THE IRISHMAN IN POLITICS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 15, 3 August 1888, Page 5

THE IRISHMAN IN POLITICS.

(From tho Westminster Review.) It ia asked : Has the Irishman the same capacity for self-governmtnt as the cit'zen of an American State 1 Many Englishmen seem inclined to answer the question negatively, and to regard this answer as a fatal bar to Home Rule. But an American of 1887 can scarcely understand your asking this question. He has comtantly bafore hit eyes the strongest proof of the Irish aptitudt for political discussion. Nothiig, he would assure you, from his own experience, suits the Irishman's temperament better than the constant exorcise of the faculties which are best adapted for local politics. A political sphere suits the Irishman's versatile genius, and employs his " gift of the gab." Whac your Irishman wants tno9t of all is some outlet for his political steam, and this he finds in the profusion of the small details of local government. Strange as it may seem, this race, which ia at present denied Homo Rule at home, actually controls, partly by its power of numbers, but still more by dint of its capacity for political debate and by electoral organisation, tho government of most of the great American cities from New York to San Francisco. At this moment the living experiment of Irish Home Rule is visible across the ocean under tbe most free and democratic of all Governments. New York is said to be the largestjlrish city in the world. Eren learned aad elegant Boston has its Irish Roman Catholic mayor. The first daily newspaper which appeared in America, the Pennsylvania Packet, was published by an Irishman, and from that day to this the Irish have exercised enormous influence through the American Press. As senators, representatives, State governors, mayors, they have taken their full share in carrying on the government of the Republic. It would be superfluous to multiply instances in every department of life in which Irishmen in America have, come to the front rank. The important part which the "Irish vote " has played in the preeidential elections from the time of Andrew Jackson, the first Irish President, till to-day, is known to all. And looking, in a general way, to the quality of the Irish immigrants, almost any fair-mindcl Americ in would tell you that the Irish compire favourably at the present moment with the immigrants from other countries with regard to their fitness for being entrusted with the political rights which America gives to her citizens. If not immediately upon landing at Castle Garden, as an effect of the ocean, at all events in a generation, the wild Keirv immigrant is transformed into the most law-abiding citizen in the Union. From the statistics of the last census (1880) in America, it appears that the total number of citizens of the United States who were born in Ireland is 1,850,571. as against 745,978 born in Great Britain, and 1,996,742 born in Germany. But whilfl Garmany only contributes 4,369 German-born persons to the staff of officials and civil employes of the Government, and Great Britain 3,039, Ireland i 9 represented by 8,231 Irish-born persons in the civil service of the State. Statistics of other occupations in the voluminous reports of the last census are equally striking. Samuel Lover wrote of the, Irish peasant that " his enemies representing him as a fiend stimulate his frienda to paint him as an angel." Toe truth is that the Irishman at horns is a failure, and abroad, speaking generally, a success ; an indication, one would say, that his crimes at. home are the reeuhs of polnical circumstances peculiar to Ireland. It has always seeinel to us that a strong argument exists for Mr. Gladstone's original proposal to allow Ireland, if she so wills it, when Home Rule is given her, to remain unrepresented in the Imperial Parliament jor a, time. Ireland will have enough to do, and more than enough, to set her own house in order to begin with. She is not keenly interested in Imperial matters at this juncture. She might well afford to take time to settle her proper rela'ions to the Imperial Government. We do not mean to contend that the American cities are always model communities. They are too well known, after Bcandals like the recent disgraceful disclosures in New York, to be occasionally ttu scenes of jobbery and mun'cipal corruption. But, in the first place, it is certain that the municipal constitutions of tbe American cities are often to blame for their bid government, and that thesa will in time right themselves, And secondly, particular attention is clue to the fact tl at American cities are not noted for any acts of tyranny ot tho many over the ftw, such as we are told to anticipate from Home Kule 10 Ireland ; but, on the contrary, their losses from bad government are usually a dishonest transfer of money from the many intu the pock' ts of the few.