€nxxzni Copit s

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 25, 15 October 1886, Page 1

Current Topics s

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The Chicago Convention contrary to the heartfelt desire and undisguised aspirations of the enemies of the Irish cause proved a brilliant success. Orderly, unanimous, and enthusiastic, it asserted the claim of Ireland's advocates to the respect of the world and formed a demonstration that may well seem formidable to her •pponenta. The Irish delegates, that is, Messrs. O'Brien, Deasy M»P., J. B. Redmond M.P., accompanied by Mr. Davitt, left Ireland amid the acclamations and heartily expressed good wishes of multitudes, but the outburst of welcome that met them on the American shores, as was foretold, surpassed all that. Their journey, even the portion of it leading through Canada, was a continued triumph which only culminated when they entered the hall where the Convention was held. There a thousand delegates were assembled from all parts of the United States as well as from Canada, and all joined without dissension in passing resolutions of continued confidence in Mr. Paraell and his colleagues, of thanks to Mr. Gladstone and the democracy who had supported him, and to the American people and Press for the support given to the cause. A resolution that caused some discussion but which also was carried was that of the Committee of Constitution providing for the boycotting of English manufactures. And this, we may remark in passing, is a resolution of which, nnder other circumstances, we should for our own part strongly disapprove. Coming, however, as it did after a defeat of the Irish people brought about in great part by the efforts of selfish men determined to sacrifice all the interests of that people to the monopoly of English manufacturers, and consenting to and renewing the infamous destruction of Irish industries, we hold that the resolution was justified and called for. Mr. John Fitzgerald of Nebraska, who, having left his native country a labouring man, is now a millionaire, the president of three banks, a large, railway contractor, and prominently engaged in various commercial undertakings, was elected President of the League. The only hitch that occurred during the sitting of the Convention was that caused by Mr. Fianerty's hot and ill-judged proposal that a scheme of vengeance and war of separation should supersede the Parnellite plans. This waa resented strongly by Mr. Davitt who carried with him the Bympathies of the assembly. On the conclusion of their business the Irish delegates immediately left on their voyage home, accompanied to tbe water's brink by dense crowds whose hearty cheering sent a well understood and most welcome message to their friends in Ireland.

AN INFAMOUS INTENTION.

That the Revolution should fear the Papacy is natural. That, feariDg the Papacy, it should seek means to free itself from fear is equally natural. And as to the means, the Revolution, we may be sure, would not be too particular. But are we not all prone to believe as we wish to believe, and if the Eevolution believed that it discerned signs of relenting towards it on the part of the Pope, it was not, after all, departing from the ordinary methods of mankind. Let us give it the benefit of the doubt. That the London Times really believed with the Revolution we may be much less able to conceive. But the Times also pretends to believe that the Pope had begun to relent — the Pope, each one of whose encyclicals is a vigorous attack upon, and a powerful condemnation of, the Revolution— the Pope who has never ceased to protest against the spoliation of the Papacy, and to demand the restoration of the temporal power. The Revolution, then, had either invented the tale, or really did believe that the Pope had tacitly withdrawn the restriction on Catholic voters in Italy to vote in Parliamentary elections, and such a report was spread abroad. The Pope, however, renewed his decree, and ißSued a brief to the Bishops, repeating the injunction that thei people should be " neither electors nor elected." That tbo Rovolu tion, fearing the Papacy, and seeking lelief from its feara iii an imaginary complaisancy of the Pope, should be enraged by this brief was natural, and that, being enraged, it should look for the means of vengeance was also natural. And the means presented themselves to them in the restoration by the Pope of the Society of Jesus to the

A MASKED SUCCESS.

position occupied by them before the dissolution of the Order b 7 Pope Clement XlV.— The Jesuits are the cause of it all, cries the Revolution. The ~ :>pe is afraid of the Jesuits. They have poiionad him, and he has by ught the antidote that they only possess by neaas of this restoratio of their Order to their former position. Such a cry, we say, is nab ral in the mouth of the Bevolution. It would he natural, also, in th mouth of rabid religious enemies of the Papavy, whether they occ ied the platform of Exeter Hall or stood before the mock altars o. ritualism. But to find it repeated in a leader of the London Times may appear somewhat out of place. The Timti, it is true, modifies its version of the story by professing an unwillingness to believe it, unless substantially proved, not as reflecting upon the Jesuits, but as reflecting upon the Pope, whom it chooses to consider weak rather than cowardly. Its treatment of the matter, however, betrays a sympathy with the Revolution, and a fierce antiCatholic bigotry that should give serious grounds of reflection to those Catholics who have joined in with the Times in its virulent opposition to the cause of the Catholic people of Ireland. There can be no doubt that anti-Catholic bigotry has been strongly amongst its motives. But as to the accusation against the Jesuitt, it is the traditional one of the revolutionary kennel— discredited even by the Times 1 correspondent writing from Italy— and the pretence that a disposition on the part of the Pope to make terms with the Revolution had been discerned is scarcely less contemptible.

