Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 45, 1 March 1889, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National I papers.) Amongst the labourers of the Irish Party who are to go far afield this Christmas are Sir Thomas Esmonde and Mr. Oeasy, who start this week for the Cape, upon that tour amongst our sympathisers and kinsmen at the Anupodes which they are to make with Mr. Dillon. Mr. Dillon does not sail until February, and his two confreres will await him at the Cape, where they will occupy the interval busily, addressing meetings in various towns of the colony. When Mr. Dillon arrives ire will address a few great meetings, and then all three will leave South Africa together for their pilgrimage in Australia, Hew Zealand, and, possibly, Van Dieman's Land. The tour in these great colonies will be very extensive and thoroughgoing. Not only will all the great cities and towns be visited, but our zealous missionaries will advance into the bush and the gold-fields and diamondfields, where so many of our scattersd race have made their home. They will return by San Francisco, and by the time they arrive they will, in all probability, be reinforsed by another member of the Party, who will help them in their speaking tour across tbe American Continent. Mr. Gladstone departed for Italy, to spend his Christmas holidays there. The marvellous old man was in splendid condition on his departure ; and he received a great ovation in London en r»ute, and on his taking the tram at Charing-cross, and at the steamer's side. He will visit Rome, it is reported, and seek an interview with Pope Leo while there ; and rumour haa it that his enemies are endeavouring to make the visit unpleasant because of his present notion toward* Ireland and his former action towards Italy. But these busybodies will hardly succeed in their well-meant efforts. Two great minds like Mr. Gladstone's and Pope Leo's are not likely to look at things in the same light as the concoctors of newspaper telegrams and I. L.P.U. intriguers. They have a different level of intelligence. At all events, it ib to be most earnestly hoped that the vacation which Mr. Gladstone is putting to sneb good account may be beneficial to his precious health ; and there are few friends of Ireland who will not pray that be may come back refreshed and invigorated for the renewal of the great struggle to which he has committed himself heart and soul. His Holiness the Pope honoured the Irish College in Rome on Friday, December 21, with a special token of his paternal favour and affection. A telegram announces that Leo XIII. has presented a magnificent group of statuary as a mark of his particular esteem to the College bearing tbe name of Ireland, and in which the Irish students are trained for tbe priesthood. This is certainly the most pronounced, and timely, and fel citous contradict ion to the '' Coffee House Babblers," who have retailed the cock-and-bull story of the Pope refusing to bless relics for Ireland presented for his benediction by an Irish priest. An ounce of fact is worth a ton of fiction. No act could be mere opportune, more gracious, or more cheering to the Irish race at home and abroad. Nor does it stand alone, for along with it comes the record of another most pleasing and significant incident. It is ti.e special icception at the Vatican of Mr. Dana, the editor of the New York Sun, and his singling out as the warmest American advocate of Home Rule tor Ireland, and the most outspoken opponeat of hnglish policy in Ireland on the whole Continent of America. It was as such Mr. Dana was presented at the audience, and it wae as euch Leo XIII. received him. The greatest gratification is expressed by Archbishop Kirby and the Irish and American clergy at the honour done Mr. Dana, and the attitude of the Pope towards him and the compliment paid to Irish feeling. The Rlv, Bernard O'Reilly, the well-known author of a charming life of Leo XIII., is acontnbutor to the Sim. We chronicle these facts with intense satisfaction, and we are sure they will ba read both here and : in America wuh delight. They indicate the real disposition of the Pope towards Ireland and the friends of Ireland, and they ought to put a sudden and decisive ending to the malign prattle of the coffeehouse babblers Wexforu has followed the lead of Wa'erfoH in honouring Mr. Balfour's ctiefest criminal, John Dillon. On Thursday, December 'Js, the heroic borough presented its freedom to our distinguished countryman, The ceremony was carried out amid a scene of great enthusiasm in the Town Hall, which was beautifully decorated for the occasion. Mr. Dillon delivered a thoughtful and suggestive address in reply. He drew attention to the melancholy decline of Irish trade aud Irish towns and tbe general decay which has come over the country consequent on the epoliation of its legislative rights, and the neglect of its interests by alitn Governments. After the ceremony of presentation, Mr. Dillon presided at a county convention, which showed an overflowing attendance of delegates, and in the course of another of those powerful addresses