Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 36, 28 December 1888, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.)

Would the Times or its admirers kindly offer some lucid explanation why they are so anaious to shirk the Scotch action ? The pretext no longer holds that it will interfere with the Commission, as the Commission is in full swiDg. The action will decide whether Mr. Parnell conspired with assassins to murder his political opponents, or the Times conspired with Forgers to calumniate him. The shirking of the Scotch action, coupled with the avoidance of the subject before the Commission, point conclusively to the belief, not merely that the letters are forged, but that the Times knows them to be forged, and knowing it use 3 them. If they believed them to be genuine they would welcome the action. If they had been duped by forgers they would frankly confeßS their mistake. Their desperate shrinking from a trial of the momentous question can spring only from a consciousness of guilt.

The Attorney-Generai is plainly riding for a fall. He was very careful to explain that the awful letter alleged to have been written by Mr. Parnell to Mr. Bgan from Kilmainham had no eerious significance at all. It was merely a general incitement to intimidation What said hia client, the " Forger," on the subject in July last, wten it promised to prove the letters to the hilt ? On the 7th of July the " Forger " wrote in its leading columns :— '• Perhapß the most fatally compromising of all letters read in court is that addressed to 4 Dear E.,' when Mr. Parnell was in Kilmainham, declaring that prompt action was called for, and that his correspondent had undertaken to make it ' hot for old Forster and Co.' Mr. Parnell very truly observes that this Utter is plainly an incitement by him to Mr. Egan to accomplish Mr. Forster's assassination, which, it will be remembered, was attempted a little later with a deal of determination." Now, when proofs are accumulating that the letter is a malignant forgery, the " Forger," through its leading counsel, blandly assures the public that it is of no consequence.

The Sackville incident is interesting as showing the overwhelming power of the Irish-Americans. It is interesting, too, to note that at the most criticpl juncture the President of the United States called into consultation the ex-Fenian, Mr. Boyle O'Reilly, and Congressman Collins, associating with whom is one of the crimes with which the " Forger " now charges Mr. Parnell, and for which a Commissioa of three English judges are solemnly trying him. The Attorney-General bad best introduce President Cleveland in the schedule of " other persons " against whom the charges and allegations are directed. The policy of "thoroughness" with regard to the National League has bred some startling results— not exactly such as were expected by our benign rulers. Suppression has succeeded enly in producing additional branches to the parent boughs, and infusing new spirit into those which already existed. There wag bo vaßt I gathering on Sunday, October 28, in the "suppressed" district of Me«lin, to welcome home Father Kennedy, that the building in which the League met gave way under the pressure of those inside, though happily without producing any serious mishap, There were, it is stated, no fewer than four hundred and fifty members of this suppressed brauch present at the gathering. The enthusiasm of Dubailow has been contagious. Distant parts of Ooik, such as Ovens and Fermoy, are feeling its influence. Last Sunday two branches of the League were formally revived in these two places, where, from various causes, they had been allowed to lapse. Rev. Canon Shinkman presided at the inauguration of the Ovenn branch, and delivered a •peech fall of patriotic fire and sound reasoning. Rev. Father O'Callaghan, Administrator, has consented to become the president of the other. Anyone reading the proceedings at both those gatherings, and realising tneir spirit and significance, must acknowledge that the work goe3 bravely on.