A REVIVAL.

The memory of the tithe war in Ireland is still green and to the fore. — The scenes which distinguished it were even more harrowing and disgraceful than those which are now to be witnessed at the eTictiona that are daily taking place.— We shall, therefore, watch with interest the struggle that has now begun in Wales, altkough it is extremely improbable that Government will allow anything to occur there approaching in the remotest degree to what took place in Ireland under Government direction. The Welsh people, meantime, seem to be entering on their contest with vigour. A couple of unfortunate bailiffs, for example, and a solicitor's clerk were badly beaten with clubs the other day at a place called Llandegla by some qu&rrymen who gave their servicea to the farmers of the neighbourhood engaged in resisting the claim of the vicar of the parish. — It ii such demonstrations as this doubtless that have affected the Tory programme aa relates to the Established Church.

A FORECAST.

Independently of the Bulgarian imbroglio a disturbance in the East of Europe had been foreseen for the present time. The Diritto, a Roman newspaper accredited with high authority in the matter, had foretold that the time had come for Austria to carry out the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. There was nothing, it said, to prevent her advance to Salonica except the resistance of Turkey which would probably be checked by the Greek army of 75,000 efficient troops, gained over by certain concessions to the Austrian alliance. The course open to Russia in such a case would be that of occupying Bulgaria, or else she might make an alliance with Turkey, and take the Austrianß on the flank.— The success of this movement, however, would bo frustrated by the co-operation of Italy— which had already been secured. — We shall probably sec in a few weeks how far the predic" tions of the Diritto are likely to be accomplished.

A POWERFUL PEOPLE,

A cobrespondent of the Times who signs himself an American writes to that paper from Paris to damp the hopes excited by the letter of another correspondent. — He explains that there is little comfort to be derived from this correspondent's statement that the numerical proportion of the Irish element among people of foreign birth in the United States has decreased. — The Irish, he Bays, gain their political influence by keeping together in the towns, and conducting their tactics in a very clnverly pernicious manner. — He mentions besides that to the population born in Ireland must be added their children— they, through the fault of their priests or rather let us say through their fidelity to the teaching of their priests which saves them from the prevailing degradation— being a most prolific race— and their sons sharing their political opinions. The power of the Irish, he says, is increased, moreover, by the fact that they direct the whole Catholic rote— all the Catholics of other

nationalities being guided in this matter by them — The Irish as a body support the democrats, but, at the same time, so much support is given by them to the ttopublicans as makt^ that party unwilling to offend them, and keeps them in expectation of more efficient aid. — Hence Republican newspapers and public men are favourable to the Irish in their writing and speaking. —We must of course take all this correspondent says with a grain of salt, as the saying is, for he is hostile to the people of whom he writes, but he gives us a description of matters making it evident that the Irish element in the States is and must continue extremely powerful, influencing the policy and fortunes of the Republic in no ligbt degree.

EVIL GRANDEES. '

