IRELAND'S WRONGS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 19, 31 August 1888, Page 29

IRELAND'S WRONGS.

(SontJdand Times, August 23.) A leottjbf on the above subject was delivered by th 1 Rev. F. W. Isitt in the Theatre yeateHay evening. There was a very laree attendant, B nd the chair was ocunied by Mr. R. F. Oatbb°rtson, who apologised f>r occunviner that position, Feeing he was only tbe substitute for another. Tbe gentleman advertised to preside Mr. Thomas Denniston — Vmrl bpen prevented from doing so by a sharp attack of illness, and the speaker bad been asked to take bis place. He had to introduce a well-known gentleman to them, and he could assure th^m that they had a treat in store. Mr. T«»t prffifc? his remarks by saying that be was rather disappointed that be had to address hi^'frien-l Mr. Cnthberts^n as chairman, but was only disappointed because the gentleman announced to take that positim world be at eomp disadvantage in replying to the lecture. He had also to thank those who had taken such an interest-, in the subject as to provide him with material, but unfortunately on the '• wrong eide.'" The lecturer opened his subject by Bhowing that amid the ranks <f civilised peoples there are two which attract almost universal attention by the strange and sad problems they present. Greatest and leait in the sisterhood of nation*, differing as widely in many other respect", trcre are vet patbelio features held in common by unhanpv Russia and scarcely Ipss unhappy Ireland. In each we see a kind Jv people, of generous instincts and warm-he »rW impulses, of quick sympathies and ready gratitude, stung by Home means into an insanity of crime. In each tbe authorities move in armonrplated and alert suspicion, *hile tbe gaols are tenante.l by thos* who call God and humanity to witness that their vica in unrecognised virtue, their fole crime the heroism of the patrio*-. In" each U a deep and widespread sympathy with the violence whose heaviest woe falls upon the innocent and helpless. History presents no picture more terrible than the wri things of the Russian peop'e under an unexampled tyranny ; Nihil sm, the blind child of an instinctive sense of justice, being even l^ss horrible than the oppression that gives it birth. Scarcely less sad a T e tbe scenes which Ireland presents when an innocent girl, guilty only of witnessing agairst her fiber's murderers can earn by that offence the hatred of a neighbourhood, and be shunned as a leper on her entrance into the house of God itself. It was theirs that night to enquire whether in the one case as in tbe ether we are not face to face with tbe chief curse of bad government as seep, not so much in its immediate consequences as in its baneful effects upon the character and habits of tho«e whom it at once, exasperates and deerades. "Ry an amusing anecdote of General Harney, it was shown how wrong treads upon the heels of wrong, and a rapid resume was then given of Ireland's early history. In remote ages she was tbe aggressor, invading Britain's western coast. Until tbe Norman Conquest her laws and customs remained wholly distinct from those of England, her lands bjjng held in tribal possession. Henry's bestowal of the country fipon ten of his followers was accompanied by ruthless massacre. For a century after tbe inhabitants of the soil were plundered and killed. No real sway was held over the island until Henry VIII., whose concessions were swept aside by imperious Elizabeth. Her establishment of Protestantism by the sword, the unrighteous means by_which the Act of Establishment passed her Parliament, the per- |

