A QUESTIONABLE COMBAT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 21, 16 September 1887, Page 17

A QUESTIONABLE COMBAT.

HE accounts which have reached us, up to the time at which we write, concerning the encounter between the police and the people at Mitchellstown are both confused and contradictory. From , the first cablegrams that came to hand all we could gather was that, in consequence of Mr. O'Brien's failing to answer a summons, and of some subsequent proceedings in the Court, a meeting was held in the town, at which the attendance of a Government reporter led to a riot. It would, however, appear from messages since received that the meeting had been pre-arranged, that it was organised on a wider scale than usual — large contingents of men, many of them mounted, coming not only from the surrounding country, but also from neighbouring counties, — and that the cause of the fight was not the mere presence of an obnoxious reporter, but an attempt made by the police to prevent the meeting from taking place. The news sent to us, again, concerning the events of the fight is not concordant, and we are left to form our own conclusions as to those who received the principal injuries, and who were the aggressors. That the people behaved themselves bravely, nevertheless, we may believe from Mr. O'Connor's reply to Mr. Balfour in the House of Commons, that he was proud of the magnificent Tipperary boys, — as well as from Mr. O'Brien's declaration — evidently mp.de to an audience in Dublin when he addressed them from the balcony of the Imperial Hotel after his arrest. The probabilities seem to us to be that, as Mitchellstown has lately been the centre around which a devastating eviction campaign was carried on, it was considered a suitable place to hold a meeting, with the object of denouncing the iniqui* ties perpetrated, encouraging and aiding the evicted people, and instructing and advising those who still remained in possession of their farms. — We have the evidence of Mr. Labouchere and Mr. Dillon, speaking in Parliament, that the police were the aggressors, and from Sir William Harcocrt and Mr. Gladstone, speaking in the same place, we gather that the Government had broken up the meeting. — We are justified, then, in concluding that the fault lay with the police, and that any ill usage suffered by them was provoked by their own conduct. — A. to the casualties that occurred on either side, we need enter into no calculations concerning them. Those who control the cable are not likely to report to us truly of them, and we must await the arrival of the Irish papers to bring us reliable details. — But sufficient for the present reaches us in Mr. Davitt's reported denunciation of what was done by the police — as " butchery." We have, then, in what has occurred the first important fruits of the Coercion Act. And, so far as we are able to judge from the meagre and confusing details that have come to hand, we fear we must look upon them as favourable to the designs of the Government. — A riot has been provoked, in which it may be made to appear that the people behaved with undue violence and offered to the law an unwarranted resistance. And this may prejudice them further in the eyes of the English masses who seemed now at length about to understand their case. The conduct of the people most probably was such as fully to justify Mr. O'Connor's boast as to the pride he took in the magnificent Tipperary boys. — It was, we have little doubt, enough to make Mr. u'Brien declare in an unguarded moment, as he is reported to have done, that such a spirit felt throughout all Ireland would speedily deliver her from the English thrall. But magnificent bravery on the part of an unarmed people is more suited for conquest in the pages of a romance than it is, even on the hill-sides and plains of Ireland, in the broad day -light of the nineteenth century, and opposed to forces carrying all the improved firearms of the period, with, besides, the Empire's strength and resources at their back. A high and fiery spirit, also, while it may lend splendour to a warfare conducted on more equal term*, and may even at all times have its advantages, under tbo c icumstances of the day in Ireland, requires prudent and careful control — and, without these, it might very possibly make the thrall stronger rather than obtain freedom from it. Into the question of the light of an oppressed people to resort to arms for their deliverance, we do not enter — though none have been more ready to acknowledge it than Englishmen and the English nation, and though some of those pages of her history of which England professes herself proudest

deal with nothing else. But Ireland's way to freedom does not lie in a resort to arms, but in patience and self-control, in the pursuance of a prudent policy, and, although in courage and resolution, in methods undeniably peaceful. We fear, then, lest the encounter at Mitchellstown may have been in some degree a retrogressive step. The conduct of the people was evidently spirited and brave, and the open approval given to it as such by Mr. O'Brien and Mr. O'Connor was no less. — But was it prudent or sufficiently under the guidance of self-control ? For that i£ the important question. — It is true there is the advantage that Mr. Labooohere was present and bears witness that is favourable to the people, and his influence will go some length with the English masses. Bmt the large majority by which, in the House of Commons, the motion to adjourn the debate on the subject was defeated, seems to point to a decided victory for the Government. — We write, of course, under disadvantages, and shall know nothing decisively until the Irish newspapers reach us in due time. But these are the thoughts that present themselves to us in connection with such information as we have received.

