Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 31, 23 November 1888, Page 9

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.) Mb. John Dillon is as irrepressible as ever. No amount of coercion will damp the ardour of his ponl Hi 6 speech on Tuesday, September 25, at the meeting of the Central Branch of the National League was ariDging and sweeping defiance of Balfour and his regime. He came forward, he sai 1, in the capacity of a harddnel sinner. After thanking tbe piople of Dundalk anH tin* priests of East Mayo and Armagh for their kindly sympathy with him, the hon. gentleman refenci to the many congratulatory messages be received from all parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. " It is difficult for us in Ireland," continued Mr. Dillon, "to endure with self-control and patience the rtgime to which the people are subjected ; it is difficult for us to see the crowbar and battering-ram in full swing against the homes of our people, and to watch with self-control the deadly and terrific hemorrhage which is draining the very heart's blood of the Irish r«ca away from month to moDth and from year to year." It was, however, he confessed, impossible for him to close his eyes to the facts that were forced on his notice regarding tbe mighty change that has come over the minds of the masses of the people of England. Mr. Dillon could not see tbe smallest cauee for impatience, but every cause for hope, and even exultation. He was not ashamed to say, coming as he did, from what was meant to be degradation, that he could not find ia his heart the slightest trace of bitterness against the people of England although he could recollect the day when the name and power of England were hateful to him . Mr. Dillon's speech will be perused with toe deepest interest by Irishmen everywhere. Judgment was given in Aiklow on Monday, September 24, on the cases of the ReY. Michael Clarke and tbe Rev. Laurence Farrelly, both of whom were charged with inciting persons to enter into an unlawful " conspiracy," to the injury of a certain John O'Connor, who has been more or less boycotted in that locality. Removable M'Leod, after a flippant explanation of the boycottiDg clauses of the Coercion Act, said that the court had cotne to the conclusion that the speeches of the rey. gentlemen were of such a nature as to incite persons to enter into & conspiracy. Of course, this judicial dignitary considered that the evidence for the Crown had neither been contradicted nor explained away, despite the fact that the reporting sub-constable, who was the chief witness on the prosecuting side, completely broke down nnder Mr. Healy's very effective crose-examination, '■ We have," quoth Remoyable M'Leod, in solemn accents, " we have no alternative but to find the defendants guilty. We recognise the offence as a very grave one (sic\ and one that cannot be lightly passed over."' As it was, however, the first prosecution of the kind in that portion of the country, M'Leod indulgently thought that the ends of justice would be satisfied by imposing on both priests a penalty of six weeks' imprisonment without bard labour, As the court agreed to state a case, the defendants were released on their own recognisances. Mr. Removable M'Leod deserves the thanks of Paymaster Balfour for his treatment of the priests. Priest-bunting, however, is one of those games which often sends horse and rider sprawling ignominioualy in the mire. Bismarck tried to indulge his passion for such lively recreation in Germany, but he soon f jund it playing such havoc with his system that he bad to give it up. Certainly where such a giant as the Iron Chancellor has failed, Pigmy Balfour cannot hope to succeed.

The name of Mr. J. E. Redmond must be added to the already long list of Balfour's criminals. Kemovableß M'Leod aud Bodkin were not slow in " disposing " of the accused, who, indeed, was himself anxious that the trial should occupy as little u me as possible. All the charges save that of intimidation having been withdrawn by the Crown, Removable M'Leod proceedtd to pass on Mr. Redmond a sentence of five weeks' imprisonment without bard labour. " That finishes the business, I presume," said Mr. Redmond in reply. " I do not intend to delay, and have only to say that I have the greatest possible satisfaction in going to gaol." Loud applauße greeted this truly manly and spirited declaration. Mr. Blame, M.P., was released on Monday, September 24. Three weekßof his imprisonment had yet to elapse, and the Disuniomsts are pointing to his release as a further proof of the " clemency ' of Mr. Balfour. We look upon the release in quite another light. It is a significant confession of the fact that, for a political offence, Mr. Blame's strength has been co undermined that imprisonment for a further period of three weeks would endanger bi 9 life. Has it not come to a strange pass when, not only are Irish politicians subjected to the same treatment as if they were criminals, but their gaolers boast of it, as an act of clemency, that they are not absolutely tortured to death ? Meantime Mr. Blame comes forth from prison unchanged. The maximum brutality possible under the Coercion Act has been ' infl'cted on him upon the order of Mr. Removable Hamilton, and it is an index of all tb at it is possible to acnieve by Coercion that Mr. Blame, the representative of what used to be Orange Armagh, is as unbendable by coercion as «ny of his brothers of the South. The tactics of the so-called Unionist press in this country are becoming more and more disgraceful. Waters on the Caßtle organs stop at nothing in their effor's to m.tlign and otherwise misrepresent the people of Ireland. An instance of this vile conduct on their part is aptly furnished by an incident that occurred quite recently iD Cahirciveen. Ooe of the correspondents ot a Dublin daily announced that a norse which drove Jrdge Curran and Mi. M'Giliicuddy to that town was maliciously burned — of course by the Moonlighters. Judge Curran lost no time in giving a flat contradiction to this libellous report, which our veracious contemporary had to swallow as best it could. The fact was that the etables where the horee in question wai put up accidentally caught fire. Yet on the strength of this accident the Unionist scribes preached another sermon denouncing Kerry lawlessness in ah the moods and tenses 1 Judge Curran acted very properly ia so speedily nailing the he on the head. Indtei Mr. Cunan is mending his manners of late to such an extent that we may expect to ace him thoroughly reformed in tha very near future.