secution which followed, Sir John Parrot's cruelty and sanguinary advice, the neglect of all evangelistic effort, the atrocities perpe» trated by the soldiery and yonng English gentlemen, and the bar* barities which Irish were induced to p9rpatrate upon Irish until v«t districts were desolated, were portrayed,* and described as the seed" sowing from which grew the terrible harvest of 1611- The establishment of the Ulster plantations by James I. succeeded. To the falseness of the unhappy Charles was attributed the creation of the tools with which men, rendered desperate by Wentworth'a tyranny, rivalled the atrocities of St. Bartholomew's. The stern rale of the Protector followed, while Charles IL initiated a policy more fatal to Ireland's peace than any of bis predecessors or successors. To James 11. came the opportunity of the peacemaker. A Saxon and a Catholic, it might have been his to propitiate ; but by stubbornness and stupidity he enkindled a fiercer international hatred. When the brief struggle of the revolution under William of Orange ended at Boyne Water and Limerick, the short hour of Catholic ascendency was over. With passing allusion to the bravery and endurance of the " Boys of Deny," William was credited with a more lenient disposition and ft keener sense of justice than the British Parliament could display. English chicanery in connection wiih the Articles of Limerick was touched upon, and the position of tho Irish nation at the opening of the eighteenth century was shown to be pitiable in the extreme. Tho treaty provisions, which guaranteed them thefree exercise of religion, trade liberties, self-government, and the rights of property were all disregarded. It was shown that Catholics were denied the franchise, excluded from all public offices, forbidden to travel five miles from their houses, could be fined £60 a month for absence from Protestant worship, could be banished for life and deprived of their property for adhesion to their own faith, that no Catholic could employ a Oatholia schoolmaster to educate his ebildren, or send his child abroad for edncation ; that any Catholic prie9t who came to the country could be hanged ; that any Protestant might compel a Catholic to sell him his horse, however valuable, for £5, and that horses and vehicle* of the Catholics could be seized for the militia. Only twenty licensed Catholic merchants might live in Galway or Limerick. No Catholic could inherit or purchase land. The unworthy son of a Catholic gentleman had only to declare himself a Protestant to dispossess bis father of his property. The Catholic population for whom these amiable laws were enacted were r»t least five time? more numerous than the Protestant enactors. Not three generations have elapsed since these laws were in force. The bond of trade which would etill have preserved a community of interest between the countries was ruthlessly sacrificed to England's blind jealously of Ireland's progress. English manufacturers petitioned the British H<use of Commons for repressive measnres agiinst Irish trade. Parliament wa9 asked to make Ireland remember she was a conquered nation, and her g ivemment was based upon a supposition of English interest a that lost all sight of moral obligation. No Irishman could own or build a ship ; all imports and exports had to be landed and re-sbipped in England ; fleeces could only be exported to and woollens imported from England at prices determined by the ruling power ; Irish, manufactures were ruined. Iler cattle, sheep, and all dairy produce were excluded from England in the EnglißQ farmers' intorest, and for the same reason no Irish tenant coul i cultivate more than a few acTes, Her cjinatje was defaced to provide for Couit favourites, her treasury depleted to pay scandalous pensions to aristocratic paupers. The Protestant establishment of the period was a political and not a spiritual institution. I*B livings wera shamelessly bartered for polilical support. The energy that should have been displayed in seeking the conversion of tho Catholics exp nded itself in the effort to encircle religion safely within the iron ring of Prayer Book and Articles. Presbyterians were bated more cordially than wv re the Catholic?. They were described by prelates as ''covenanting rebels, as base persons like shoemakers, coopers and tailors"; they were excluded from civil or educational offices and ivere prosecuted for concubinage, when married accordingto the iites of their own Church. By such persecutions and trade disabilities the non-conforming Protestants, who were the backbone of the country, were driven to seek liberty of conscience and the rights of manhood in free America. It was largely at the hands of the grandsons of the •' Boys of Derry" that England reaped in the American secessiou the harvest which sprung from the poison weeds she had sown in Ireland. In 1 782, when Ireland's independence of all but the authority of Britain's King was allowed she manifested her gratitude in a burst of spontaneous enthusiasm. Tet it was but a semblance of liberty she had gained ; her Parliament was not national, its occupants were bought and sold like horses, while Presbyterians and Catholics were practically disfranchised. The rebellion of 1798 was referred to as a season when barbarous cruelties wre perpetrated on both sides.chiefly, doubtlesg, on the part of those who had the deeper wrongs. The lecturer recited " Sbamus O'Brien," not as endorsing the sentiments it expressed, but as indicating the spirit which actuated the Irish peasantry. With the 19th century came Union and the destruction of Ireland's Parliament, which, faulty as it was, did yet consist of men living amongst those (or whom they legislated. In its place were a hundred representatives elected by the minority of the nation to sit in a distant, overpowering and unsympathetic assembly. Resisted by the muss of the Irish psople, and oppoßed by the more liberal in the British House of Commons, the Union was gained by a corruption so complete that the Viceroy who accomplished it proclaimed it a " shocking task," and declared that " he despised and bated himself for engaging in a work so dirty." Under the Union Ireland's best sons were drawn from Dublin to the seat of Government, while the country groaned under the almost despotic rule of the Castle, a system placing autocratic power in the hands of the Irish executive. Aided only by nominated boards, it controls all departments down to the corporations and town commissioners. With 3000 official posts in its gift, some occupants of which are most extravagantly rewarded, it is, in fact, an arbitrary rule, detested of the Irish people, and doomed to fall as British enlightenment advances. Under its sway suspected persons were treated as convicted prisoners ; thousands endured years of confinement and suffering without trial or enquiry ; many, doubtlesF, as tbe victims of the personal resentment of some underling. In

