Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 10, 29 June 1888, Page 9

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.) The Catholic people of Ireland have been profoundly moved by the news from Rome. The congregation of the H >ly Office, of which his Holiness the Pope is Prefect, bas, it app< are, been influenced by some ememits of. the Holy See and of the people of Ireland so far as to pronounce a condemnation of the Plan of Campaign and the practice of boycotting as unjust and un-Cbiiatian. From the wording of the translation in which %\\is communication haa been made to tbe Irish Bishops, no Irishman can have the slightest doubt that the information on which the condemnation is based was one-sided and misleading and that the eminent ecclesiastics who have decided on this interference in tbe political and social affairs of a strange country are wholly unacquainted with tbe real bearing of the question at issue. For it assumes, in the first place, that there have been free contract and mutual agreement between landlords and tenants on tbe Bubject of rent, and, in tbe second, that the Land Courts are, open to all those who thick they are aggrieved. Boycotting is condemend as opposed to the principles of Christian charity. It is also assumed that those tenants who pay their rents into the Plan of Campaign chest do so under intimidation. The delight of hereditary enemies of the Irish people like the London Times and the Orange Dublin newspapers is unlimited. They appear to think that it is a crushing blow to all those who- oppose eviction and its consequent expatriation and ruin of the Irish Catholic people. They seem to recognise in the decree a J high moral and theological sanction for tbe burnings of Glenbeigh, and the house-levellings of Bodyke, as well as the " devil's work " of Lord Clanricarde. The trims of the Rescript from the Holy Office are now published and are of a nature to justify our warnings that Irishmen should not attach any credence to tbe falße and exaggerated rumours which tbe Roman correspondents of English Tory papers were sending home in reference, to the intention of the Vatican authorities. There is no Bull issued, there is no excommunication threatened. The Fathers of the inquisition were simply asked whether a Plan of Campaign, carried on in a certain way, and a certain sort of boycotting:, are justifiable, and they answered in the negative. When the Irish bishops have explained its application, Irishmen will accord to it all tbe respectful obedience which by tbe laws of the Holy Catholic Church it is entitled to. There are in circulation other rumours to which the same caution applies that we gave in reference to the now exploded exaggerations about the Bull and tbe excommunication. Irish OathoLcs know bow to respect the decrees of the Church ,wben they come to them through their pastors, but they are not going to ommitthj mistake of accepting any maliciously distorted gloss put upon them by critics, none of whom are qualified to explain them, mosc of whom are anti-Caiholic, and some of whom are not even Christians. It is beyond the bounds of moral possibility that any decree obligatory on conscience cau come from Rome forbidding Irishmen to seek the attainment of their national rights by every lawful means. That being so, we think Irish Catholics can afford to await the formal communication to them of whatever advice it may seem well to the Sacred Congregation to forward to them. The Pall Mall Qaaette publishes the following opinion from Mr. Michael Davitt on the Papal Circular: — I do not t)ink that this rescript will weaken the Irish movement one iota. The politicians of the Propaganda were taught a lesson in connection with the rescript against Mr. Painell, which they may have to learu again-namely, that Catholic as Ireland is she is not going to take her politics from Rome, nor is she asked to recognise the Vatican as an Ante-Chamber to Dublin Castle. The question of faith does not come in at all. The Vatican bas its politics as well as Ireland has, but Ireland, even in the days of O'Connell, declared through him that she would prefer to take pqlitical lessons from Stamboul than from Rome. The Propaganda cannot care much (if it cares anything) for Home Rule. Home Rule would not make Ireland one whit more Catholic than sbei s today ; but, as it is understood in Rome, it would remove nearly every Catholic M.P. from the most conspicuous legislative assembly in the world, and thereby retard the work of reconverting England to the Catholic faith. An anti-Home Rule Government, theiefore, which is also in sympathy with Rome on the great question of denominational education, may reasonably count upon assistance such as this rescript it expected to render for a consideration. But what a comment upon the boasting of Mr. Balfour that he had conquered tbe League in Ireland. Here we have the Pope solicited to help the forces of coercion in Ireland to put dowu boycotting and