The Evening Mail ol Monday, September 24, gives ft very candid account of the amount of regard a typical landlord and landagent have for reason and argument, or for considerations of justice and humanity. It coolly states that so long as their bodily safety ia not imperilled they laugh at denunciations and exposures of their iniquities. Writing of Mr. O'Brien's Bpeech at the Maryborough meeting, the Mail says :— Mr. O'Brien would have done well to confine himself to propbesv, but he proceeded to give reasons— always a risky thing. " Why do I say," he asked, " that their title deed 9 are safe ?" And the an were to this — there were two or thiea of them —seem to us unsatisfactory. " First of all, we claim that we have beaten Lord Lanslown? and Mr. Townsend Trench utterly out of the field— of argument !" Much Lord Lansdowne or the wily Trench careßfortbe field of argument. . . "We have blown to atoms," went on Mr. O'Brien, '• all the cant and all the humbug about Lord Lansdowne being the good landlord." As long as Lord Limdowne is not blown to pieces himself in propria persona, or even hii Mephistopheles of an agent, both will smile serenely at the same catastrophe befalling their " cant ani humbug." That i« exactly what "Transatlantic" used to Bay in the coluumt of the Irish World. It is a clear and plain admission ou the part of a landlord organ— which may be presumed to know the character of its friends— that the only effectual argument with gentlemen such as Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Townssnd Trench is that whish oomei from gunpowder and dynamite. We should be sorry to s»y so much ourselves ; we leave the legal and moral responsibility of the statement with the Evening Mail. Mr. Chamberlain 19 giving, day after day, more and more evident indication of mental incoherency. His utter failure as a diplomatist—a failure chiefly brought about by the antipathy of IrishAmericans to bin personality— has turned his blood into gall, and made him rabidly ferocious in his insensate hostility to Home Rule, On Wednesday evening, September 26, in the Albert Hall, London, the right hon. gentleman made tbe latest sorry exhibition of himself, flanked by Primrose dukes and other belted knights, who are, of course, only too glad to find this ex-cbampion of democracy kissing —so to speak— the ground whereon they tread. Members of the Tory sisterhood were also present, smiling on this shorn Samson. In the course of his flippant remarks, Mr- Chamberlain asked how did the Gladstonians in the future propose to deal with the natural refusal, opposition, and reluctance of the province of Ulster to be placed at the mercy of the National League. Does this Birmingham iutriguer Feck to conceal the fact that Ulster at the last election threw in her lot with the other provinces ; and that, despite the jerrymandering of the Boundaries Commissioners, Ulster was able to return a majority of Nationalist represeutai ives to Westminster ? Ie ii n. libel on Ulster to assert that that province ia not in favour of Irish autonomy. Mr. Chemberlam, turning to other matteis, indulged in the usual fee-faw-fum sermonising on outrages, just as if every crime committed ia Ireland were but the execution of secret decree 3of O'Connell-street. Mr. Chamberlain must be conscious of being a beatea man and an exploicd p)litician wh-n he has recourse to such argumentative

absurdities as these. Mr. Michael Datitt addressed in Accrington on Wed»esday evening, September 26, a large meeting held under the auspices of the Liberal Association. Mr. Davut took emphatic exception to the statement that be had on a recent occasion atiacked either Mr. Gladstone or the Liberal party. He expressed himse'f as much alive at Mr. Dillon or Mr. Healy to the party sacrifices that have been and aie being made for Home Rule and Ireland by Mr. Gladstone and his followers. Mr. Davitt furthermore observed that he had no right to conceal from his critics tha fact that Mr. Parnell had spoken to him more atrongly than anyone else over his remarks about Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal party. He (Mr. Parnell) represented that the Liberals would have