The Marquis of Clanricarde, who, having already devastated large tracts in the County Galway, is bent, they say, on wholly ruining the towns o* Portumna and Loughrea, while he continues mercilessly to evict his tenants, is a nobleman to whose family some notorious memories are attached. His Lordship's noble father it was who some thirty years ago brought about the fall of the Ministry of which he was a member owing to revelations made concerning a certain transaction in which some years before he had been engaged. His Lordship's son, the elder brother of the present Marquis, was that Lord Dunkellin, who, when he was aid-de-camp to his uncle Lord Canning, Governor-General of India, introduced at a vice-regal ball some ladies of more than doubtful character, and was in consequence obliged to resign and return to Europe. This escapade also probably lost to Lord Dunkellin his uncle's wealth which was left by him to the present Marquis, then Lord Hubert de Burgh, on condition of his assuming the name of Canning. Lord Dunkellin did no* survive his father, and we may easily conjecture the cause of his comparatively early death from the fact that while still in his youth he had already the appearance of a middle-aged man, because of his dissipated habits. His Lordship had also distinguished himself duriDg the Crimean war by walking in mistake across the Kussian lines and surrendering himself a prisoner— a mistake that was held convenient at the time as his father and the Emperor Nicholas had been intimate friends, and his Lordship was liberated on parole having given his word that he would not again during the course of the war bear arms against the Czar. As w the present Marquis he used to be known as a worthless man living the life of a Sybarite in Paris, and now he appears to have given himself up to avarice. And such are the great men and the noble families in support of whose profligacy, worthlessness, or greed, the Irish people are plundered and dragooned .

DISGUSTING HYPOCRISY

The fix in which certain people who want to be very good are placed by the Irish difficulty is wel] illustrated in a letter written by Lord Arundell of Wardour to a London secular newspaper, and reproduced obsequiously by the London Tablet. His Lordship would not stop eviction by any mepns, although he admits that in Ireland it means " starvation, desperation." The rights of property must be maintained at all costs, and so eviction, whatever it means, must go ahead. His Lordship, however, would substitute for the open "Manacles and Manitoba" a less pronounced system: He would have cases of eviction watched by Government, and the evicted people aided to emigrate in a decent sort of a way, or else provided with occupation at home on some works to be undertaken by the " future remodelled Government of Ireland." There is a distinction here, it will be perceived, and perhaps a difference also to those who can discern it. His Lo.dship, again, strange to say, would not have the remedy he proposes applied in all cases. " I do not urge the expenditure necessary to provide the emigration fund," he says, " on any abstract principle. I by no means say that it is the duty of Government to provide it in all cases ; but only on the ground tha fc exceptional circumstances require exceptional remedies, and that this is the best, and perhaps only way out of the situation." His Lordship, in short, would protect the rights of property by " Manacles and Manitoba," but at the same time, he would provide at the leas* possible expense a system by which that notable policy might be in some degree concealed, so that the rights of property might still wear a respectable appearance, and carry on the devastation of country districts and the ruin of country towns under some kind of a mask. Now, we are not of one mind with those extreme democrats who believe, or pretend to believe, that because a man is a lord, he must necessarily be an idiot or a Bcoundrel. We believe, on the contrary, that a lord may "cry well be both wise and in all respects estimable. Lord Ariin> ell uf Wardour's letter, nevertheless, forces the conviction upon us that a lord— and a lord, moreover, of much pretension to exceptional goodness — may have about him a considerable portion of thu arrant knave and humbug.

THE BIGHTS OF PROPERTY.

A paik illustration of the rights of property is afforded by the circumstances atteadant on certain evictions that lately took place in the county Waterford.— ln the townland of Tinhalla near Carrickbeg— owned by proprietors named Sherlock,— one farm wae

held by a tenant named Walah, who some years ago paid a fine of £200 to reduce the rent by half-a-crown an acre — even then leaving the whole sum paid by him yearly £50 above the valuation. The sub-commissioners afterwards reduced the rent by £26 it being still, however, more than £20 above the true value. Another farm was held by a tenant named Hearn who had built a new house a few years ago at a cost of £300, and who had besides recently laid out £100 in sinking a pump and making a sluice to save the land from floods. The commissioners had reduced his rent by £30. A third farm was held by a tenant named Power whose father had erected on it a corn mill at the cost £750— and who together with his father had expended £2,100 upon improving the holding.— All these tenants as well as some others,— the reduction of whose rents by the commissioners had already proved that they had been the victims of gross extortion for years — finding it impossible under existing circumstances to pay even the reduced rents which were still far above the just valuation of their farms — a9ked for a reduction of twenty per cent. — and on its refusal — being unable to meet the landlords' claims— were evicted without one farthing's compensation for the improvements made on their farms.— And such are the rights »f property in Ireland— which such men, for example, as Lord Arundell of Wardour would protect even by the maintenance of a Bystem productive of " starvation, desperation."

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER.