We learn that the spirit shown last week in our columns with respect to the proposed testimonial to the Bishop of Danedin has been general.— From all sides reports reach us as to the enthusiastic manner in which the matter has been taken up.— There can now be little doubt that the cordial reception which will in any case await Dr. Moran on his return from Adelaide will be enhanced by a presentation worthy of him, and which will give substantial proofs of thejjood will and affection entertained towards him by his people and his friends. — Already several contributions, and among them some of a considerable amount, have been received, and no movement undertaken among us has ever seemed more promising. — As some doubt has been expressed on the subject we may add that the publication in the tablet of the steps taken was intended as an invitation to all who were willing to co-operate in this offering to do so, and it is ho ped that they will not wait for any further prompting, As the Bishop is expected to return in the course of a few weeks there is not muck time to be lost, and expedition as well as union and cordial feeling is required. His Grace Archbishop Reynolds was invested with th« .pallium on Sunday in the cathedral at Adelaide by the Cardinal Arch** bishop of Sydney. The sermon was preached by the Bishop o^ Dunedin. Several other prelates were also present. A correspondent at Mosgiel informs us that at a meeting held there last Sunday in connection with the testimonial to Dr. Moran the matter was very warmly taken up, and stept unanimously adopted to promote its success. We take the following from the Hobart Catholic Standard of September I:—The1 :— The Right Rev. Dr. Moran was a passenger by the Rotomahana which arrived here from New Zaaland on Monday evening last. His Lordship who was on his way to Adelaide to assist at the investiture of his Grace, Dr, Reynolds, with the pallium, drove to the Bishop's house immediately on the arrival of the steamer, and said Mass at the Presentation Convent next morning. The Rotomahana sailed about noon on Tuesday for Melbourne. . , . Rev. Father Gleeson, who has been absent od leave from the diocese for some eighteen months, was also a passenger by the Rotomahana on Monday last. Father Gleeson, we are informed, has visited nearly all the noteworthy places in Palestine, Europe, and America, during his vacation, He appears to be in excellent health. We heartily bid him welcome home to Tasmania. In reference to the report of the meeting at j Christchurch published in our last issue, a correspondent informs us that the Rev. Father Le Menant des Chesnais explained that the remark made by him as to the relation of the Catholic people towards the appointment of bishops had been misunderstood. Representations made by the people to the Church authorities, be said, would always be considered but the Church,being the last judge of all the circumstances,and having the supreme power, must necessarily decide according to her judgment We are further informed that a committee has been appointed under the presidency of Mr. R. Loughnan senior, to carry out the arrangements for the reception of the Most Rev. Dr. Grimes, and to collect the necessary funds, and that a ladies' committee has also been formed to make preparations, which will likewise involve some expenditure, and which ladies best understand how to manage. It it earnestly to be desired that the Bishop may receive such a welcome as the exalted position he nils entitles him to, and we have no doubt that the Catholics of Christchurch will p ore themselves equal to the occasion. The principal news of the week has been that relating to the encounter between the police, and the people at MitchellEtown, but which, as we have said elsewhere, has evidently been reported here lin a very imperfect manner. All that we know is that a fight

occurred as the result of a meeting at which Mr. Labonchere, Mr. Condon, and several other members of Parliament were prosent, that saveral severe injuries were received on both sides, and that some men were killed. The matter has since been the subject of lively debate in Parliament, in which the Irish people have been condemned by Mr. Balfour, and Lord Randolph Churchill, and defended by Sir W. Harcourt, Mr. Gladstone, and Messrs. Labouchere, Dillon and Sexton, Mr. O'Brien, whojalso seems to have been connec:od in some way with the affair, although we cannot exactly find out how, and he does not appear to have been present at the fight, was afterwards arrested as he was about to see Mr. Laboucbere off by the Holyhead boat from Kingstown. He vras taken to Dublin where he