uniertaken to seltle the Irish land question ia 1885 if the Irish party pressed them to do it, and consequently thnv did not, Mr. Parnell thought, deserve such severe criticism at Mr. Davitt's hands. There are, however, continued Mr Davitt, 10,000 notices of eviction falling at present in daily and weekly instalments on Irish cabin homes. There are, moreover, some 30,000 tonants whose arrears of rent can enable the landlords, when they pleaa», te evict them. Are all these cases, asked Mr. Davitt to await the coming of Home Rule? The question which he would wish to put to tbe English democracy was this: Are 10.C00 Irish families to be evicted from their homes without an honest anl manly effort on the part of English Liberalism to avert so great a crime ? Would the Liberals who ref mod mIBB6 Mr.Gladstone's demand to lend British taxes for the buying out of Irish landlords, at present lend their soldiers, their police, and their gun-boats to Mr. P.alfour and the Irish landlords for the extermination of 50,000 of a peop'e whom they, the Liberals, called their friends. _ Mr. Davitt concluded his remarks with an array of emigration statistics that proved what a curse landlordism has bean tojthis uLfortunate country. Mr. Chamberlain is not just now precisely lying on a bed of rosea. His recent uncalled for calumnies on the Iribh Parliamentary party have evoked a storm of reprobation sufficiently strong to chatter the political reputation of that Brummagem democrat. Mr. Justin M'Carthy denies mo^t ut-equivocally in the columns of the Daily Ntttg that any member of tbc party has profited by his position in th« House of Commons. "There was not," says Mr. M'Carthy, "one member of that party who would not, in my firm belief, be better off in a wcrldly eeuse tc -day if he had never joined that party. . I etigmatise Mr. Chamberlain's statement as a calumny." The wild assertion* of the Birmingham oracle bear with them their own conceinoation. Their very absurdity goes to prove that they are the last despairing cries of an exploded politician whose jealousy blinds him to every semblance of truth. Joseph's reign is over. He may now gather the family cloak around his shoulders and retire. In the course of his able and eloquent seimon delivered at the Marlborough Btreet Cathedial on Sunday, September 30, Cardinal Moran reftrred in glowing teim? to the improvement affairs hare undergone in Ireland during the last flf y year?. Abroad and at home her labours in the field of religion have been vast and fruitful of result Schoole, convents, churches, hospitals, and houaes of charity

have sprung up mushroom-like within that period. Education has progressed, and a forward step ras been taken in tie march of enlighten aunt. Atid yet this wonderfu' advancj has been madf in Bpite of what seemed lusuj erable difficulties, Ireland in those yct.rs has not mj'>yed thai pence withoui which complete prospeuty is impofcsible. 'the < escnpt on of Giattan, " bleechi g >nd on her knees," wbb as applicable during thnt ptriod as in the days precedirg the Revolution of 82. Btill, i-aid h s Eminence, toVay, notwithstanding fill her sufferings, we see her " arrayed in the glory of her victories." Her progress he saw exemplified in the position now held in the Britibh House cf Commons bj t> c iribh paity. While half aceniury ago " tLere were only a few he lplci-P members in tbe cause of Ireland," to-day there is a "body of men of w horn any nation in Christendom would be proud." No longer alone, Ire-and finds staunch support in England, Wales, and Scotland, and, as ever before, in Amenca. "In Canada and all the colonies, and perhaps nowhere more than in Australia, the children of Ireland, witb their eye« turned to the old land, watch her advance towards piobptrity, aud are determine to help her." The suffering >hai ih( country is at prpsent undergoing his Eminence confid, nily regards, as the last sucrifice tbat musi be made in the cause of libeny. His eulogy on tbe Irish Members of Parliament is the expression of confidence from a dignitary of the Church, whom long experience of the world, joined with no ordinary powers of mind, has well qualified to judge of men.