of hia pointed out, amongst other things, the great advantage which had been gained by the farmers in tbe barony of Shelbourne through sturdy and steadfast combination. As grace after meat — a Barmecide banquet ia this case — comes the Queen's speech to wind up the festivity of a Christmas-ended Parliament. Nut for thirty years has there been a session which found its termination at Christmas Eve; but the memory of maa fails to find an analogue to the extraordinary Quean's speech with which this extraordinary session concluded. Frutn beginning to end the one subject which la the sole motive for the existence of the Unionist Government is never mentioned, nor even hinted at. Ireland, which from dawn till succeeding dawn must fill tbe mind of every member of the Cabinet, is as completely ignored as though it were one of.tbe Sporadic Islands, which had suddenly gone under the surface of tbe sea, and produced no more impression thereby, on tbe British Empire, than if it had been a sunken bum-boat. This is a heroic method of dealing with great troubles, truly. If Mr. Balfour bad aDy hand in the framing of tbe so-called Bpeech, he presents himielf m an entirely new character — that of a singularly modett

man. He knows well that Ireland and its affairs are not to be snuffed out of existence by a Bublime act of contempt, quite worthy of the great mind which has imperilled the retention ot the Indian Empire for the mere gratification of a malignant propensity tor RHAPri TIC A reliable correspondent informs us that the statement of the Home Secretary respecting the O'Grady cattle at Liverpool wal received with incredulity by those attending the cattle market, Stanley. The evicted tenants from Herbertstown created a most favourable impression in the minds of all with whom they came into contact in Liverpool. Nothing in the shape of intimidation was attempted. Indeed, so far from that being necessary, boycotted beasts had already, become a nuisance in the city. Steamship companies, drovers, shad owners, lodging-house keepers, salesmen, dealers and butchers, all alike avoid, wherever possible, such cattle and those connected with them. More honourable men than these butcbera and dealers it would be impossible to find. They have a stubborn John Bull way with them, as any one who offered lor cattle when on price to anothar would quickly find. For men who -tand loyally to cacti other they have the greatest admiration, and they are not slow to show it. As a knowledge of the rights and the wrongs of the Irish question is spreading, so spreads the feeling in favour of the Irish tenants. The Central Nevis correspondent judged ari/ht when he said the Baglisb. and Scotch markets were practically closed to the agents of Irish landlords— that is, of course, of the breed " exterminator." Is it not humiliating to think that after those cattle of the O'Qrady's being avoided in Bnglaud or Scotland as though they had the rinderpest, a market should be found in the city of Limerick for them ? Mr. Balfour does not compel priests to wear prison costume, because he dare not put that outrage on them, lhe priests hare really to thank Father Matt Ryan's independent refusal and defiance for the concession. But Mr. Balfour's exemption in favour of the clerical victims of coercion is in itself a confession of the shallow hypocrisy of the pretence that they are ordinary criminals. If a clergyman, of whatever faith, had been guilty of a real crime of embezzlement or forgery, of burglary, or of murder, is it to be supposed for a moment he would be permitted to retain in prison the clerical costume he had degraded? What is to be thought of a law which the Execntive assumes will be consta uly broken by tha priesthood of the country, and actually feels compelled to make special provision for their treatment in pri&onas a class of political offenders? Mr. Balfour points triumphantly to the fact that public attention lias been largely concentrated by four or five of tne most cruel and shameless outrages of his administration. But there is not a corner of the country that has not its own story to tell of cruel wrong and bitter suffering inflicted by the coercionists or the rackrentera, ia whose sole interest coercion is administered. We will not add one word of comment to this simple tale of humble misery, told by the parish priest, Father Joyce, who was himself a witness to the scene : — " On last Tuesday," he writeß, " the Marquis of Sligo's estate bailiff* and Sheriff's bailiffs, escorted by a large force of police, arrived here from Weßtport and evicted three families in the grey dawn. There was no resistance or demonstration of any kind during the evictions. The poor creatures had to take shelter by the ditches and walls, ai they would not be admitted back as caretakers. At twelve o'clock I was called on to administer the last rites of the Church to one of the evicted— a poor old wumao eighty years of age, both blind and lame, and bedridden for a cumber of years. I found her outside the door, thrown on the bare, cold rock, with a bundle of raga about her, trembling all over. As I could