defeat toe PUu of Campaign ; while Mgr. Persico, a once intimate friend of Mr. Patrick Forde, of the Irish World, bas been a welcome aide de-camp to Lord Salisbury in the contest against the Irish movement." Daniel Hayes and Darnel Moriarty were executed on Saturday morning April 28, in Tralee Gaol, for the murder of James Fitzmaurioe at Lixnaw, County Kerry. There was something: in ihe manner of their deaths which may well cause a qualm to the Wickluw Jury who convicted them, and perhaps to Judge O'Brien, whose charge against them must have had a powerful influence in swaying their minds to the verdict which the Crown demanded. Both men met their terrible doom with the greatest fortitude j and both left with the governor of the gaol written statements solemnly asseverating their innocence of the crime of which they had been decreed to pay the penalty. On the steps of the scaffold, jnst before the fatal bolt was stot back, Moriarty loudly proclaimed his innocence anew, and his forgiveness of those who had convicted him. The demeanour of both men previous to this startling declaration was such as to luspire a strong belief in its genuinebS aud sincerity. They attended to the religious ministrations of the priest and Bisters of Mercy with edifying devotion, and went through the last fearful ordeal with tbe calmness of men who had the most absolute belief that they were blameless. The

scene outside the prison, where & number of Moriarty's relative! ibad assembled to witness the hoisting of the ominous black flag, was heart-rending. The dying professions of innocence of the two men, Hares and Moriartj, executed lor th« mnrder of Fitsmaurice, will strike with a cold thrill of terror on the public mind. The men were not fairlj tried. They were tried before a packed jury, from which every one of their co-religionists wae rigidly excluded. They were triel before the most ferocious partisan that has ever disgraced ihe judicial bench ; who concerned him-elf, aot with the guilt or i mocence of the prisoners he tried, bat with the question, how much their c mviction and execution (innocent or guilty, it did not matter 1o him) would help the cause of Coercion which he has recently espoused, or hurt the cause of Home Rule which he aas recently betrayed. Standing on the very brinK of the grave, looking death full in the eyes, these men proclaim themselves innocent of the foul crime for which they die. They hays died, not for the murder of Fitemauriee, but to prove the efficacy of Coercion. Their innocent lives have been offered up by Judge O'Brien on the shrine of Mr. Balfour's political reputation. They have been done to death by political rancour, acting nnder cover of the law. Can it be wondered their sham trial and ruthless execution has awakened a strong feeling, of burning indignation in the country, and most of all in the districts where they lived f Removables Keogh and Irwin are still working gallantly away at their coercion foundry in Bnnis. For several days the caie against Mr. Halpin, P.L.G., for having taken part in the " illegal " assembly of the Bth mat,, was being beard before this brace of oficiale. That preuae ohevaUer, Colonel Turner, made a very fine exhibition of him•ulf under the artillery of Sir. Harrington's cross-examination . "No positive order was given to the military to sing through the town," ■aid the colonel. " but 1 told them I thought it would be a gotd thing if they did I" Witness furthermore admitted that such singing did not promote the peace of the town. He did not take the trouble to ascertain if divine service was taking place at the moment when the troops were chanting " Bale Britannia I" The colonel subsequently swore that he did not order any charge that day into the yard in which the meeting was heli, although Mr. Balfour stated in the House of Commons that he did 1 This allegation was not only in d'Btinot contradiction with Mr. Balfour's assertion, but also with the previous evidence of Sergeant Cronin. "Of all the police and military in Eonis that day not a single one was struck witb a stone," swore the colonel. A stone, however, grazed the cononel's own knee ; but it did not hurt him. With regard to the injuries received by the pressmen, the witness took no steps to establish the identification of either police or military aggressors. Of course, not. Colonel Turner is now a full-blown coercioaisc, and is, consequently ready to shield evildoers, provided they wear uniform, and exercise their insolence nr brutality on an unoffending people. The " gallant " gentleman's cv dence was a tissue of conflicting statements almost from beginning to end. Ctptain Keogh, after indulging in a piece of maudlin sentimentality on the paternal virtue of the Lord Lieutenant's warrants, sentenced Mr. Halpin to three months' imprisonment. Mr. Carmody, relieving officer, was then put forward, and charge! with the same offence as that alleged to have been committed by Mr. Halpin. The same sentence was also