Tbe Cork Coercion underlings thought they were doing an extremtly clever thing in turning Father Kennedy out of gaol before his time, but they proved themselves hardly lesser tools in this than their fellows in Derry, who adopted the same ingenious device with regard to Father xMcFadden. The Cork people were not to be baulked of their design to exhibit their teehngs towards the brave Duhallow priest by any "cute" dodges or displajs of overawing force. On Friday evening, October 26, they turned out in thousands with all tbe bravery of bands and flags, to welcome back to the fight the incorligible clerical " criminal." He had been oq a visit to the Convent cf Bon fctecours, which is situated in the vicinity of the gaol where he haa been incarcerated, and it was here he was met by the vast procession, headed by the Mayor, Rev. Father O'Keeffe, P.P., Meehn ; Dr. Tanner, M.P., : and the great bulk of the Town Councillors and leading citizens, came out to greet him. Removable Gardiner, Inspector Pearson, and about two hundred policemen, mounted and on foot were stationed on the road, with a view, doubtless, to creating a "moral effect,' but their presence wasn't heeded. A tremendous shout of enthusiasm arose when Father Kennedy made his appearance, and it was by no little exertion that his friends saved him from the danger of having his hand wrenched off by his eager admirers when he got into the Mayor's carriage. On the route to the Mayor's office the windows were thronged with fair spectator?, who frantically waved taankercbief?, and many houses were handsommy decorated with flags Father Kennedy buefly expressed his thanks to the crowd, and on the presentation cf addresses within the building he spoke at greater length in warm acknowledgment of tbo feeling which he saw so strikingly demonstrated. His reception in Duhalluw, whither he goes, as he himself expressed it, •' back to the ramparts," was a thing not easily to be forgotten. Fully ten thousand people, it is es.imated, escorted him to Kauturk, and foj miles arouDd the county was nought but t one vast bonfire. Such is the way in which coercion is succeeuing in breaking down tbe spirit cf the Irish people. The whirligig of Coercion still keeps spinning ! One p; triot pries' , Father Kennedy, and a distinguished and popular Member ot Parliament, Mr. John Redmond, M .P., came out of gaol last woe-k, ending

October 27, amid the rejoicings of the country. Another equally-dis-tinguished Member of Parliament goes into gaol, cheered and encouraged by the country's sympathy. Mr. O'Kelly, M.P.,in his prison has this for comfort — not merely that he has killed the Star-Chamber in the West of Ireland, but he has elicited from Mr. O'Connor Morris, on the County Court Bench, as vehement a condemnation of the system of coercion as was ever spoken in Land League room or National platform. The courageous County Court judge could Bee no moral offence whatever in the speech for which the two subservient Removables inflicted the monstrous sentence of four months' imrisonment as a common criminal. Commenting on Mr, O'Kelly 'b speech, Mr. O'Connor Morris declared, — "Ai representative of this large and populous district, the greatest latitude was to be giv«n to his expressions of opinion on that occasion ; but, on the other hand, there was very little in that speech that really could be condemned. He had read speeches in England that denounced that Act of Parliament and denounced those courts, and so far he agreed with Mr. O'Kelly that if. a law of this kind were enforced in England, the English people would look at it with the greatest possible suspicion." With much reluctance he felt himself constrained to find Mr. O'Kelly guilty of a technical offence under the Coercion Act, but he marked his sense of the nature of the offence by reducing the sentence by one-half and miking him a first-class misdemeanant. It was Judge Henn, if we remember rightly, who declared from the bench he heard Mr. O'Connor Monis's decision (which he refused to follow), making Mr. Sheeny, M.P., a first-class misdemeanant " sererely commented on in certain quarters." We fancy that the Castle comment on his latest decision will be still more severe.

Mr. John Dillon, M. P., presided at a great County Convention for Tipperary last week ending Oct. 27, and delivered an address which has created a profound impression. It was a masterly review of the events of the past few months and the present agrarian position, Mr. Dillon devoted himself particularly to the fallacies in the Lord-Lieutenant's late speech in Belfast, and challenged his Excellency to the proof of his assertion that 160 boycotted farms had bean taken up. Mr. Dillon defies him to show that ten such farms have been taken. The convention at which this remarkable pronouncement was made is likely to have important results in Tipperary. If there has been any lukewarmness on the part of the famous county — which is most questionable— the convention itself is a palpable proof that Tipperary is determined that the reproach shall be wiped away effectually. Close upon four hundred delegates were present, representing ninety-two branches of the League ; and there was scarcely one parish priest or curate in the whole county who did not attend to show the heart of Tipperary is in the right place. The business transacted at the convention ensures the future of the popnlar movement in thecDunty, and it may safely be prophesied that before many weeks are over the organization will be perfect throughout its length and breadth.