A cobbespondent of United Ireland, who baa been travelling through the country inquiring into various cases of eviction, and the condition of the farmers generally, throws Borne light on that common cry made by the enemies of the Irish cause that agitation is kept up by means of preying upon the sayings of servant girls In America, and that its chief object is to enable designing men to profit by such receipts. This correspondent, who has had ample opportunities of ascertaining, declares that in very few instances are the exorbitant demands of the landlords met without the aid sent from America, Australia, or some other distant land, by the friends of the tenants in those countries. — It thus appears that the support of the Irish landlords imposes a tax upon the world at large, and there is no country to which the Irish people are wont to emigrate which has not aa interest in putting a stop to the matter From all parts of America, and from every British Colony, large sums are sent away annually to be devoted to the purpose in question, and the communities from which they are sent become so much the poorer. — Here, indeed, we have an objectionable and worthless class of absentees. — If Irish servant-maids, therefore, in America or elsewhere subscribe towards aiding the national cause, they give their money, among the rest, for the purpose of ridding themselves of an oppressive tax, and if there be any disgrace in trading upon their generosity or filial affection it remains with the landlords, who, by the powers they hold over fathers and mothers at home, force their hands into the pockets of tender-hearted girls abroad.— These are the true adventurers, and moat remorseless plunderers.

ELOQUENT PREDICTIONS

The full significance of the Chicago Convention can alone be understood by means of the attitude of opponents towards it. The importance of the unanimity that prevailed may be best gathered perhaps, if we consider the anxious predictions of disturbance made and the hopes expressed without concealment that irremediable divisions would take place. Assurances that such must be the case were given plentifully to their readers by the newspapers in opposition, and many pretended revelations were made of the plans adopted to overthrow Mr. Parnell, and the ambitions to which het and with him the Irish cause, must owe their fall. The result of the Convention, however, has been to strengthen Mr. Parnell's position immensely, to reunite Irishmen everywhere in their resolution to pursue the course on which they have entered to a successful end, and to give the world a proof of the neceesity that exists for the settlement of the demand made by the Irish people. The anti-Irish newspapers hare betrayed themselves in a very marked manner by the way in which they have treated this matter, making evident to ua their sense of the formidable nature of the national cause ; their alarm and consternation, and their one sole hope— namely that of division and discord in tte Irish camp. No doubt this exposure had some influence in directing the course of the Convention, and aided in determining its results, and it should also produce due effects elsewhere, and confirm Irishmen in every part of the world in an intention to persevere resolutely and in union until their great object has been gamed — as gained it must be, the opposing Press itself assures us, under Buch circumstances.

AN UNFLATTERING OPINION.

According to the Berlin correspondent of the Times the views of Germans with respect to England are by no means flattering to the pride of that country, The National Zcitung, says this correspondent, expresses these views very justly. The National Zeitung telle us then that England baring resisted Russia in Bulgaria

obliged Prince Alexander to throw himself in o her arms, but that, owing to her failure to obtain the Poite'a consent to the union of the two Bulgarias and to form a defensive and offensive alii inev\ muce she considered the protectioa of Bulgaria as Austra's ta-.k. Pnuce Alexander was left alone. The Porte abandoned by England dropped the Prince and delivered up Bulgaria and coustquently almost Constantinople to Bussia, to whom moreover Austria and Germany will offer no resistance. Russia, however, for a lung time to come will not take actual possession, even of Bulgaria. — " The defeated party in the intrigues," " concludes the newspaper, ia not Prince Alexander, who will certainly yet find a part to play, and probably on a more important stage, but the policy of England, whose custom it has long been to send the weak under fire for her own purposes aud then to leave them in the lurch as soon as the conflict takes a bad turn." — But if this be the true opinion of Germany, and the correspondent of the Times should be a fair authority, it is evident that John Bull passes there for rather a mean fellow.

A DIFFICULTY.

The protest of the Hungarian Premier against the action of Russia, notwithstanding the neutrality supposed to exist on the part of Austria and Germany, may probably be accounted for not only by antipathy to the pan-Sclavic idea, but also by the feeling of hostility of late shown in a very marked manner by the Magyars towards the Germans. This has been so much resented in Germany that the invitation lately issued by the city of Buda-Pest to the municipalities of Berlin and Munich to take part in the bicentenary celebration of the recapture of the city from the Turks was refused more or less unceremoniously, and bitterness prevails in a high degree between the peoples in question. Under the circumstances it is not unnatural that a compliance with German policy Bhould not appear ageeable to the Magyar mind, and, notwithstanding the boasted and of t-renewed alliance between the Emperors, thiß may prove a point of difficulty not immediately to be overcome.