addressed a crowd from the window of the Imperial Hotel, in O'Connell street. He has iince been transferred to Cork where he is in prison, bail being refused. There has also been a serious conlict with the moonlighters in Clare in which the head-constable from Ennis was killed. And on the whol« the Coercion Act hai begun its more active career. In the presence of a congregation which filled the Church of the Marist Fathers (St. Anne's, Spicer-street), London, to overflowing (says the Sydney Freeman's Journal) the consecration of Dr. Grimes* the new Bishop of Christchurch, New Zealand, took place on Tuesday, July 26. His Lordship was formerly Superior of the Congregation of Marists at Paignton, in the diocese of Plymouth, and was lately ■tationed at the east end of the metropolis. The see to which he has been promoted is one of several Vicariates-Apostolic in the Australaiian Church created by a recently promulgated rescript of the Holy Father. His Eminence the Cardinal-Archbishop of Westminster, who was to have performed the ceremony, was unable to be present, and his place was supplied by Dr. Herbert Vaughan, Bishop of Salford. The assisting bishops were the Bishops of South wark and Emmaus. An appropriate sermon was preached by the Bishop of Emmaus. After the ceremony a luncheon was given. Dr. Grimes will shortly take his departure for New Zealand . We are indebted for the following paragraph to the Auckland correspondent of the Otago Daily Times :— By the Mariposa, which arrived from Sydney, the Eight Rev. Monsignor Raimondi, Bishop of Acantho and Vicar Apostolic of Hongkong, arrived in Auckland on hia way to San Francisco, he being on a tour for the benefit of his health. Monsignor Raimondi, who is of fine, patriarchal presence, is accompanied by M. Paul Ti Chin, a Chinese student, who is preparing for the priesthood. The report as to the acceptance by the Pope of a large grant of land for missionary purposes from the Government of New South Wales is explained as having originated in some communication made in error to his Holiness by a foreign prelate. The Government in question, as we had, indeed, already concluded, never made any such offer. The Hon. J. Ballance has issued ia pamphlet form a series of papers on the nationalization of the land contributed some years ago by him to Sir Robert Stout's paper, the Echo. We saw them when they were first published and did not think them very brilliant, or very useful, and now that we see them again we have not altered our opinion.— lndeed recent events in America as well as the manner l n which the matters dealt with in these papers have been treated by the American Press, have convinced us even more firmly than before, if possible, that land nationalisation is a system of empty quackery that, if it were practicable in its application, must prove mischievous in its results.— As, however, it is completely impracticable, it may be left to the consideration of idle theorists, and other folk who have little to do and nothing to think about. Catholics who are desirous of obtaining for (heir boys a high education in the old country will find all their requirements met at the Benedictine College of Fort Augustus in Scotland.— The reputation of the Benedictine Fathers as teachers is immemorial, and the College in question has become famous for its great success. The Roman nobility will present the Holy Father on the attainment of his golden jubilee with a significant gift. It will be a copy executed in bronze by the famous artist Gregorio Bernardini, of the Arch of Constantine, erected, a.d. 326, by the senate and people of Rome, in commemoration of that Emperor victory over Maxentius. The significance of the presentation, under the circumstances of the times, is evident. We learn from the Nio-Calcdonkn of August 12, that the Lives from the New Hebrides had just arrived from Noumea. She had on. board a subaltern officer and a soldier Buffering from fever, but reported the health of the French colony as generally pretty good, and that of the Catholic mission as also satisfactory. The Dives had, in passing, bombarded a native tribe because of some mischief done by them to the property of settlers. The natives in reply fired on her boats as they were returning to the ship, employing for the purpose a mixed collection of guns, but without doing any harm. Our contemporary does not inform us as to whether the natives themselves received any injury, but like the traditional parting between eels and their skins, they ought by this time to be quite accustomed to that In every part of the south seas, and indifferently from English, Fr.in.ch> and Gennanj.

