DUBLIN IN AUTUMN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 34, 18 December 1885, Page 13

DUBLIN IN AUTUMN.

The wild tumult of Celtic enthusiasm which greeted the appointment of Archbishop Walsh to the metropolitan see, has subsided, and the heart of the old city seated by the Liffy beats tranquilly once more.

In the next month the elections will be upon us, and then fare you well, repose. In the meantime, though, nether the Irish leader nor his lieutenants are reclining upon bedß of roses — it even shamrocks.

*' From Cork's Sweet Cove," to '• Derry Walls " a series of meetings took place during the last month, in county after county, and at each monster assembly the people were put in training for the use of the franchise pyke. at last put into their hands. Three members of the old rarhamentary brigade are withdrawing from public life. They aTe ex-Lord Mayor Dawson, Alderman Meagher, and Mr. Lynch. Their loss is much regretted. It is expected that the result of the franchise will be Mr. ParneU's return to the House with all the representatives oi Ireland under his banner, save a handful of ancient Tories from Ulster. It is now a standing joke how small will be the omnibus needed to transport these gentle fossils from the train to St. Stephen's. In point of intellect the Tory deadheads are productive of surprise and amusement. When T. M. Healy was elected for Monaghan, one of them presided at a special meeting convened t > denounce and bewail the condition of the county, This president's speech upon tbe occasion might be called a chef d'eeuvre, containing as it did many of the attributes of true oratory — that is, condensed force, nervous grips of his subject, and the soul of wit, brevi'y. His eye glowed, his cheek burned, the veips on his lofty brow swilled like gutta pcrcba — " To hell with Healy," he said, and sat down, his blusbing honours thick upon him. What with the bad markets, the bad harvest weather, and the deep decline of farming prospects, the November rents stand a poir chance of being paid. A universal movement for rent reductions is beginning all over the country, but with the incredible stupidity which has left them, as Mr. Davitt puts it, " between the devil and the deep sea," the landlords refuse to see tbeir own interests and insist upon every ounce of their pound of flesh. As before, it may be that no bread will be the experience of those who refuse the honest half loif. Ejectment decrees are falling thick as hail on the people ; one upright individual named Autretill in the County Monaghan. has 1,500 tenants l processed for the most atrocious rackrents, while his own little liabilities mount up to the modest lot of £80,000. But the tenants are not evicted yet — there will be news ere that. Ibe land question and landlord; question, and agrtssion are growing lively with our Gaelic neighbours in Scotland. The contagion has spreai from Ireland, the Caledonian lords and lairds say. Anyhow it is announced from Portree, isle of Siye, that a number of crofters who had their potato'crops ruined by the landlords' droves of deer, collected and chased the animals — which were supposed to be as sacred as Jove's tribute long ago — into the sea. Some fishermen who were there in their boats, killed the beasts, and then tne crofters and fishermen lit fires, cooked the venison, and partook thereof. The powers that be were aghast at such banqueting. Already the county conventionsare in full swing, and the harmony and public spirited generosity which prevails in the adoption of candidates is a matter for boh admiration and hope. In places where the national element is weakest, thy picked men of the Irish party will run. Thus it is already decided that some doubtful constituencies in tbe north will have the benefit of Dillon, Sexton, Harrington, W. Redmond, and T. P. O'Connor's services.

Tbe next meeting of the Brittanic Parliament is a bone of contention already, for we of this old green land believe that the time to restore our rights stolen in ISOO has arrived, whilst the English politicians are registering vows high in heaven, and hot below, that parting is impossible. Neither 3ngels nor men will be allowed to separate us. Th^y are too fond of us for that The bear's hug must continue : probably it is tbe affectionate one's secret belief that given unlimited time and leisure to devote to the work, the last gasp of life might even yet be squeezed out of Ireland. At all events her population is disappearing fast enough, yet I heard an Irish scholar and statjsm m say the other night that if there were only a dozen true men left among the hills, they could rankle in the flank of the great British nation like a spear. At present Ireland is not waiting to attack the flank or rear, — she is like a pike-head

buried up to the hilt in England's vaunted vein. Some of the London radicals, notably Chamberlain and Dilke, who used to posture as the apostles of progress, are loudest in denying us fair play. Sir Charles Dilke has been a good deal before the public of late in other aspects tnan that of a reformer boiliog over with philanthrophy . His latest sensation was marriage to the widow of Mark Pattison, the eccentiic dean of Lincoln. This lady is said to be the original of George Eliot's heroine in " Middlemarch," " Dorothea Brooke," Professor Pattison being the prototype of Dr. Casauboß.

Right, left, and centre, the spirit of boycotting flits through Ireland defying capture or even pursuit. The Prime Minister Salisbury, says it is a condition of society which the law can never reach, and cited as an example the land grabber whose entrance into the Church on Sunday wa9 the signal for the congregation to rise en masse and leave him alone though not in his glory. The clergyman remarked that it was hardly woith his while to officiate for this solitary individual, and po advised his retreat home. Still worse was the Barbaraville informer who could not get any of hia cattle sold in Ireland ; he shipped them across to Liverpool, but his fame had preceded him— no bids. He put up at a certain hotel, but before dinner was served the landlord discovered who he was, and saying that he dared not shelter an informer, turned him out of doors. An obscure lodging house received him at last — after various vain halts at other places — but some time near midnight the woman of the house, an Irishwoman, heard that she was entertaining a " stag," unawares ; he was burried out of bod, and bundled out to the street again. At length he had to dispose of his cattle at little more than half price to a canny Scotch butcber. Another curious use, or abuse, of boycotting is the persecution which certain young ladies are undergoing in their social and domestic circles because they have undertaken the study of the Gaelic language. In one sense, however, it is a hopeful augury of the times, for some of these brave girls bear the oldest and most distinguished names in our island.

The absentee landlords and resident magistratess trates of Co. Cork, met ia solemn conclave last week to implore the Government for a further dose of coercion for their cjuairy. Their patriotic request was instantly rejected, for it is a notorious fact that agrarian crime ceased, when the Crimes Act ceased ; however, the incident of the petition afforded a peg for some of the pious London newspapers to hang out a sermon to us. Oar vices in the way of sneezing at a land grabber, or saying black is the eye in the head of " his honour the agetit," are bruising tie sensitive morality of our neighbours across the silver streak. Yet the correspondent of the Dublin Castle organ, Daily Express, says . " What may in moderate language be designated a perfect avalanche of crime, has swept down on England within tbe past few days. Just now there is a complete block in the old Bailey. Judges cau"t try the criminals fast enough." Iv Ireland people can be tried and hanged too, fast enough. No wonder the Times, and the Standard, and Xcws weep for our iniquity. No wonder that godly vessel of flection, the British nation, runs the risk of being cracked with the thunder of our depraved ways !

The will of the people concerning the ie-namingof Sackville street is becoming supreme. The great bulk of letters passing to that locality are directed O'C'oniiell, not Hackville street, and nearly all the inhabitants, including the large publishing firm of Gill and Co., have abolished Sackville for ever. The Vice Chancellor's injunction was a dead failure.

Quite a sensation arose in tbe Gaiety Theatre the other night over Miss Mary Anderson in the dagger scene of Romeo and Juliet. In the enthu-iasm of her parr, the fair actress inflicted a real wound on herself while playing Juliet's despair. Fortunately, however, the. injury is not serious, and it is to be hoped that tois popular favorite will play with less keenly edged tools in future.