Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 27, 28 October 1887, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.)

Bt the 7th section of the Coercion Act it is made unlawful to publish the proceedings of any association which the Lord Lieutenant, having proclaimed it, may choose to prohibit or suppress by his mere order ; and by the 11th section any person so publishing such proceedings renders himeelf liable to six months' imprisonment with hard labour. This is bo gross an infringement of the liberty of the Press that it must be grappled with from the very beginning. We {Nation), therefore, give notice to all whom it may concern that if any branch of the National League be ordered out of existence by the Viceroy, and if fits committee or members in general continue to meet, as we are satisfied they ought to do, we shall publish reports from them, sent to us by their secretaries or other authorised officers, precisely as if no Coercion Act ever existed. We advise that no branch should seek for suppression, and that no speeches should be made or resolutions passed for the mere purpose of provoking Governmental action ; but we most strenuously recommend that the branches hold together and carry on their work of patriotism just as they have been doing heretofore. If the right of public meeting be denied to them, they must meet in private ; then let them, as we have already said, send us their reports and resolutions in the usual way ; we shall be happy to publish them, and face the consequences. The point of Monsignor Persico's addresses to the priests and people wherever he has occasion to speak would be missed by most people not in possession of an item of information that has reached us on good authority. It appears that the latest effort of the English faction at Some had for its object to impress upon the Pope the belief that the root of Irish Catholicity was a mere political sentiment, that it had no existence as a religion, and that Catholic practices and observances had been forgotten and given up by the mass of the people. Sound evidence was tendered on the other side, and Mgr. Persico's mission ie the result. Bearing in mind the purpose of the English faction, the following statement in his Excellency's address to the priests of Tuam has its significance :— " I have seen that lively faith, 1 have seen that practical religion, which you have expressed in your addresses, that that faith which was imported by St. Patrick, and which has been preferved wiih such persistency, has never been ■o bright as in our day." Manifestly, this is one more failure for some " eminent English Catholics." The first stroke of the Tories at the right of public meeting has been struck. The Clare County meeting has beeD pioclaimed. There is only one way of meeting such a proceeding, and that is by holding monster meetings all over the country on the day appointed. Once more the Castle hirelings must be taught that public rights in Ireland are not to be limited by their proclamations. The Irish landlords are-after the manner of the National Leagueholding county meetings and electing delegates to a convention to be held on an early day in Dublin. The design of this movement is to influence the Government in the framing of the Purchase Bill which they are to bring into Parliament next session. The keynote of the convention is to be " Compensation." But compensation for what, and compensation from whom? Do these gentlemen expect to be compensated for the reductions they have been forced to make in rackrents which they should uever have exacted ? And are they mad enough to suppose taat the taxpayers, either English or Irish, will ever consent to their receiving such compensation from the public funds ? This intended convention of theirs is altogether a foolish proceeding. What they should assemble for is to consider a scheme of Home Rule for Ireland, and offer terms of peace and union to their fellow-countrymen. It seems they have not heart or brains enough to take up such an idea. They are a played-out and lost class. The New York Tribune contains the report of an interview which Mr. T. P. Gill, M.P., had with Mr. Parnell on the evening of the proclamation of the National League. There is no statesman in the United Kingdom whose words are so well worth pondering on as the Irish leader's on matters affecting this country, and the confidence of the people of Ireland will gain strength — though, perhaps, that is not much needed— from his opinion that " it is the last time snch a spectacle" — a proclaimed and coerced country — " will be witnessed." Mr. Parnell regards the latest action of the Government " as a proof that the Tories have grown desperate and have ceased to rely on the irritating support of the Liberal Unionists." He believes that if the Coercion Act is administered in the reckless manner favoured by previous administrations under similar circumstances " the next halfyear will be a trying time for Ireland " ; but with the " genuine and political sympathy " of English Liberals and the support of friends in America "this threatened tyranny may prove a real blessing in disguise, and be the means of fostering instead of retarding the return of Mr. Gladstone and a Home Rule Government to power." The Rev. Thomas Ellis and the Irish Times have sat down crnshlnely on Mr. T. W. Rus3ell because he happened to blurt out in the House of Commons his real feelings in regard to the effect on Ulster of the wretched tinkering of the Tories at agrarian legislation. Ulßter, said Mr. Russell, has gone over to the Parnellites, and in so saying he has sounded his own political death-knell. " The Tories will have him no longer, and without their aid he is in South Tyrone a nonentity. Mr. Russell paid a delicate compliment to the artist of the WesUy Freeman in the course of his speech, when he spoke of the switchback railway leading Heaven knows where. Clearly, he had the magnificent cartoon in his mind's eye, and was c " j iriog up visions of the fall pictorially forecasted for him. Mr. ftrrnell is not of the Btuff of which diplomatists are made. He has ilcuionstated that fact in the House.