Here is a typical passage taken from an address made by the light-bearing Mr. Johann Most somewhere in America on July 4. Mr. Most is pointing out the perfections of the banner of liberty, brotherhood, and progress :— " Look at it," says ha. •• There is no white in our flag and no meaningless blue. It is red all over ; red, red, red. The red of hope, the red of love, the red of hate, the red of Hood, and the red of the Anarchist brotherhood."— Mr. Most is certainly the broth of a boy. But the worst of it is his equals are to be reckoned by hundreds of thousands. Does the world's future belong to them, as they boast it does ? A telegbam from London to the American newspapers speaks of the spreading of light in Scotland as followi :— The tenants of Sir Alexander Jarden's estates in Dumfrieshire have resolved to adopt the Plan of Campaign. They demand a reduction of rents and a revaluation or releasement from their farms at Whitßuntide. There are rumours that tenants on other estates intend to take similar action. Scotchmen both at Home and abroad have of late been doing with applause that which Irishmen everywhere are commonly blamed or ridiculed for doing— that is, pointing out the distinguishing traits of their nationality, and recommending their fellow-countrymen to preserve them. The Marquis of Bute, for example, at the unveiling of a statue of Wallace the other day, at Stirling, in alluding to the national sentiment said that Englishmen and Scotchmen might be excellent friends, but it was scientifically and physiologically true that Scotchmen could never be Englishmen nor Englishmen Scotchmen.—The Rev. Dr. Lees, again, in Melbourne, at a dinner given him by the Caledonian Society of Victoria, is reported to have spoken thus :— " It is a great pleasure, also, to see that Scotchmen this sidt of the world keep up with fond affection Ihe traditions and associations of their native land. (Cheers.) I hope they will long continue to do so. You remember the words of Samuel Johnson, that cold Englishman, as he walked amidst the ruins of lona, ' Whatever takes us back into the past raises us in the dignity of thinking beings,' and I venture to say that when Scotchmen go back in the traditions and associations of their native land they are none the worse for it. It is a good thing for them to remember the grand history of the fatherland—(cheers)—for it will enable them to acquit themselves in a more noble manner from day to day. . . . It Ib well for Scotchmen, wherever they may dwell, to recall those things— to look back on the history of their land, and to try, wherever they are, to sustain their nationality." The Most Rev. Dk. Coebett was consecrated Bishop of Sale at St. Mary's Church, St. Kilda, of which district he had been pastor for many years, on Thursday, August 25. The Archbishop of Melbourne, assisted by the Bishops of Hobart and Ballarat, acted as consecrator— there being also present the Archbishop of Adelaide, the Bishop of Maitland, and the coadjutor-Bishop of Sandhurst, with a large number of the Catholic clergy. The preacher on the occasion was the Rev. Father O'Farrell, C.SS.R., who delivered a very fine sermon on the Catholic Church. Dr. Corbett is a native of Limerick. According to the New York World the London Times is on the eve of publishing another forgery. This time it will be a letter from Mr. Dillon to Sheridan approving, like the Parnell forgery, of the Phoenix Park murders. The Times, no doubt, will arrive all in due course at Mr. Gladstone himself. An Art-Union has been undertaken for the purpose of aiding in liquidating the debt on the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Christchurch. Several very handsome prizes have been provided, and it is hoped that the friends of religion and education generally will co-operate in promoting the good work. The Sisters well deserve all the support and encouragement that can be given to them. t * Whether, as is suggested in certain quarters (writes a London* correspondent of the Bombay Gazette') the mission of Monsignor^ Persico (foimerly a Roman Catholic chaplain in India) and Father Gualdi to Ireland is the first fruits of the Duke of Norfolk's recent journey to Rome I cannot say, but the supporters of the Government profess to be very pleased at the step taken by the Pope. They seem to have made up their minds that the result of the inquiries that the two ecclesiastics from the Holy City are to make will be that the Pontiff will denounce the action of Mr. Parnell and his supporters and warmly espouse the side of the Government. Although a section of the Irish Press mildly deprecate the Pope's intervention In the affairs of Ireland, they will, I imagine, come round to the opinion of Archbishop Walsh, that it is the best thing that could have happened as it is not likely that they will report more unfavourably of the action of the Irish malcontents than has the Cowper Commission. That Commission took evidence which showed that the National League laboured to suppress outrages but could not always succeed, and that rents Jhad become from the fall in the prices too onerous to be paid in full. The Cowper Commission also recommended that rents should be reduced by the Court. This recommendation is ignored in the new Land Bill brought in by the Ministry as a compliment to the Liberal Unionists. It is not likely that similar advice, if given by the Papal Commissioners, will have more attention paid to it, for the idea ii that if you coerce heavily enough you can