meted out to him by the stern and inflexible captain. Both gentlemen appealed from the decision of the Be movables, and were liberated on bail, Lord Randolph Churchill has once more broken the Tory traces and cantered on in the direction of the opposite camp. The high priests of Conservatism are highly wroth wita the little mau for this additional display of independence. A Dublin Conservative sheet tries to minimise the importance of the move made by the exChancellor of the Exchequer. It says that he has no iniuence whatever I If Lord Randolph had tickled the Tory palate by a fieroa denunciation of Ireland, the same journal would bare inevitably extolled his commanding power and genius. Once, however, he speaks the truth, or rather a portion of the truth, on the claims of Ireland to local self-government, be is described as a political pigmy. Such lie the weights and measures of the average Conservative newspaper. The Times reprimands the lord's "extravagances "as a schoolmaster would thd follies of an insubordinate pupil. The lories, truth to tell, are in a state of dire trepidation in the little lord's regard. They know that he despises their slow-coach policy too much to be depended oa, and they fear him as the thin end of the wedge destined, perhaps, to split the Unionist block. So far as we are concerned we cannot but admire the stupendous feats of this political acrobat — particularly when we see old Unionist fogies gazing ia speechless amazement at his eccentricities. We trust, however, that the noblo lo d w.ll manage soon to sow the last of his wild oats, and settle down a firm and an uncompromising Home Ruler. * Despite the sinister efforts of Mr. John Ferguson and bis " tail ' Mid -Lanark has proved itself a splendid friend to the cause of Ireland and non -coercion. On Friday, April 27, the polling took place ; and on Friday night at half- past eleven o'clock the counting of the votes concluded in Glasgow, and the result was declared right off. The liberal candidate, Mr. Phillips, it was found, bad defeated both hia " Uni -nist " opponent. Mr. Bousfield, and Mr. Kirk Hardie, Mr. John, Ferguson's "labour " protSgi by more than three hundred majority. He polled 3,847 votes against 2,917 fur Bousfleld and 617 for Hardie. Ie was a stunning blow, liven the Tines confesses its disappointment, but nearly every other Coerciomst organ has been stricken dumb. Nobody will accuse us of undue partiality when we say that Mr. Townsend Trench made a very sensible and practical speech at the landlords' convention. It was provoked by Dr. Trail's. encouragement to eviction. "The landlord will get baclr hi 9 land, said Dr. Trail. " Mr. Townsend Trench — Blesi him, that is just what he doea not want ; he would have a white elephant on his hands, as many landlords know to their cost. Anyone who imagines the Land League to be dead must have a very cur ioui idea of whit is Koinej on." Later oa Mr. Townsend Trench protested against people being bullied into the fool's paradise that the League was one parhcie less powerful than

it had been. On these points we are willing to accept Mr. Towniand Trench as an infallible authority, because he knows his facts He ■peaks with the authority of personal experience. H« has evicted wholesale for Lord Lansdowne. He has got his land. Ihere is no man in Ireland has «o large a menagerie of "white elephants" on bis hands ; there is no man in Ireland that can speak with more aatbonty of the expense and burden of their keep. There is comfort and encouragement in this frank confession of the enemy. If the evicted farms are a grievous burden to wealthy ry? 1 £f nn * iow " e . wl ' h all appliances and means to boot, they will infallibly break the back of the ordinary pauper rack-renter with no name i or appliances at all at his disposal. We that>k Mr. Townsend Trench lor the confession, and we off.T him a word of caution in return. He should be careful abmt declaring publicly that the Leawue is not " a thing of the past." It is tor proving this that Mr OBuenis about to be tent to gaol in Loughrea. The greater the troth the greater the crime under the Coercion Act. Mr. Wilfrid Blunt is back in Ireland once more. He was present at the meeting of the Central Brunch of the National League last Taeiday, where he received a magnificent ovation. Mr. Blunt took advantage of the opportunity afforded him to thank the Irish people for their kindness to him. Any trouble he had suffered w«s fully compensated by the thought tbat he might have done something to put an end to the old secular strife. Mr. Blunt, furthermore, vtrr wuely remarked that it depended very much on the Irish people whether they should overcome the Tory Government or not ; for here the people had what the English people had not— political faith which, as they knew, moved mountains. The more he saw of Ireland the more he was convinced that coercion had no disastrous effect on the League. Mr. Blunt purposes making a tour through Muuflter before