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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XV, Issue 46, 9 March 1888, Page 17

His Grace the Archbishop of Wellington, who took part on Thursday last in the sitting in Dunedin of the University Senate, left on Friday for the South. His Grace returns to Dunedin this (Wednesday) evening, accompanied by the Rev, Father .M'Enroe, S.J.

The Rev. Father M'Kenna, a young priest recently ordained in Ireland for the diocese of Wellington, visited Dunedin last week en route for his destination,

Fbom a musical point of view the celebration of St. Patrick's D»y in Dunedin will not be eclipsed in any other part of the Colony National music will be a prominent feature throughout, the Garrison Band, under Mr. Wishart, opening the concert with a grand fantasia on lome twenty Irish airs. Miss Hume is to sing " The Last Rose of Summer," Mr. Reunert, coming from Balclutha, is to eing "The Minstrel Boy," and Mr. W. Fraser, " Kathleen Mavourneen." The second part of the programme is to be occupied by a Minstrel Company of twenty vocalists, with an orchestra of twelve instrumentalists under tbe directorship of Mr. Macleod Smith. The complete programme will be found in another column, and that the celebration will be a genuine success in every way goes without saying.

A preliminary meetiog was held in this office on Monday evening for the purpose of inaugurating steps to raise a sum of money in aid of the Irish National cause. The gentlemen who were present ■howed a hearty good will, and several points in connection with their object were discussed at some length by them. A resolution was passed to call a fuller meeting, to be held at the Christian Brothers Schoolroom, Rattray street, on Tuesday the 13th. inst., at 8 p.m. All friends of the Irish cause are requested to attend, as the particular circumstances of the times call for an energetic effort in resistance to the great wrong which unscrupulous men are determined to perpetuate, and for the supportof those who are struggling so valiantly against them. While so much is being done in other parts of ihe colony, Duuedin will surely not be backward in this most necessary undertaking. But, as an example of what is being done elsewhere we have to acknowledge again this week, the receipt of a sum collected in aid of the good cause on the West Coast, that is to say £22 from Addison's Flat, near Westport. We hope within the coarse of the next few weeks to have, in proportion to population, as creditable a record to enter in favour of this city. The attendance at the meeting on Tuesday next should be such as to give certain promise of success.

Mr. H. J. Neill, who lately distinguished himeelf in the International Football M.-.teh, in which the Irish Rugby Union came off victorious, had been appointed captain of the team chosen to play in the match against Scotland, to take place at Edinburgh on February 18. The election was unanimous, and gave general satisfaction. Mr. H. J. Neill is the nephew of the Messrs. Neill. of Dunedin.

The Rev. P. Meagher, Adra., St. Mary's, Newcastle, New South Wales, paid Dunedin a visit last week. During his short stay he was the guest of his Lordship the Bishop. Father Meagher preached in St. Joseph's Cathedral on Sunday morning at 11 o'clock. The rev. gentleman is a pleasing speaker, aud his practical discourse was much appreciated by the congregation. He left for Queenstown on Monday last.

BAD as Balfour is known to be, (says the Nation of January 21,) and atrocious as his conduct has been since he came to Ireland those who thought worst of him, must have been surprised and astounded at the shocking revelations of his murderous designs that have managed to leak out of Galway Gaol. Mr. Blunt has been eubjected to treatment so severe that he has been driven to the conclusion that Mr. Balfoui's object is to take his life. He was stripped of his warm overcoat, which he was accustomed to wear, and, in the middle of winter, left with scanty raiment in his cold cell. Balfour would have very good reasons for doing away with Mr. Blunt, as that gentleman is the possessor of secrets as to Balfour's sinister designs that should he sufficient to bring that lackadaisical gentleman a long way in the direction of the galJow6. Fortunately, Mr. Blunt was enabled to put what he knew of Balfour before tbe public in time to cave his own life and to convict Balfour of deadly designs upon the livßSof half-a-dozen Irish members of Parliament. When Mr. Blunt caw through Balfonr's game he at once called for a meeting of the Visiting Justices, before whom he made a statement, which he offered to substantiate on oath, to the effect that before Mr. Blunt took an active part in Irish politics in opposition to the Tories, Mr Balfour confided to him his intention of applying the provisions of the Coercion Act with such severity to half a dozen leading Irishmen that they would die of their gaol treatment, and the Goverpmenfc would be rid of their hostility. Mr. Balfour has given a denial, but no explanation ; but Balfour's word either in assertion or negation is now believed by nobody. An honourable English gentleman has now Accused him openly of a deliberate design to assassinate his political opponents ; and that is a charge which he cannot refute with a simple nego.