That veteran Irish Nationalist, the Most Rev. Dr. Nulty, Bishop of Meath, has addressed a characteristically patiiotic letter to the clergy and laity of tbat diocese on their duty of subscribing to the Indemnity Fund. In it he says that fifieen years ago he met Mr. Parnell for the first time, end whtn the latter was still cutnpnrativel> In tie known in the woild ol Irish polrice. His Loidsi'ip was co impressed by Mr. Pan ell's extraordinary powers of lutellect tha 1 ho commiUt d himt-elr to him wiih the fullest trust and confidence. ''I have never seen any grounds," writt-s tbe prelaie, "for withdrawing or for even modifying the conviction wi'h which 1 then trusted him, nor have I ever done so for a single moment. As I was thus the fiist bishop who had absoluiely comraiikd himFef to Mr Parnell, so I should naturally be the last to abandon him." Dr. Nulty, speaking of the accusations brought by tbe Times againwi Mr. Parnell and his party, says that it is absolutely certain ihat th« eh ages are lutrinsicaily false and unfounded. It should be, moreover, remembered, adJs t,ia Lordship, that it is Ireland who is on her trial in the ptrsonof Mr. Parnell. The Bishop, after a hearty recommendation of the Na ional lodi mnity Fund not only to the faithful of his diocese, but also to Irishmen at home and abroad, forwards a personal subscription cf £20. We find in Dr. Nulty 's letter a vividly eloquent description of the present unfortunate condition of Ireland. Bis soul revolts against the iniquities which are being perpetrated day after day on an un-offtnding people under the wretched pretence of upholdii.g the " law " aud maintaining " order "in the land. Dr. Nulty, however, looks forward with hope to the speedy consummation of Ireland's national hopes and deßires. Such wordp, emanating as they do from a priest who has been tbe forem* st to champion the principles of the Land League, and who since then has betn v flmchiugly lojal io ii s successor, will be read by lrui men evirjwheie with the det pest Hiteicst. It is a register of tbe kiml or fciicce.-s Mi. Ba four is achieving. The imprisonment of the Woodtoid tenants will uot facilitate the collection ot Loid Clamicarde's rents. It may "teed bis revenge," but as for any other practical advantage to himself, it is a useless exercise of tyranny. It will, however, serve the Nationalist cav e. Of late years it is no unfrequent experience that the acts of the enemy are rxost damaging to themselves. The Removables at Woodford, by the sentences they inn cted on tbo tenants who resisted eviction, have given the lie direct to one of Mr. Balfour s most confidtnt assertions. Speaking to the Tories at Glaegow he assured them and the people at Urge that in Ireland under his special Act the punishment on offenders is lighter and lass harsh than under the ordinary law. And he supported this contention by the fact that the highest sentence provideu for by tbe coercion law decrees is that of six months' imprisonni' nt. He adroitly conctaled from them that by the infliction of cumulative eenttnees, it is quite within the power of any magistrate to consign a political prisoner to a term of indefinite imprisonment, a device of which soma Removables have already availed themselves. It was important for the effect of his speech tbat this should be kept m the background, but his too zealous satellites have, unhappily for him, dragged it into light. On Tuesday, October 2, Messrs. Hickson and Brady, with a vmdictivenessno ordinarily to be met wiih even among Removables, sentenced Mr Tully to two terms of cix months, and with hard labour ; Michael Kennedy and Michael Dugg.m to six monihs, with a further term of one mouth : Patrick Sheeuan to four, and Painck D jnoghue anil Francis B^vvUs to three eacn, with a mouth additional. Bo tuat practically tbe first-named of these has tv undergo a twelve mouths' imprisonment, mcre^ed by the seventy of Uaru labour, that is usu uly reserved for the bar lened ciimitirtl. In the face ol punishments Buch as V- ese Mr. Bahour's declaration is hardly consistent with th a department of " Practical (Jbiistiauity " comprised under the heading of truth. At the same time tweuty-four other pnsone.s were sentenced — five of them to three months, five to two month?, aud twelve to oue month, all with baid labour, as well as the remaining two being awarded two months' ordinary imprisonment, and all for resisting the atrocities of a man to enforce whose rights Sir Michal Hickt-lii a-u refused the forces of tbe Crown.

