MORE REPLIES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 15, 31 July 1885, Page 13

MORE REPLIES.

TO THE EDITOR N.Z. TABLET.

6iß,~The contribution of Dr. Bakewell in your issue of the 17th •haa impelled me to trespass on your columns for the purpose of controverting certain statements in the emanation in question. His first accusation is that the Tablet's references to the misgovemnxent persecution, and perfidy of English rule in Ireland, are damaging to the Catholic cause in this Colony. Ido not know by what stretch of reasoning the doctor arrives at this conclusion. Would he consider that a patient, meek, and humble submission to the slanderous attacks upon Ireland with which the English Press teems, would be conducive to the interests of Catholicity in New Zealand ? If this be so, I must say that I totally differ with him. The Irish national cause is so closely allied to the Catholic Church in Ireland, that to divorce them, would mean irreparable loss to both. What do we find in every vile publication by which our native country is daily defamed in England 1 Why the Irish national movement and the religion of the Irish people are inseparable ever in their columns, and are constantly referred to by the foulest epithets. Further on, the doctor says he has met Catholic Irishmen of pronounced nationalist opinions, who do not approve of the course pursued by the Tablet. I will readily admit that there are a few Catholic Irishmen who are very pronounced in their patriotism, but when an appeal is made to them for practical aid towards the Irish national movement their pronounciation then is that they have no sympathy with anything, either Catholic or national, that demands the loosening of their purse-strings. Well, the doctor, in his pereerinatione, would naturally meet a few of those— luckily they are few— and now makes use of their narrow opinions to strengthen his statement. As one who knows moie of the Catholic Irishmen who are most generous in their support of both Catholic and national matters, I can assure you that the Tablet has their warmest thanks for the able and fearless manner in which it always combats the revilers of their religion and their country ; and, while the Tablet follows these lines, it can rely upon the support of every Catholic Irishman in New Zealand worthy of the name. In another part of his letter he says, the dearest wish of his heart is to see Ireland entirely severed from Great Britain. Mark the subtlety of this 1 I would beg to inform him that no friend of Ireland wishes this consummation. The accredited leaders of the Irish people demand no such change, and as the doctor must well know, such a change would be detrimental to the best interests of Ireland, as well as dangerous to the safety of England. The demand of the Irish people, as has been repeated over and over, is the return of their legislative powers of which they were ruthlessly robbed in 1800 ; and if thisconoession were extended to them, the Irish people, who have given their best blood and best brains to build up the Empire, would be contented ; and with the development of native industries, under the fostering influence of self-government, they would be prosperous. Again the Doctor says : " Englishmen|have done their best for the last fifty years to repair the wrongs committed by their countrymen against Ireland." This I deny. What have we received from England since the passing of the Union? Why fifty-odd coercion Acts by which the lives of Irishmen and their families were at the mercy of savage soldiery and ruffian police. Even the very admission of fifty years to repair wrongs carries condemnation on the face of it. Fiftyodd coercion Acts, with periodic famine, while the country teemed with plenty ; but that plenty was dragged from the famishing Irish teDant-farmer at the point of tbe bayonet of the British soldiery, to pay the exorbitant and iniquitous demand of the landlord. As to the opinion "if the large majority of Irishmen became Protestants there would be no persecution," I do not know how any student of history, as the Doctor must certainly be. can arrive at this conclusion. Every history on the subject testifies to Ireland being persecuted and plundered by the myrmidons of English rule long before Protestantism was even thought of. Again, : " The English are not a persecuting people." I must say to this, as an Irishman and with the experiences that an Irishman acquires of English rule in Ireland, that the English in Ireland are a persecuting people. I am. etc., w An Irish Nationalist, Kumata, July 22, 1885.