The Archbishop of Dublin seized the opportunity afforded by the appointment of the Executive Committee to come forward with the suggestion of a " Round Table Conference," consisting of representatives of the tenants and landlords, " to sketch out at all events the broad outlines of a plan for the equitable and final settlement of the Irish land question." By a seel ion of the Tory press the letter was

hailed with delight ; but by the Times and the St. James's tatette it was treated as a fl»g of trace hung out by an " • officious ' representative " of the coercion-frightened National League ; and the Gaxette patted Mr. Balfonr on the back for the first grand result of his policy, and told him to persevere and the field would be won. We have here an indication of what English Toryism is bent on securing. Certainly it is not peace. We need scarcely say that the placing of such a construction on the Archbishop's action— a construction also advanced by an anonymous Orange " Observer " amongst the Mail s correspondents—has dangerously injured the chances of a parley. The meeting of Oounty Oarlow landlords, held on Wednesday, August 31, was explicit enough as to what they deem their rights. They passed a Beriea of resolutions preliminary to the election ot delegates to the National Committee. The following is the most important of them :— " That we have been deprive! of our right to obtain the best price that can be got for our property by open competition and free contract— a right reserved by constitutional law to every other class in the empire, including the land owners of England and Scotland. That we have been encumbered against our will with the acknowledged evils of a dual ownership of our lands. That the contracts under hand and seal entered into deliberately and bona. fide by which the enjoyment of our property was secured, have been summarily annulled, as far as they protected us, while they have been kept intact so far as they protected the other parties to those contracts." This resolution was followed by another to give it point •—" That, all our interests have been sacrificed to meet an alleged national emergency, we claim, as a measure of justice, that national compensation should be given to us." Here we have put forward again the unmistakeable demand for compensation because of their being compelled to justice. If it means anything it means that somebody is to pay the landlords) for the tenants improvements which were always, in justice to the tenants, property, but have only recently been recognised as snch by law ; and that they ought also be paid because their rents have been brought down to a level with the rents of English tenants, who enjoy the advantage of "open competition and free contract," through the free competition.of living The death of Lord Doneraile on August 26, at his residence in County Cork, is a very melancholy one. Seven months ago he and his coachman were bitten by a tame fox which became rabid, and both the noblemen and his servant went to Paris, where they underwent a course of treatment at the hands of M. Pasteur. They returned home in a month's time apparently quite recovered, and until Monday, August 22, it was believed that Pasteur's treatment had effected a complete cure. But on that day Lord Doneraile was attacked with illness, which speedily developed the dreaded symptoms of hydrophobia, and these continued to increase m intensity until death terminated the sufferings of the patient. There is something exceedingly childish in citing Lord Doneraile s case to prove that M Pasteur's treatment is a sham. It failed ia this par.icnlar instance, as the most skilful treatment will fail in any disease where fatal effects have set in, and that is all that can be fairly said of it. The coachman has not succumbed, and is, we are glad to learn, to all aDpearance quite recovered. Besides, it is something further to be said for M. Pasteur, that his treatment of Lord Doneraile had the effect of alleviating much of the agony which accompanies the terrible malady. Probably the deceased nobleman s age had something to do with the failure of the great Parisian scientist's operations, ' Lord Doneraile was born in 1818, and waa therefore entering on his 70th year. He succeeded to the title in 1854, and the following year was elected a representative peer of Ireland. He had only one child, a daughter, wife of Lord Caatletown, who, with her husband was at the bedside o£ her father for a couple of days before his death. The title descends to Richard Arthur St. Leger, who was born in i lß2s. The North Hunts election is another Northwich. Tha Tories profess to be jubilant over it because they returned their man by a smaller majority than that by which they triumphed m 1885. But the features of this election are identical with those of the Northwich election, which threw them into such dismay .The Liberal vote was in both instances slightly increased over the 1885 tigure, the Tory vote slightly reduced. In both cases-and that is the moral of nearly all the by-elections— there is no trace of a Liberal Unionist party. The advocacy of Home Rule has not cost the Liberals a vote, while association with the Unionists has cost the Tories many. If the policy of the Nationalists and the tenants of Ireland is directed, as Mr. Gladstone puts it, by strong, vivid, and buoyant hope the action of their opponents is dictated by puerile, cowardly, and unreasoning despair. Anyone