Mb. Blunt has been blamed by some rather fastidious people for revealing the communication made to him by Mr. Balfour in private. The circumstances, however, fully justified him in doing so. He had leason to believe that he had himself been included in the plot, and he spoke in defence of his life. Had he kept silence, in all pioba-

bility the course commenced with him would have been persevered in and his life sacrificed. His great coat had been taken sway by force from him, and he had reason to fear thar he was about to be removed to another prison, where the officers would be more fit to carry out a rigorous discipline than those in Galway, where he was. It would be interesting to learn, meantime, whether Lord Randolph Churchill, who had vowed he would stand by his friend when he was first arrested, and who afterwards took refuge against doing bo in a Continental tour, had also received a hint from Mr. Balfour as to his intentions. If so, it speaks to us of Randy's softness of heart that he should have desired to be at a distance while his friend was undergo* ing the necessary treatment. Ad for Balfour — let us do him all the justice possible — he probably felt it difficult to sacrifice Mr. Blunt— who tells us he had a scruple even about Mr. Dillon— one of his destined victims. " I shall be sorry for John Dillon," he said, "as he has some good about him. He will have six months, and, as he ha ß bad health, he will die in prison." But Mr. Blunt had warned both Mr; Dillon and Mr. O'Brien of what was intended towards them. There can be no doubt that Mr. Blunt in each caae, his own included, did no more than his duty in making the matter known.

Certainly (says Truth) Mr, Balfour's mode of treating political prisoners bears out how he, according to Mr. Blunt, intended to deal with them. The leaders have been put in prison, and they have been treated with unnecessary cruelty. That they have not died whilst in prison is due more to the strength of their constitutions than to anything else.

The explanation of the cablegrams received here relative to the hesitation of the Government to proclaim the meeting called at Loughrea by Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, and their final abandonment of the attempt is furnished us by a letter to the Times, written by the gentle* man in question, and in which he deals at length with the savage and vindictive conduct of Lord Olanricarde towards his tenantry. He explains his resolution as follows :—"lt: — "It also appears to me that the importance of giving expression to public opinion, and especially to that of the district, has been greatly increased by what has taken place since October, and by the knowledge we now have of Lord Clanricarde's intended ejectment campaign on a v^st scale. This being so, I should feel myself wanting in moral courage if, with the special knowledge I have acquired through the last few years of the case and of the district — if, with the firm belief that a terrible wrong is about to be perpetrated, I were to neglect any step which is necessary to save these unfortunate tenants from the fate which is impending over them. I have, therefore, intimated to my friends in the district that, unless there is reason to believe that this campaign of ejectment is abandoned, I will, whenever they may think it expedient, again cross the Channel, and preside over or speak at a meeting, to be called at some central point of the district, where the people may have an opportunity of stating publicly their grievances aud of preparing a petition to Parliament. I will also, if no better exponent be found, present their petition and lay their case before the House of Commons* Such a meeting would, I feel no doubt, be free from all the objections raised by Mr. Henn in the recent trial, and, if proper conditions are observed, would be unassailable in point of law or policy by Mr. Balfour and his subordinates. At all events, lam prepared, on my own responsibility, and without involving any of my political friends, to assert the constitutional right of public meeting within the law and to do my best to save the Clanricarde tenantry from a great wrong." We can easily understand how Mr. Balfour's courage failed in presence of an ex-Cabinet Minister declaring himself thus. But the failure can hardly have tended to the credit of coercion.

Father Matt Ryan was released from gaol on Wednesday, January 18 — and here is how he expressed his penitence and showed how much he had improved under punishment :- -" If lam a criminal," said he, " I am proud of the crime for which I was imprisoned. Ido not accept that selfish and unpatriotic — not to say immoral — doctrine that some law-and-order people try to preach into our ears day after day when they say that we should respect law and obey order." Did Mr. Balfour foresee that by death only he couid hope to quell the spirit of the Irish patriot? Father Ryan, it is clear, is capable of being tamed only in the manner the Chief Secretary had settled on n advance;

According to the latest statistics (says Truth) Mr.Winansis now the lessee of nearly twenty separate estates in the Highlands, comprising in all about 230,000 acres— deer-forest every inch of itWe hear a good deal about emigration as a remedy for distress in certain parts of the Highlands ; and, indeed, it has been carried out to a ruinous extent. I am in favour of emigration, too ; but the persons I would transplant are Winans and his kind. It would cost less, and at the same time be more efficacious ; for 1 suppose there can be no doubt that it is better to get rid of one man in order to make room for a thousand, tbaD to get rid of a thousand in order to make room for one.