STILL UNSETTLED.

Besides the dispute about the boundary-line near Khojah Saleh— referred to London and St. Petersburg—another difficulty of the Afghan frontier, whose difficulties as yet seem far from settled, is that relating to the Khanate of Wakhan, which, in an agreement made between Lord Granville and Prince Gortschakoff in 1872 was named as forming part of Afghanistan. Notwithstanding this, however, a Eussian emissary has lately been sent there with a proposition that submission should be made to Russian rule. The proposition ( moreover, has been favourably received, though more from motives of prudence than from any desire of the people to comply with it. But they say that they are a mere handful unable to oppose the troops of Russia, and hopeless of receiving the only aid of which they could think — namely that of England. This they say the great mountains cut off from them, as well as the attitude of their neighbour, the Khan of Badakshan— on whom, besides, they are in some degree dependent, and who is friendly to Russia. According to all appearances, then, an assurance of peace, so far as the Afghan frontier is concerned, is still far removed from us. The rivalry of England and Russia is still in full foice there, and it is impossible to cay at what moment the scare of a year or two ago may not be renewed.

AN UNFORTUNATE UNDERTAKING.

A GRFAT mißtake was made as to the results of British interference in the affairs of Buimah. — The idea was that a friendly people would behold with supreme delight the deposition of a monater in the sbape of a king, and that British rule ;vould be joyfully submitted to, — The reality is that the people have 6een with indignation the deposition of a king who, whatever may hare been his character, does not seem to have outraged their sense of loyalty by any means — and they have set up in his place a pretender to the throne who commands a large body of native troops or, who being only a child, has them commanded in his cause. The reality is that a strong system of guerilla warfare on one pretence or other is going on all over the kingdom and that a very much larger force of British or Indian troops than can well be spared arc needed to meet it, and that with doubtful prospects of success. — It was believed that by this time 6,000 soldiers would suffice for British needs in Upper Burmah ; it turns out that thirty thousand are already there, and more are on their way, — and to furnish them British power in India Btands a very fair chance of being jeopardised, — the large addition lately made to tbe Indian army, in face of Russian designs, being thus completely neutralised. An additional unpleasantness and point of danger is formed by the embarrassments of the Indian exchequer, by which all the expense of this unhappy undertaking must be met, and which is at present heavily embarrassed owing to the fall of silver.

DUNEDIN CHAMBER OF COMMEBCE.

Mb. J. T. M^okebbas, Chairman of the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce, in his address delivered at the annual meeting of the Chamber last week, claimed that notwithstanding the depression the Colony continued to make substantial progress. In the laet ten years, be said, the land under cultiration had increased

from 2,377,402 acres, in 1876, to 6,729,911 acres, in 1886— a little OTer 2,000,000 acres being under grass. Mr. Mackerras also quoted Sit Charles Clifford's rebuke to Mr. Froude :— " If Mr. Froude had taken the trouble to look into official statistics, he would have found that the cultivated land in New Zealand was 300,000 acres more than— not one of the colonies of Australia, but the whole of Australia put together." The value of the exports for the year showed a falling off of £147,867 ; to be converted into a surplus, however, if the increased price obtained for wool were taken into account. The falling off ia the exports of wheat and oats, amounted in all to £250,943— the diminution in yield being caused by the large areas thrown out of grain cultivatiou owing to low prices. More attention had been given to dairy produce and froze n meat. The increase in the number of sheep since 1881 amounted to 3,570,510, the total number in the Colony being 16,564,595. The quantity of wool had also largely ncrea sed. The speaker maintained that the exports of cattle and horses from Otago to New South Wales were to be taken as proving the appreciation of our superior breed of cattle by our neighbours. The woollen mills of Otago gave employment to 600 hands and the coal fields provided work for 300 miners. The number and frugality of the working-classes were testified to by the deposits in the savings banks at the end of the year amounting to £2,142,729, the year's increase being £216,119. Mr. Mackerras also stated, on information received from Sir Julius Vogel, that the revenue receipts for the first six month i of the year were in round numbers £57,000 less than the amount estimated, the explanation being that as no notice was given thi a year of the budget the commercial community had not, as they were accustomed to do, taken out of bond large quantities of goods. The Treasurer therefore hoped that the last six months of the financial year would show an improvement.