who would fathom the lowest > depths of imbecility has but to read the proceedings of the Landlords and Incambrancers' Association" in the Leinster Lecture Hall, Molesworth-street. The association is said to be non-political, but wo did not observe that there were any Nationalists in attendance. Nor have we heard that there were any invited Lord Abercorn, chairman, set the ball rolling by a splendid initial absurdity. The landlords, the incumbrancers, and the tenants, he claimed, "had a common interest, beause they all got their living out of the land . Why, this is the very reason why their interests are conflicting. Each wants to gel the beat share for himself. Lord Abercom's argument would go to show that it is the incumbrancer's interest to baye his claim out down, and the tenant's interest to have his rent kept up. Which are the two objects at present nearest to the landlord s heart, and for which he invites the co-operation of the mcumbrancer and the tenant? It would not seem, however, that the proclamation of the League to which the Government look for the creation of an Arcadia in Ireland, has brought much hope to the hearts of the laadiordß. Captain Cosby, apparently with general approval, limited thex expectations to a soft spot to be wrecked on, for their wreck, he declared, waa inevitable, and their only business was to save as much as they could from the pressing waves of the " flowing tide. Anyone who studies the proceedings mast come to the conclusion that the spot on which the landlords are to b U >v recked must be a very soft spot indeed if it is softer than themselves A reference of the Dublin Evening Mail to Archbishop Walsh'B remarks on the position of Trinity College-remarks made at Thurles

in January, 1884, and since interpreted and commentated by the editor of the Mail— bas drawn from the Archbishop of Dublin the following declaration as to the claims of Catholics in the matter of nniversity education :—": — " What is claimed on behalf of the o<itholicß of Ireland is justice. An essential element of justice is equality ; and in this matter of university education equality can be attained on the most absolutely satisfactory lines, without even an approach to the of distinction. Not one penny of the endowment of Trinity College need be interfered with. Not one stone of its buildings need be transferred from its present owners. No shadow of change need fall upon its teaching. One thing only need, and, I will add, mußt, disappear — its present monopoly — a monopoly which I should be surprised to learn ' tb*t any of those most deeply interested in the welfare of the college would now struggle to maintain, "This definite statement will explode once and for all a floating slander which has done duty on thousands of platforms ; and it makes still more clear the fact that even those most determined to have even-handed justice done to Catholics in Ireland, are also determined that their Protestant fellow-countrymen shall lose none of their just rights thereby. If Trinity College did not exist, it would be the duty of an Irish Parliament to provide an Irish university for Irish Protestants. We do not complain that our Protestant fellow-countrymen are well-equipped in toe matter of education. Our complaint is that we ourselves have not been treated with a like measure of generosity ; and, perhaps, we might also in justice add the reproach that we have not been helped to gain our rights by them as we should have been. Would it be too much to ask them at this late hour of the day, when their minds are set to rest by this frank declaration of our Archbishop, to come forward and declare that the maintenance of this inequality is an injustice that must be remedied ? If they did so we wonld treat as more important their own unprovoked outcries. We learn that extensive preparations had been made by the authorities to carry out the evictions on the O'Qrady estate in the county of Limerick. Large bodies of police and military bad been drafted into Kilballyowen, The O'Grady's residence, where they were held in readiness to accompany Mr. Sub-Bberiff Hobson on the work of extermination. On their side the tenants had not been idle, and are said to have so effectually barricaded their houses that the expedition against them is likely to prove considerably more than a mere military promenade. On Tuesday, August 30, active operations began with an attack on the house of Mr. John Carroll, where an entrance was easily effected. A more vigorous resistance was, however, offered ] at the house of Honora Crimmins, where the bailiffs were for some time prevented from entering by the roof, and were eventually indebted for admission to the frailty of the back wall, which fell before the strokes of the invaders. The conduct of the parties in ! charge of the police and military was characterised by the usual stupid brutality, which grievously shocked some English visitors who chanced to be present. The reporters, or clergymen, or members of Parliament, were not permitted to witness the enormities that were perpetrated by the burglars. We may suspect that their demeanour was not much improved by the attempt of the authorities to conceal their conduct. On the strength of a silly complaint, orders were given by one of the X.M.'s to " baton the people like the devil." We Buppose the fellow, in issuing this shameful order in the fitting language of brutal coarseness, was acting under the instructions