position, not only in the Irish Parliamentary party, but in the House of Commons, has pursued a very striking course at Westminster. Kven if he had not displayed the intellectual qualities of sound common sense, shrewdness, quickness of apprehension, and capacity for sharp and effective speech, his courage, his perseverance, his industry, and his intense hatred of the tyranny which afflicts his country would have marked him out as one of the leading figures of the British Parliament ; but when he has constantly made exhibition both of the intellectual and of the moral qualities indicated, it is no matter for wonder that both in that assembly and in Ireland his is a somewhat exceptional personality, As a matter of fact, he has exercised an exceptional influence in the House of Commons. He has left his mark on more than one important piece of legislation affectiDg Ireland. The administration of Irish affairs by the present Government has been on several occasions more or less sensibly affected by his unsparing criticisms of the working of the Dublin Castle system, and the wholesome dread they have insoired in the official mind. He has been, in short, during the last four years a source of strength to his country, and a blister to its foes ; and during that time, moreover, he has never failed to answer the call of duty whether it summoned him to Parliament, the platform,, or prison. We shall not compare the member for Monaghan with his colleagues, of the public services of whom it would bs impossible to speak too highly ; but we know that we shall offend ncne of them in saying that such a career as his is a model for other Irish representatives to follow. So far for the member ; now for the constituency. How thoroughly and readily Monaghan has appreciated its duty towards Mr. Healy ! It is not yet a year and a half since it elected him, and it has since not only repeatedly tesiified to him by public demomstrations its approval of his Parliamentary careei but it has this week presented him with a much more substantial oroof of the feeling with which it regards him, in the shape of a gift of one thousand pounds. Nor h^s it left any room for doubt as to the significance of this presentation. In the address which accompanied it, the reasons for it are very succinctly and clearly stated. This splendid gift is there described to be "an acknowledgment of many and great political services to the Irish national cause " and •' a pledge of practical adherence to the doctrine that in order to secure honest and faithful representatives the Irish people must be prepared to share the sacrifices made by their members." Here we have two ideas expressed -which show that the men of Monaghan have iisen to the full conception of the duty of Irish Nationalists. In the first place, by making practical acknowledgment on their own behalf of Mr. Healy's work for Ireland at large they proclaim that they are no mere parochial politicians, that in their view the interests of Monaghan are bound op with those of the country as a whole and that consequently in labouring for the country a man is labouring for every part of it and for every section of its people. Of course such an admission does not absolve the representative of Mona^han! from attending to the special interests of tnat constituency, but it does emphatically leave him free, to exert his best energies for the national interests on all occasions and under all circumstances. In view of some current expressions of opinion which are calculated to give our politics a parochial complexion, we consider this counterblast from the North most wholesome and timely. Secondly the men of Monaghan, by manifesting their resolve to share the sacrifices made by the true representatives of the country in the British' House of Commons proclaim their desire for champions of capacity and courage, recognise that it is their duty to give such men all the support that is needful, and impliedly condemn and repudiate the old practice of treating members of Parliament as persons to be " bled," and then expecting them to be pure and disinterested in their public action. This, too, is a wholesome pronouncement at this juncture, and cannot too soon be taken to heart by all our constituencies, North, South, East, and West. In conclusion Monaghan and its member may be said to be well matched, and we have littlij fear that the union that has been established between them will ever be severed by the wish of either.

Cardinal Massaia, the illustrious Capuchin missionary, has been ordered by Leo the Thirteenth to write the memoires of his thirty-five years' sojourn among African savages. The work will comprise ten volumes, and will be illustrated.