not decently administer the rites of the Church to her in such a position, I begged of the representatives of Lord Sligo and the Sheriffs to admit her into the house until I would give her the last Sacraments, but they positively refused. Under these circumstances, no other house being near, I had to force the door and get her inside to give her the last rues of the Church. After I had left I believe the people removed her out again, fearing the law." Well may Father Joyce ask in honest indignation, •' Are we living in a Cnnstian age under a Christian Government? How^ long will the English nation suffer such things to be done in its name ?" No man can answer for ever tor the patience of the lush people under so cruel a strain. If Mr. Balfour had any feeling of Bbame the case of Mr. D. MacNamara, of Ennis, discusfled the other day before the Queen's Bench, might evoke it. Mr. Denis MacNamara is one of the doten newsvendors who — as Mr. Balfour is never done declaring — were not prosecuted for -el ling United Ireland, All the same, in some mysterious way the man was tried, convicted, and sent to gaol for this hideous offeace, and his punishment was none the less severe for Mr. Bdlfour's subsequent denial. What is more, being a licensed vintner, the conviction was endorsed on his license. Ihe police on this ground objected to its renewal, and the amenable magistrates refused it. The man has not merely been sent to prison, but has been robbed of hiß livelihood for selling a newspaper whicn is published freely through the Three Kingdoms— which is to be found in the Castle and the reading-room of the House of Commons. Was there ever such con* lemptible meanness? Mr. Balfour was compelled not merely to countermand but to deny his Press prosecutions by the sturdy resist* aoce of the newsvendors and the rising indignation of England. But hia satellites take this underhand method of ruining one, at least, of his indomitable victims. Mr. Balfour denies that any newsvendor was ever prosecuted for selling our paper. At the same time police and magistrate combine to ruin a man because he was convicted of that offence. If Mr. Balfour could lie the conviction off the back of the man's license we could almost forgive him the audacious falsehood. Those that have «yes let them see. Can any man watch John Dillon's triumphant progress through the Sjuth of Ireland with all the honour that citizens can bestow— banquets, addresses, and the freedom of each town through which he passes— without realising what it means ? Mr. Balfour boasts that he has quieted the country — that men once more may epeak their opinions freely, and the people use their freedom to give a more than royal welcome to the man whom. Balfour brands as a criminal. Lord Salisbury's patent coercion is to quiet, in twenty years, the country and kill Home

Rale. It has done very little in that direction in the first two of tbe term. Bo far it has advanced, like the crab, backward!. To the National feeling in Ireland coercion hat bean like oil to flame. It barns the steadier, tbe brighter, the lercer for the attempt to quench it with what it feeds on. What is to be thought of a Government in which the absolute governor is tbe best bated man in the community and his victims the best loved f Let may reasonable man answer, can such a Government continue ? Oagbt it to continue f There is a rainbow of hope for the worshippers of the ancient Irish tongue. In the fact that the University of London has decided to pat Celtic on its list of subjects for the M.A. examination, we ft ad a tardy awakening to a troth which foreign scholars had long since descried. The Celtic tongue is not dead, but a great factor Bull in the problem of human speech, and its strength and beauty have come to be recognised at last, after long centuries of neglect. To our Cymric brethren is due the credit of having stirred the London University to this encouragement of Celtic study. A combined memorial from the University College of North Wales and the Senate of Cardiff College was the immediate prompting upon which the Metropolitan University acted. Lord Salisbury's denial of what he said and his asseveration of what be did not say on tbe " Black Man " subject are of so much interest that it is worth while placing his words on the two occasions he hai spoken side by Bide. This the North British Daily Mail has done, and the answer to the Scarborough speech is complete, as the following parallels show - — Nor. 30. DEC. 20. It was undoubtedly a smaller What he did say was that they majority than that with which could not understand the meaning Colonel Duncan won the election of the Ho I born election of 1886, last time ; but then Colonel Dun- unless they remembered that the can was opposed to a black maD. Liberal candidate was not only of However great the progress of a distant race, widely separated mankind had been, and however from us, jut that it was marked far they bad advanced and over- by his complexion. come tbe prejudices, he doubted if they had come to the point that a British constituency would elect a black man to represent them.