It was rather inconsiderate of Mr. Smith-Barry's Cork Defence Union to come out with its annual report so soon after Lord Londonderry's amazing boast in Be'fast about the 160 de-boycotted farms. These sudden descents to painful facts immediately after a fine display of stage high-falutin are always cruel. In this instance it was robbing poor Lord Londonderry of the one little ewe lamb of comfort which he was able to offer to his friends in his otherwise comfortless speech. The 160 evicted farms which had been re-let were a really glorious announcement. If this were true, the National League might throw up the sponge, as Mr. Dillon frankly admitted at Thurles, and Mr. Balfour might fairly be crowned as its conqueror and the restorer of landlordism. This refusal to take farms from which tenants have been unjustly evicted is the very soul of the National League Bystem. Destroy it and the whole movement goes. The statistics of these evicted farms — how many have been re-let to fresh tenants, how many are still vacant — is, as Mr. Morley has over and over insisted, the real test of Mr. Balfour's success. .Lord Londonderry's 160 would, no doubt, have been a very tiny number out of the thousands of evicted farms in Ireland, but it would have been enough to show a serious gangreene at the most vital part of the enemy's position. Well, here are the facts. If the 160 re-let farms existed anywhere in Ireland the bulk of them should exist in the three southern counties whose evicted farms are the main concern of the Coik Defence Union and their emergencymen. Yet of the 160 re-let farms the report of the Cork Defence does not mention one ! Not a solitary one.

Mr. Patrick Loughrey, of Cruaheen, has committed a crime for which there ia no pardon on earth, in the mind of the Government — the crime of beiag virtuous. He refused to become an outrage-manu-facturer and consequent informer, and the ten-pound note the Government gave him to corrupt him was flung back in its face, while the first violence which he committed was to smash the jaw of the policeman, Halloran, who tried to make him a. guilty wretch. Since that time the destroying angel has pursued the steps of Patrick Loughrey. He is stigmatised by our molel Christian rulers as a bad character ; the Local Government Board — that is, Balfour — dismisses him from his position as rate-collector ; and this week County Court Judge Kelly, in confab with the landlord magistrates of County Clare, refuße^ him his license. This is becoming a very serious question — the ruin, or attempted ruin, of co many licensed traders because of their nationalist tendencies, and ought to been seriously looked after . There was hardly the shadow cf an excuse put forward by the police for opposing Mr. Loughrey's license, although fc'ergeant O'Brien, who appeared for the Castle, admitted that his house bad been specially watched. There was only the stale old plea — that he was a man of notoriously bad character. The malignity of the thing is bad enough ; us cant and hypocrisy are simply sickening.

Wherever the story of the conflict on the Ponsonby estate will be told, there will the sturdy action of Maurice Wallace, of Queenstown, be narrated in memory of him. Wallace was driver of a steam tbreshiug machine owned by Mr, Charles Gaifit, of Queenstown, late agei.t L.f Mr. Smith- Barry. He received sealed orders to proceed with his machine to Killeagh, and when on arriving there he discoveied that his intended function was to thresh corn for the Emergency meo

on the Ponsonby estate, he threw up his poat and declared that he would go into the workhouse with his children rather than disgrace himself by doing dirty work for the land thieves. We are glad to learn that the Ponsonby tenants are resolved that Wallace and his family shall not starve.

It is now an open secret that Mr. Ponsonby bitterly complains of the ill-treatment he is receiving from the Land Corporation. Mr. Smith- Barry and his confreres have left him completely in the lurch. It is estimated that Mr. Ponsonby has lost £14,000 by hia silly conduct. He sees his error, and it is said is inclined to come to terms with his tenants ; but the Land Corporation have him in a tight place and will not let their victim go so easily. There is a Coercion Act which ii ueually put in force against those who seek to induce or compel a man not to do what he h -s a legal right to do, but this piece of legislation was never intended for such magnates as those ot the Land Corporation, less there might be some e«capefor Mr. Ponsonby The trial of the Belfast swindlers in Wicklow has terminated. Ita result is a shocking scinial. The culprits were duly found guilty —there was no other conclusion possible— but in awarding the punishment for their wholesale fraud and robbery the judge capped all his previous performances as a cynically partial magiwtrate. Sentences of six months and nine months' imprisonment only were imposed, while one of them who had turned Queen's evidence— tbe greatest rogue perhaps of the lot— Mr. Chesnutce Smyth— is freed from the prosecution which had been institute! agaiast him and allowed out, without condition or fetter, to utilise his wits again upon a gullible public. The scandal is too much even for those who hitherto have regarded Judge O'Brien as a splendid pillar of the State. His judgment is denounced in scathing terms by the Daily Express, as offering a premium on fraud and swindling, and as nothing more or less than a judicial farce.