get money for the Irish landlord out of the impecunious Irish tenants. Impecunious kingß and their counsellors had a delusion of a Bimilar kind in the Middle Ages, and it cost the chosen people many eye-teeth, and a good many tears which were sometimes of blood. Thomas HALLAHAN,(BayB the San Francisco Chronicle, a secular paper) who for many years has been a well-known restaurant keeper in Oakland, has recently returned from his pilgrimage to the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, in the South of France. The history of Mr. Hallahan's case is very remarkable. Last year he was a complete cripple from spinal irritation, and had to be rolled around in a chair. The disease had been pronounced incurable by several of the most distinguished specialists, and he himself had given up all hope of a cure until a friend induced him to try applications of the water from the grotto of Lourdes. Mr. Hallahan did so, at the same time vowing a pilgrimage to Lourdes. The result was almost a miraculous cure. Mr. Hallahan is to-day as healthy a man as there is in Oakland, and may be seen at any time attending to his business. The Sydney Freeman's Journal explains as follows, a report to the effect that Trappist monks were about to undertake a mission to the Australian aborigines :— As has already been stated in the Freeman, the late Hon. John Nagle Ryan by his will set apart an area of 800 acres in his Galong.estate, with the " Galong Castle " included, for the purposes of a Trappist monastery in no way connected with an aboriginal mission if one could be established in this colony. The Cardinal-Archbishop communicated with the head of the Order of La Trappe in Ireland, conveying the offer of the land mentioned, but the reply received by his Eminence was to the effect that owing to the distance of the proposed new monastery and the inability of the Order to supply a sufficient number of monks for a new foundation, the Order were obliged to decline the generous invitation to Australia. The Melbourne Argus the other day, went to the trouble of elaborately explaining the character and habits of the Trappist Order with a view to showing their unfltness for the work which, according to the cablegrams, they were about undertaking in Australia ; all very interesting, no doubt, in its way, but rather silly when taken in conection with the explanation we now give. The Galong property, which is on the Galong platform on the Southern line, is a magnificent one, and the will of the late Mr. Ryan provides that, in the event of the Trappist? refusing, the property is to go to the fery Rev. Edmund Vaughan, C.SS.R., Rector of the Redemptorist Fathers' Monastery at Waratah, New South Wales, to be held by him in trust for his successor. There is another provision in the will, that should the Redemptorists also refuse, the eitate is to be devoted to Church purposes. In the new volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica (says the Pall Mall Budget, of July 14th) Mr. Wynnard Hopper discusses suicide. The author cautions us against hasty generalizations from statistics, but ir, is impossible not to regard the figures with what may be called a provisional interest. Why should Saxony and Denmark come at the head of the list with proportions of 225 and 285 per million deaths respectively ! Life canaot be exceptionally hard in either country. " The most distressful country " in the world is far away the lowest, showing a proportion of sixteen only. These statistics refer to 1868, In 1882 Saxony had risen to 371, Denmark had fallen to 25., while Ireland, though showing the slight increase to twenty-one, was still far below any other. Even the highest figures do not, it is true, look very alarming ; but it is really startling to be told, as Mr. Hooper tells us in a quotation from Dr. Ogle, that " one out of every 119 young men who reach the age of twenty dies ultimately by his own hand." Girls are less disposed to suicide, but among them one out of 312 who reach the age of fifteen dies in the same way. The most fatal age seems to be between fiftyive and sixty-five. Women prefer to drown, men to hang themselves When they chooee poisons men are much more careful to select such as give little or no pain.

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