A BLESSED CHANGE.

It is always a cheerful thing to witness the march of improvement. It is a delightful thing especial lj to see youth expanding within a very Bhort period into noble proportions. The growth and trans* formation, therefore, of Lord Randolph Churchill in one bare year, according to the London Standard, should prove most exhilarating to a benevolent mind. Here is what his Lordship was on July 31st., 1886. Lord Randolph Churchill " said the Standard, "is a much overrated man. ... His almost incredible ignorance of affairs, his boyish delight in offering the crudest insults to men who have been fifty years in the service of the State, his pranks, his blunders, are ceasing to amuse. . . We will follow Lord Salisbury, but we will not be governed by a sort of overgrown schoolboy, who think* he is witty when be is only impudent, and who really does not seem to possesß sufficient knowledge even to fathom the depths of his own ignorance of everything worthy of the name of statesmanship. 1 " Behold, again, the picture of his Lordship on July 29th, 1886. " Lord Randolph Churchill," says the Standard " possesses the debating power and the dauntless spirit which are indispensable to a successful leader. . . . Lord Randolph Churchill, moreover, is eminently popular with ' the masses,' and so far has a title to confront Mr. Gladstone which no other man on the Conservative Bide of the House can show. In short he is an orator and a wit, and in a popular assembly these are titles to pre-eminence which it is not very easy to dispute." A clever boy. indeed, must his Lordship be to undergo such a change in so short a period.— But such is the value of the condemnation or applauee bestowed by the partisan, and such are tho honour, honesty, and consistency, with which the Irish cause is opposed.

ANOTHEK DEFIANCE.

United Ireland also received the Torj threats with a bold defiance. Kepljing to Lord Randolph Churchill's assurance that the GoTernment would neither by legislation nor by the negligence of the Executive interfere with the right of landlords to seize their land in event of the non-payment of rent, and to Lord Salisbury's advice to the landlords to evict with the support of Government, our contemporary recalls the suggestive fact that the same threats uttered now were uttered in 1880, and that the people underwent the fulfilment of these threats, and came out victorious and invigorated. And during the [years that that struggle lasted they wanted much that they now possess :— " They were then in the beginning of their revolt against landlordism,' says our contemporary, " and their cause iras unknown and misunderstood. Now the eyes of the world are fixed upon them, and the sympathy of the civilised world iB upon their side. Then the greatest statesman of the age was their opponent and both political parties of England were leagued together in the effort to subdue them. Now the greatest statesman of the age baa put himself at their head, and the greater of the two political parties has made their cause its own. Then they were represented in Parliament by a little cluster of elevated men, whom the hand of every English member was raised against. Now they are represented by a powerful Irish party, and the most important Englibhpartyintb.fi House have become their champiens."— lt was under these circumstances, therefore, that the Government proposed to renew the policy that had miserably failed when employed against a people infinitely

less prepared to encounter it. , United Ireland laughs the attempt to •corn. We can understand, then, . V<)W the Toriea haTe changed their mind, as they must have done, if tl> Bumn >ary of their programme recently enounced by Lord Randolph Vburchill has been correctly reported here. But if no change has occ. Vred » we may Bnare in the defiance given by the Irish people and n>* «»ared that another failure awaits their opponents.

WHAT A WHOPPEB )