returning to London . Balfour iB taking a leaf out of the book of Signor Crispi, of dry for Catholic clergymen. Mr. Balfour through the medium of his accommodating instrument, Dr. Ebenezer Webb, Q.C., has struck a degrade Fathers M'Fadden and Stephens of Donegal. These two devoted clergymen were guilty of the abominable cr.me of standing between their flocks and the wolf at the door ; of following in the footsteps of their Divin* Master, who preached the causa of the poor and the disinherited ; of striving to save a hard-working peasantry from utter ruin ; and for such a palpable outrage on the moral law they are branded as criminals, and locked up in convicts' cells. The Iruh priesthood, however, will not be deteired by such proceedings from doing its duty. £n far darker days than the present it stood by the people against the people's oppressors, and many of its members waled their devof on to the popular cause with their life-blood Today the Irish priest can wear a felon's cap and justly coasider'it the proudest crown an Irishmen can wear. Cc n'ert pat lichaffaud aid Mtla crtvwl Mr. Balfour's ukases hononr the Irishmaf agaS whom they are directed. His crimina s are the beloved of the nation and his prison cells are our Sinai mounts. Fathers McFadden and Stephens may well rejoice at the proud position which they have attained, for they are the worthy successors of those valiant c"hurchrhroug^utthePenflDrys/"^ 1 ** ° aUBe ° f The news that the stormy petrel of Radical Disunionism is 2r!5 7%£ } c qu J et ca B e - bird ot tQ e Tones is too good to be true. Mad and blind with anger as Mr. Chambenain is, he is hardly gome to write the decree of his polttical extinction immediately No better fortune could befall the Home Rule cause than that Mr Chamberlain should become its salaried enemy; and no better fortune could befall the cause of Radical Reform than that it should be saved from the false friendship of Mr. Chamberlain by his absorpt?£ i To T 8m ' , Tbe e ' er - Btro °g« r growing determination of the Liberal party with regard to Ireland is Mr. Chamberlain's despair Ihe stronger and honester the determination, the worse for the jockeying politicians. The question now is, will the English Local Government Bill Jf?» 12 ?"?? 8 BaECtio ° in 1888 ' even th °ugh an autumn session be devoted to it? Up to the present no less than 369 amendments ISJr n?£ 'J committee, and have already been set down on paper. Of these 297 stand in the names of Liberal members; 96 nn?nnil ame n°, f CC ° BBer / ati 7eß7 e8 5 * Dd 66 in the nameß of LiberalUn omsts. Unless Mr. Smith performs with the L.cal Government BUI, the remarkable feat that carried the Irish Coercion Bill throueh booktKto c?r PeCt l ° SBC the measure take its P lace oa tQe statute The proceedings against Mr. O'Brien at Loushrea, have been upset by an incident that looks extremely suspicious. It was well S*°^i * u^° Removableß wh °aat on the bench were sadly muddled as to the law of the ca 98,9 8, and the depositions would probably have disclosed serious informalities which on appeal mieht Xk 8 a? efficient to quash a conviction. Mr. Healy had been -nWf CaV^ L° u g hre «. and Mr, Harrington could be badly spared for an indefinite period from the central offices of the League !£?♦ " Te ? l B atl l on h . ad alre » d y reached a stage when it was hoped that the formal testimony of large numbers of witnesses would have ™?Sh £aD "^""tible defence, and, certain principles have been conceded l, there would be no necessity for profound legal arguments. Just at this point, however, Mr. Paul, R.M., declared from the Bench that the depositions had been stolen. The C >urthou 8 e was in charee of tbe police, acting under the direction of the Crown, yet the documents were removed, and Mr. Carson came into court with a look SLI" T 8 I P dl g n » tio ° so well carried, that one would think he was personally a loser by the transaction. Cf course, the recommence%o? -if c P^e^ings implies a protracted trial, renewed fees to the well-paid Castle lawyers, and cootinuouß expenses to the police o»cial8 and all other persons engaged in the prosecution. The gain mit&ffSf 'r Will be the Dublicß - We d 0 Dot & « moment impute to the lawyers engaged in the prosecution any per. ional knowledge of the theft ; but they would be more than human tf they were grieved at an cocareace from which they will derin>