of Balfour and Co. ; and, if so, the attempt to exasperate and provoke the people by wanton brutality of &pecck and act, throws a lurid light on the purposes for which the Coercion Act is to be employed. On Wednesday the eviciion campaign was renewed, when Captain Plunkett found, himself obliged to abandon as untenable the position of screen to the misconduct of the Emergency men. A poor old Widow Moloney, aged beventy, bad to be removed in a bed. Many of the soldiers who were present aie Irishmen, and no doubt felt heartily ashamed of the work at which they were called on to assist. The English, Scotch, and American visitors who were present expressed great surprise and indignation at the uncalled-for conduct of the officials, and some of them bear back to their own countries marks of the rowdyism that in Ireland passes under the name of Government. Mr. W. O'Brien, M.P., Mr. Condon, M.P., Father Sheeny, and Father Eyan were present to assist and comfort the poor evicted families. After the evictions a meeting was held at which in addition to the pentlemen named, Mr Congressman O'Neill, of St. Louis, aud Mr. Harry Smith, the candidate for Falkirk, Scotland, delivered addresses. Elections have now been held in almost every district of England, k and in one and all there is the same tale to tell. The Liberals who were frightened away in 1886 by Mr. Gladstone's proposals as interpreted by Chamberlain and Company have now returned to their party ; and the Liberals areas strong to-day in England as they were when they triumphed over Irish and Tory opposition in 1885. That is the situation. The fight that is on foot between the Government and the League for the championship of Ireland is not exciting bo much interest as might be expected. It is not a fair handicap. It ie the whole world to a China orange against the challenger. To begin with the records. The Government has got badly beaten every time it tried. The League Las a cleati sheet of unbroken victories. The Government is a wild, blind bitter. The League is cool and calm, and every blow tells. The Government is rickety on its pins, walks and fights with a crutch. The League stands solid and steady as a pyramid, but moves quick and resistless as a steam engine. There Beems little reality about a fight agmn&t such odds ; so much so that the public are coming to the cjnclusin, that it is a cross, a mere piece of empty bounce, to give the Orangemen ashow for their money. The Government, it is generally believed, will never come regularly to the bciatch. It may, it is possible, show some loose play about the ring. But it never will dare to close in do wn right earnest with so formidable an opponent. In any event the victory is not doubtful. Now and then there are spasmodic outbreaks of Orange ruffianism in theNortb of Ireland which, though not of any great importance, yet as the outcome of some of tbe old spirit of black bigotry, are sufficient ••to show that still it lives." On Saturday evening at Ballymena a patrol of police came across a body of disorderly Orangemen who

were engaged in the idle, but apparently piecing work of ourelng the Pope. The gang of disturbers refused to disperse on being ordered to do so by the police, and even pelted the policemen with Btonei and drove them into their barracks. The men threw a volley of Btonei at the barracks, seven windows of which they demolished. They persisted in their attacks until the police were compelled to discharge a volley of blank cartridge at their assailants. Bullets and buckshot would have been employed on a National crowd under leas provoking circumstances. Can it be that it is only blank cartridge that ii supplied to. the constabulary in Ulster? If the fact Bhould become generally known in Orange quarters we should not be at all surprised if there were an immediate outbreak of that peculiar Orange bravery that revels in manifestations of rowdyism that can be indulged la with impunity. If gross attacks on the police are to be resisted only with blank cartridge, then surely the time has come when the Orangemen of Ulster can safely gratify their military proclivities by " waving all their banners and charging with all their chivalry." The Balbriggan frame work knitters have given notice that ihej intend, for the protection of their hosiery, to prevent, as far as possible, under the new Merchandise Act, the present system of stamping English hosiery with the name " Balbriggan." The statute provides that if any manufacturer continues to use the mark Balbriggan the name of the place where the hosiery has been mana* factured must be stamped also. On Friday, August 26, there assembled at the Leinster Hall, Molesworth street, one of those meetings of Iriah landlords which have been so common of late years— a meeting to take steps to safeguard the interests of the so-called land-owners. It differed from all its pre» decessors in some noteworthy particulars. Firßt, it was not by any meane a fighting meeting. The Orange Duke who took the chair deprecated even political references, and the tone throughout was despondent in the deepest degree. Stcond, it proclaimed its intention of seeking a settlement in the interest of landlord, tenant, and iucam* brancer alike. We do not set much store by this profession ; bat tbe necessity that compelled it is something to be recognised. Finally, the meeting concluded by the appointment of an executive committee with large powers of negotiation.