The BeTerend Boaring Kane give."* *° the £° ndol j Times, in a pathetic way and with thi* mildness of a sucking dove, bis version of how Oran^ no ' 8 *'*> caused. " The inhabitants of a Protestant district in Belfast," writes his Reverence, " are all in bed. The mllitar/ and police are all withdrawn. It is about 3 a.m. Suddenly the repc"^ 6 of the district is broken by an incursion of a mob numbering a couple of thousand. Are the Protestant inhabitants to lie still in their beds until the police and military arrive from a distance of two or three aiiles 1 They do not think so, and consequently they start from their beds to defend their homes and their children, and what is called a riot ensues. In the course of time the police arrive, and the attacking mob retire to their own quarter, but the people who have been defending their homes and children, have no place to retire to, as the fight was carried on in their own street. They are, therefore, in their excitement and irritation left to settle matters with the police, who refuse to follow the invaders, preferring to baton and shoot the people who have been repelling invasion. Will your readers advise how the Protestant masses should act under the circumstances ?" Is not the picture well imagined ? All it wants, in fact, is the slight element of truth, or even verisimilitude. It does not want some tone of drollery — and such we find very strongly marked in that passage relating to the impossibility that good Protestants fighting, more or less in dishabille, before their own doors possess no retiring place . Do they, indeed, like the man in the parable wnen made whole, carry their beds upon their backs 1 or does not such a retreat still await them 1 Nay, may they not retire under those refuges if very hard pressed, and remain there as Mr. Kane also in another passage with an indignant denial suggests 1 There are some, however, who could tell a different tale from that of the Reverend Boaring Kane. Miss Minnie Palmer, for example, the Amerioan actress, who narrowly escaped a bullet fired, under the belief that Catholic excursionists ware the passengers, into the railway carriage in which she was leaving Belfast for Dublin— knew that she had aroused no worthy Protestant in the dead of night. The poor old Catholic man, over whom boiling tar was poured in the street, had made no attack upon a Protestant house, and a similar tale might be told by many innocent victims. Such compositions as that of Mr. Kane, however, are well suited to the columns of the Tunes, and may well find a place among an endless variety of inventions and calumnies. j

SHAMEFUL PBAIBE.

The Government has taken the alarm at the abuse heaped upon the constabulary, because of their conduct in Belfast. They have perceived, how awkward it would be for them were these men to wax cool in their service and to withhold the efficient ail givea heretofore by them in all the dirty work done in the land. Lord Randolph Churchill has felt himself obliged to c ime forward in the House of Commons in their defence, notwithstanding their being engaged in resisting that chivalry whose eatraace on the fray he had himself invoked. — Lord Salisbury, also has spoken in support of them in the Hoase of Lords, although with sufficient defference to the feelings of the Orangemen to announce that if any of the body had acted with indiscretion they would be treated accordingly. — Lord Salisbury, moreover, by way of complimenting the police bestowed upon them the severest rebuke that could possibly be given to any body of irishmen. — " The Irish constabulary," he said, " have borne a great part in maintaining English government in Ireland." We need hardly explain how honorable it is to the men spoken of that they should be complimented on being the pillars on which Dublin Castle rests, and the support of all the iniquity emanating thence. — It iB to be hoped than they will have spirit and understanding enough left to profit by this compliment — even if they fail to do so by the abuse for which Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Churchill thought it necessary to atone to them.

HORRID WORK.

The eviction campaign has Bet in with great rigour in Ireland, and the papers are filled with the details to which we are bo well accustomed. Women and children crying in the rain, familiea sleeping without shelter on the roadside, and the bed-ridden and dying carried relentlessly out into the ditch, and all the rest with which we have been all our lives familiar, and which, in turn, will be familiar to our children if British rnle continues what it has heretofore been in Ireland. Some diversity is caused, however, by the resistance that in one or two places has characterised the hideous undertaking. Bridges leading to the condemned villages have been thrown down, the houses have been fortified within, and various means have been adopted to

beat off the attacking squad. One case in particular that occurred under that noble usurer the Marquis of Clanricarde shows the ruthless spirit of the oppressors. It was that of a poor old man whose bed-ridden condition was so pitiable that the magistrates and the police subßcnbed on the spot to pay his rent. The agent, however, defeated their charitable efforts by demanding as costs a sum of more than the amount due for rent, and so the law was left to take its cruel course. It is notable, moreover, that the expenses incurred by Government often are largely in excess of the amount owed, and enormously out of proportion with the amount recovered.so that the cost of all this wickedness is ruinous. Besides the Marquis of Olanricarde, the tfarqms of Ely has been distinguishing himself in this infamous manner, and we would inquire in passing whether his Lordship is any relation, and how near a one, to that " Janie Ely " whom Her Most Gracious .Majesty mentions so affectionately in her books. If he be a near relative, it is to be feared that hard hearts approach very near the throne. T^at veteran patriot, Canon Doyle of Ramsgrange, we see, at a public mating held at Irishtown vigorously denounced the system patronised by his Lordship. He also recommended the appoint* ment of a committee .of ladies to help the evicted people. The National League, as well, is doing good service in aiding the un. fortunate victims of thiscrueJty and brutal injustice.