such golden gains. It is possible that the act may hare been oonnired at by an amorous constable who may have matrimonial designs on a fair denizen of Loughrea, and would consider that bis prospects might be increased by a prolonged stay in the neighbourhood of the beloTed one's home. There was a very picturesque and graceful scene in Longhrea on Tuesday, May 1, just before the opening of the court. It consisted In the ceremony of the presentation of two addresses to Mr. O'Brien by the ladies of Loughte.t— one from those who had formerly belonged to the Ladies' Land League of that place, and the other from the ladies in general. Miss Ellen Kennedy read tho former ; Miss Norah Kelly the latter. A very large number of th >»* fair dames and demoiselles wnre present at the ceremonial. Wkh the addresses were presented two bouq let". Think of sending an old man of eighty and his wife to gaol for crawling back to the ruius of the home from which they had been evicted I Such a decision Las been giveo at Skibbcreen. The victims were Samuel Paul Kingston and his wife, of Meenies, Drimoleagae. They were evicted in February, and when cast forth crawled into an outhouse, as they had no other place to go but the roadside. Tbe landlord, Dr. Levia, J.P., was present, and even his heart smote him when he saw the aged pair subjected to the cruel sentence, and he begged that it might be reduced— but iv rain. Mr. Warburtoo, ex-constabu-lary officer, whose services to the Castle are held in such high esteem that he receives tbe maximum salary of £675 a year, was inexorable, and this aged couple were hustled off to gaol— the husband to be imprisoned for a month, and the wife for a fortnight. Their respectability and life-long patient inoffensiveness may be inferred from the pathetic pltading of the wife not to send the old man to gaol for the first time in bis long life. It must have been Dr. Levis who instituted the prosecution, and we wish him joy of the results of his invocation of a Coercion Comt against the hapless pair. Mr, r.A. Dickson is coming forward as the Nationalist candidate for the St. Stephen's Green Parliamentary Division. Mr. Dickson has for years been a staunch advocate of tenant-right in the House of Commons, as the representative of, a Northern constituency. A devoted follower of Mr. Gladstone, he advocated the Home Rule cause, but at tbe last general eieotion that advocacy cost him his seat. Mr. Dickson's sacrifices deserve ample recogiition, and we have no doubt tnat ihe electors of St. Stephen's division will return him not only at the head of the poll, but also with an overwhelming majority over that dull respectability, Mr. Robert Sexton. Mr. Dicksou's election would be the best possible guarantee to the sturdy Presbyterians of the North that, instead of bearing tham any ill-will or animosity, we would do all in our power to make them our brothers in the one National cause. The Presbyteriaa farmers of Ulster, giound down as they are by the system of landlordism, are keenly discerning ihe proa and com of the present political situation . They are learniug the sad but at the same time wholesome lesson, that the Tories will never settle satisfactorily the Irish land question, and that consequently the only hope of their salvation lies ia the return of the Liberal party to power. As Mr. Dickson, who is a Presbyterian himseif, comes forward on the broad Liberal Home Rule platform, his return by the Dublin Nationalists would be an omen alarming enough to strike terror in the heaits of the most callous and bigoted Orange Lodges of the North. Such is the aim of the coming contest and such the aim that will be attained. Mr. Balfour is sustaining his reputation as the first liar in Europe. His excuses are generally more false than the original falsehood. He impudently declared in the House of Commons he considered that the sentence of Mr. Blanc, M.P., had been diminished instead of increased, because, though the time was doubled, hard labour, which bad been added to the semeace in the court below, had been removed on appeal. Everyone who kaows anything about it knows that hard labour or no hard labour makes scarcely a pin's point of difference. The plank-bed and the skilly, and the solitary confinement, and the degrading garb appenain to both forms of impnsoumeut alike. Prisoners frequently ask to have hard labour added to their sentence for the sake of the better food and exercibe it emails. All these circumstances were known to Mr. Balfour. If the f jet had been as he stated his comment waa deliberately misleading. But his s atement itself was false. Being hard pressed by qu< stioners be wa9 compelled to confess that in neitner court was hard labour added to sentence of Mr. Blanc. Mtaner still, if that be possible, was his falsehood concerning Mr. Hill, the reporter of the Liarish Times, who nad been murderously attacked at Eunis. He dtcUr^d on his own responsibility in the House of Commons that the doctor in attendance on Mr. Hill had reported his injuries we/c not of a serious kind. Dr. Murphy, of Harcouit street, who was the only doctor in attendance, wrote a prompt and emphatic contradiction. He had made no report, he decla ed, to »ny one on the subject. Mr. Balfour's explanation is that a doctor in Eunis told a removable magistrate, who told him. He is very vir. tuously indignant that the strict accuiacy of his statement should be questioned, but curiously enough he accidentally omits to give the name of the doctor or the name of the removable through whom tbe news perinea' ed to the Hou^e of Commons.