At Wicklow, on Sunday, September 30, there was a demonstration of sympathy wi h Messrs. Al'Leod and Muldoon'a victims, and wuh the tenants of ttio-je landlords whom Mr Baliour's encouia_;em< nt has spurred on to new atrocitits in Wicklow. Father Farrelly and Fa her Olaike, th. j la eat of the criminal priests, wire Bbowu that there is just one thing that can lender an Irish priest dearer ti tbe people wuom he serves, ana tbat is the B'igma of a Crimea Act sentence. In tbe homes of Wicklow the attack ihat has been made od tbem will mak.- thtir names hou-thold words, and will also make their courageous and wise advice to the people the reso ye of every siDgle peasant. Mr. Healy exposed in characteristic style the ignor-

ance and the malice of trje men with whose presence the judgment seat is polluted, and who are made by tho scandalous Coercion Act tie maulers of the liberties of tho most sacred orders of the lii^h Daiion. "If law and order," said Mr. Healy, "in the country mutns law or order such aB that administered by Balfour, by G or°e Bolton, by men like Meldon, and M'Leod, and Bodkin, then i h- rjiy proclaim myself an enemy of law and order." Tirere is wftiiant for the cou'tmptuous defiance in the recent history of Wicklow. He was speaking in a county where^the law and its manipulators allowed ihe murderer cf Kinsclla to go free, but feieed upon the priests whose hear s went out to their people in their sufferings, atd prompted them to a manly and Christian protest against the eviction of the poor. Every man that breaihes to-day in Wicklow will have mouldered for generations in tbe dust before the hatred of alien iule, which those events have br»d, will have ceased to inspirr *he men of Wicklow to defy it. The Unionist journals put into the mouth of Mr.Finucane, M. P „ words which we hope he never uttered. They report that at a meeting Wuicb was held on Sunday, September 30th, in spite of the police espioDHge, at Bxmilebridge, County, Clare, to denounce evictions, he recommended to blacksmiths who could not refuse to shoe landgrabber' horses, " to drive a few nails in the quick," and they would not be troubled again witb the custom of the landgrabber. We cannot belitve that this recommendation web given ; for Clare is, of all the counties in Ireland, tbe one where such a crnel method of evading the penalties of open defiance of Balfourism would utterly bely the courage of the people. The men of Glare have trampled on Mr. Bilfoui's Coercion Act, and filled the cells of Limerick prison ungrudgingly, blacksmiths among the number. They have not mutilate i bea-.t>*, "r done anything that coul t alienate tha sympathy of a single Englishman. They have faced their foes like men, and whun they hnd to avenge the crime of grabbing they did not avenge it oo ih«' landgrabber's horses. Hence we cannot believe that tun advice was offered to them. The readiness wuh which it has bepn seized and circulated all over England suggesta that it is a vile fanncation. If it is not, we have no hesitation in saying that it is alien to the whole spirit in which the war against land-grabbing and Balfouiiim has bet>n carried on, and that it is calculated to do more damage to the cause then any action of the landgrabber. We hope if it was given to the men of Clare they will not hearken to it and thut they will stick to tbe weapons with which they have beaten Turneiiam and Vandeleurism and at the same time won tbe sympathy and admiration of every Liberal in Great Britain. With regard to Mr. O'Brien's threatene l revelations as to rascality in high Castle quarter*, I (Truth) will ouly say that if they piove to be well-founded the fact ou^ht tosurpri-e no one who considers what Castle rule has be< n, and what bort ot men have bei n ita minions and manipulators dunng the comse of this and the past generation. Of course, there are black sheep in th° Castle fold, very black Bbeep — how could it possibly be otherwise? Putting aside altogett cr (if we please, and can) tbe notorious fact that for very mauy yeaia ihu patronage of ?uccesi»i\« Lords-Lieutenunt and Chief Secretaries was in the hands i_f a subotuinate who had to cut and run, we cannot escape horn the onclusiou that tbe Castle rule is bound to demoralise the Castle official. You can't employ a man every day from ten to four in works of cvil — in cruelty, robbery, lyranny, oppression — and expect him to be an hunf-stman out of office hours. It is needless, I (Truth) trust, to say that I heartily congratulate Mr. Dillon upon haviug c >nic out -alive from Dundalk gaol. He will now, of course, take ihe earliest opportunity ot leaving a card on Dr. Barr. He owes his life simply and solely (in a round-about way, to be sure) to Dr. Barr. Dr. Barr wat responsible for Mandevillo's death, and if Mandeville bad not died, Dillon uoquestio'.ably would never have left the prison alive. Upon my word, I think it is a< most a case for a piece of plate.