two years the Marquis of Normanby released 822 persons, against whom no evidence existed. In illustration of the incapability of BriV, landlords to sympathise with Ireland, the measures for her relief were enumerated which the Honse of Lords has resisted during this century, To absenteeism was chiefly due the cruel eviction of 100,000 families in the 30 years ending 1880. The Devon commissioners we/c quoted to prove that the agricultural labourer of Ireland continues to sailer the greatest privations and hardships. The story of the famine of 1816 was told to show that England's lavish generosity and deep compassion could not save her from the fatal blundering with which she embittered the people she helped. Because Ireland was famine stricken when England fought over the corn laws, her approaching woes were discredited, and the help rendered generously was yet rendered tardily. A million lives were sacrificed to theory. Greater still was the wrong that England wrought by planting alongside the relief works the whisky shop, which lured the weakened and desponding peasants from the temperance pledge they had given to the noble Father Matthew. The part played by O'Connell in his 'nation's struggles was depicted, and the Government condemned which consigned to a felon's cell a patriot who openly avowed that " every effort to redress political wrongs by force of arms was evil." Dealing with the present position of Ireland, the lecturer asserted that after 88 years of Union there was no true unity and no content. Slavery was defined as government without the consent of the governed, on which principle Ireland had been governed for nearly seven centuries. Toe assertion of Mr. Balfour that " the struggle in which we are engaged in Ireland is in no sense a political struggle " was defined as an attempt to lift the Irish question out of the realms of its past history, and to meet its present problem in forgetf alness of the grievances out of which they grew. Under the coercion policy of to-day, Ireland is refused the elementary right of freedom. Her sons may not meet even to protest against the military despotism under which they live—freedom of speech is denied them on the platform and through the press. Irish members may be kidnapped at the door of the House of Commons, and shuffled off to a gaol in Ireland, for using expressions in that land such as are uttered with impunity at every liberal meeting in England. The Lord Lieutenant is armed with authority such as the Governor of Poland might envy. The trial of Irish prisoners in England baa even been proposed, a stretch of despotic authority the Sultan of Turkey has not yet attempted. It has actually been proposed by the Government that these laws shall be in force for ever, a stigma of unending political servitude never before suggested during England's centuries of misrule. It is the policy of brute force instead of Christian justice ; the rough arm of the, policeman in place of the thoughtful measures of the philosopher. It is " not statesmanship, but political quackery" to drive discontent beneath, to brood darkly in sullen estrangement and revengeful hatred, while the surface presents a treacherous appearance of peace. Nowhere else in the broad British dominions are men co treated. Men go to imprisonment with hard labour in Ireland who refuse to shoe a horse, to sell turf, to work for certain employers, or even for hooting an obnoxious caretaker. Yet in England Lord Harewood may boycott the Methodist Church by refusing it an inch of ground ; the village squire may drive dissenters from Abberley by the same means. A Sydney legislator may recommend that the Chinese hawker shall be strictly boycotted ; the Maritime Union may decline to land exhibits that come to the Melbourne Exhibition in a vessel manned by the Chinese ; and the same Union may imperil a mail ■ervice by the stringency of their boycotting tactics. Even in peaceful Invercargill, under the presidency of its chief magistrate, a public meeting may " pledge itself to boycott any persons who have dealings with the Chinese race," and on the motion of a legislator, ma> appoint a vigilance committee, consisting of two chief magistrates and another dignitary to give effect to the resolution. '• Boycotting," says Mr. Balfour, "is probably the meanest, the most cruel, and the most cowardly weapon that has ever been dragged into the service of a party." But that of course can have reference only to boycotting as excrciEed in Ireland. A closing appeal was made for mutual forgiveness Jand ikindly feeling. Reference was made to a speech delivered at an Orange meeting by a Christchurch clergyman, who saw no reason why the battle of Boyne, or the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. If it were right to perpetuate the memory of the Boyne why should not France commemorate the day when Joan of Arc saved her from becoming another Ireland under the yoke^ of triumphant England? Why should not England irritate France by firing salvoes in the Channel on the anniversary of Waterloo I Why should not America rejoice over Saratoga and the surrender of Burgoyne? Why should not France proclaim ▼almy, Olm, Außterlitz, Magenta, and Solferino 1 Why should not Oerraany display her Sadowa, Metz, and Sedan until the whole world becomes a pandemonium of hatred and revenge. But if God's sweetest smile rested on the hatred-weary earth when angels sang of universal peace and world- wide goodwill, then surely, it were nobler to remember strife and injuries only that they may be forgiven. If victories be commemorated at all, let it be in the spirit of those noble women of a South American city who decked alike the grsves of friends and foes with the flowers that told of a common faith in that God who ever buries all that can defile beneath forms of beauty that are ever renewed : " No more shall the battle cry sever, Or the winding river be red ; They buried their anger for ever When they laurelled the grave of the dead. i Under the sod and ihe dew, 4 Waiting the Judgment Day, 'i under the laurels the blue, ° Under the willows the grey. Sadly, but not with upbraiding, The generous kindness was shown j In the Btorm of these years that are fading, < No nobler action was known.

Vnder the sod and the dew, Waiting the Judgment day ; Under the roses the blue, Under the lilies the grey." The lecturer was frequently applauded, and by his happy illustrations kept his listeners in a continuous ripple of merriment. The musical contributions by Mrs. Boss, Ray. Mr. Fallows, Mr. T. A nthony, and a choir led by Mr. Wesney, added considerably to the enjoyment of the audience. The meeting wa9 brought to a close by the singing of the National Anthem.