It would be hard to parallel for pitiful vindictiveness the action of the "loyalists" of the Dublin Church Synod in ousting Professor Galbraith from the position of secretary, which hehai filled for so many years. Talk of boycotting ! Talk of cruelty I We defy anyone to produce a specimen of ill-conditioned rancour to match this achievement of these high-placed Christian men. Whatever may be alleged about the sins of our ignorant countrymen defending themselves how they can against oppression, the indescribable meanness and ingratitude of such a transaction as this have never been laid to their charge. The Rev. Mr. Galbraith has for fourteen years given his services as secretary to the Dublin Church Synod, and discharged the duties of the office with that dignity and strictness which endear him even to opponents. But the exemplars of Christian charity who lay down the law of the Protestant Church every year in the Dublin Synod resolved to make a victim of the Rev. Mr. Galbra'th for his political opinions. Nationalists are sometimes abused for bringing politics into municipal corporations and Poor-law boards. The spleen of Coercionist divines is such that it impels them even to bring politics into a church synod. Not even the rebuke of Archbishop Plunket shamed them from their disgraceful purpose. Mr. Galbraith sat in the secretary's seat. The business of the Synod was about to begin, when Cannon Marable, holy man, rose up and spruog a resolution appointing another clergyman secretary. Dr. Stubbs at once proposed an amendment retaining Mr. Galbraitb, which the Archdeacon of Dublin seconded, and the Archoishop votea for. Bur the Pharisees and Coercion ists were too strong to be thus baulked of their vengeance. They carrie 1 the day ani Mr. Galbraith, tull of patbetic dignity under the insult, rose from the secretary's seat, which he had occupied for fourteen years, and took his place in the body of the hall. The Archbishop did his best to mark his sense of this shameful incdent, but the disgrace to the Church Synod will not easily be wiped away, and if the Home Rule propagandists in England don't make excellent use ( f it we shall be very much mistaken. We wonder it Canon Marable's congregation won't remember it to him the next lime be preaches on Christian charity. The annual meeting of the Protestant Home Rule Association on Thursday, Ociober 25, was the nmst successful heid yet, and nothing could have been more enthusi stic and imposing than the public meeting afterwards in the Ancient Concert Room?. There was a splendid platform of distinguished Protestant Nationalists, over whom presided with his accustomed spun, geniality, and dignity, the noble old veteran, Professor Galbraith, whom the Coeivionists of the Dublin Protestant Synod have just been maki og dearer than ever to the National heart by their miserable boycotting Me srs. Pierce Mahony, Dixon, Pinkerton, and Swifte M'Neill, furnished a contingent from the Protests s of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Mr. Picton. M.P., who, with Mr Stephenson, M.P., has been down on the Glensharold e3taie committing the same con'empt of Judge Boyd a 9 Mr. Mahony, was a good representative of English Liberalism. Of Course, tbe indefatigable and devoted secretary of the Association, Mr. Oldham, to whom a lion's share of the crsdit for the day s success was due, was to the fore. If there was one thing wanting to complete a demonstration unique and inapiiitir.g in every respect, it was supplied when these Protestant Home Rulers, concluded their meeting by chanting in a mighty choius, " God save Ireland." Could there be a more striking sign of the way a noble patriotism drawß and fused together the divided elements of a nation in a common sympathy than this ? It would be impossible to appreciate too warmly the services done by this invaluable arm of our National forces. The members of tbe Protestant Home Rule Association have to endure and sacrifice many things in daring to declare let alone to act upon their National sympathies— of which the expulsion of Professor Galbraith from the Secretaryship of the Dublin Synod cornea to their Cacholic fellowconntrymeu as a timely reminder. They have io put up with the sneers, the social osiracism, ihe boycotting of their own class, often of their own families— things not easy to bear as human nature goes. As with all our people the service of the cause is with them no path of roses. It is therefore an omen of brightest promise to see this association not only striving on, but increasing in strength, numbers, and efficiency at every meeting. It is even opening new fields of work. The Association is now about publishing a series of leaflets addressed to their fellow-Protestants of the North, reminding them of

the fact, on which Mr. Gladstone in his letter laid stress, that their forefather! were the most strenuous of Nationalists in another crisis ia their country's history, and appealing to them to lay aside the spirit of bigotry and make common canse with their countrymen. This in a far more favourable time for each an appeal than when John Mitchel addressed the Northern Protestants to a similar purpose in what was perhaps the most powerful series of articles that issued from his pen.