The Vienna correspondent of the London Timet sends the following message to the paper under date January 15th :—": — " A telegram from Rome states that in Vatican circles but little hope is entertained as to the success of the present semi-official negotiations for establishing diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Holy See. It is contended that the English Government is too exacting, especially in its demand for an official disavowal of the Irish Nationalist party and the Home Rule movement. In this respect it is pointed out that the Pope could not condemn the national aspirations as such, but only in so far as theyjevince revolutionary tendencies. If what precedes correctly represent the views entertained at the Vatican, it must be remarked that the Papal policy 13 strangelyi nconsistent ; for in other countries where separatist movements are being conducted with far less violent and revolutionary means than in Ireland the Roman Church always sides with the ' powers that bo.' Of this we have only lately had an example in Austria, when the Bishop of Goritz, in an episcopal address which was reported in the Times, condemned the Irredentist movement in the strongest possible terms." A sufficient explanation, however, exists in the fact that the Irish movemont is not revolutionary, and neither is it separatist. It wants, in a word, every element that would justify a Papal condemnation. We may expect however, and indeed, as we see, a beginning has already been made that the patronage of late accorded in certain quarters to the Pope will speedily change its tune. He will become in their eyes, once more, all that it useless and effete on earth, and probably will even regain his position in their esteem as the unearthly prince of scarlet Babylon. — Perhaps the Pope himself has some suspicion of whom he has to deal with,

Truth very appropriately ridicules the effects of Coercion as follows :—lt: — It has not even been thought worth while to go to the trouble of keeping up appearances, The Castle has not put so much as a pennyworth of paint on the lath sword of the Coercionist harlequin. Every now and then a patriot (nothing loath, and not a pin the worse) gets a sounding blow with the lath sword, and jumps through the clock, and then there he is, on the other side of the twentyfour hours, all alive and well. Mr. William O'Brien comes out atone Bide of the clock, Mr. Patrick O'Brien goes in at the other. On comes Father Byan, in goes Father M'Fadden. Out will come, ere long, Mr. Sheehy ; then in will go Mr. Cox. On Monday the great and powerful Government of the Empire, upon which the sun never sets, steals a pair of patriot breeches ; on Tuesday, a top-coat (rather the worse for wear) is carried off on the trident of Britannia ; on Wednesday, back come the breechta ; on Thursday the coat is returned in a biown-paper parcel. " Our object," say the Lion and the Unicorn, in the most grandiloquent voice, " is to strike terror rather than to give cold." Ah, yes, exactly ; but where is the terror ? That is what I want to know. I can't see the slightest sign of it in any part of Ireland. Not a single suppressed branch of the National League has failed to hold meetings, or been unreported. The work of the League, has, in fact, gone on exactly as heretofore. The Plan of Campaign holds the field as much as it ever did. The Nationalist papers are just; as Nationalist as formerly, and come out with unfailing regularity, A whole session wasted, a good many reputations ruined, the liberty of Parliament dangerously curtailed, endless lies told, endless bad blood — to the debit. On the credit, two or three bad colds in the heads of prominent Irish politicians. This is all that the Government can boast of.

Mr. Pahnblx, (say& the Nation of January 21) clearly sees the difficulty in which the Tories are placed. On last Monday he placed his views before the Irish public, and gave it as his opinion that the Ministry would come to grief over English legislation. Mr. Parnell's advice to the Liberals is that they should afford every facility to the Government to bring iD their promised Bills, and thereby rob the Tories of the excuse that it was obstruction prevented their measures passing. Mr. Pdrnell's extraordinary political foresight, which was never yet known to be at fault, is seen in this tactical suggestion. He understands instinctively what is going on in the Cabinet, and he clearß the way for them so that they may rush uninterruptedly to their doom. It is to be hoped that Mr. Parnell'a health will enable him to take an active part in guiding the operations that will bring the infamous coercionist regime to an end. Like an experienced general he surveys the whole tield of battle with a calm eye and sees how the fight is raging ia every part. Balfour's policy he considers characterised by meanness, and the freduction granted by the Land Commissioners' schedule he does not consider to be equal to half what is required by the fall in price 3 alone, not taking into account at all the great losses caused by drought, as, for example, in the production of butter, which the Times a couple of weeks ago calculated at 20 to 25 per cent.

A LONDON telegram of January 30 gives us the following :—: — Spite of the feeling that the party of Balfour would give over for a time the persecution of sick Editor O'Brien, a warrant for his re-arrest has been issued, signed, and placed in the hands of the police. Pity

for Balfour's stupidity, almost as much as indignation at the outrage* fills the popular mind. When asked the reason for the act, a well* known Radical said yesterday : " O'Brien swears to confront Balfour in the House of Commons, and Balfour knows it and is afraid. If ha can surround the editor with prison walls so much the better for him, he thinks. Whether he intends to murder the Irish leaders by undermining their constitutions inside prisons, I cannot Bay. I hardly think him, however, so vindictive and unscrupulous as that. 1 ' — Parnell is reported ill again with his old sickness, No he»vier blow could come upon the patriots than a continuance of his feebleness. Everybody feels that a crisis in Irish affairs is not far off, and the brilliant leader will be needed ; not any man can be spared, and surely not such c man as Mr. Parnell.