Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 50, 4 April 1890, Page 29

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.) Vothing that] has been done under the brutal administration of Mr. Balfour and his Removables is so completely sickening as the outrage at the funeral of Michael O'Dwyer on Friday, January 24. It recalls " the indecent dance on the grave of John Mandeville," but it outdoes it in brutality. For John Mandeville'a grave was closed before the calumnies and sneers of Mr. Balfour were circulated about the dead. Caddell did not wait for the grave to close, but sent his police to outrage humanity by breaking in upon the last solemn ceremonies of the funeral service. We are glad that Tipperary. at the call of Mr. Tom Condon, saved the grave of the brave Irishman from the sacrilege. Michael O'Dwyer only wanted that insult to his corpse to make hiß memory precious to the Irish race. " May God," Baid Mr. O'Brien, "have mercy upon poor Michael O'Dwyer, and may God save the country for which he fought bo like a soldier, and for which I may almost Bay he fell like a soldier." Ireland says Amen I

tiince The Tenant's Defence Fund began to grow by leaps and bounds Mr. Balfour'a spies have been dogging the steps of the organitation in order to tramp up a charge of intimidation against its promoters and collectors. Our Gambling Chief Sucretary knew that that would be a good move in the party game. It would spoil the magnificent demonstration of defeat to him and his ways which the success of the movement signifies. So Mr. Michael McGrath, of Cootehall, county Boscommon, was prosecuted for intimidating those much intimidated individuals— to wit, " certain persona unknown," in order to compel them to subscribe to the Tenants' Defence Association. The miserable fiasco in which the prosecution ended on Tuesday last proves how completely the efforts of tbe crime-manufac-turers have failed in besmirching the great defensive movement. It defies even their perjuries and their lies to assail it.

What is the difference between a runnn and a man 1 The St James' Gazette makes a distinction of its own. If an Irishman insults a judge ue is a ruffian. If an Englishman murders bia wife he is a man. This appears from the difference between the heading which its sub-editor gives to the news of the attack on Judge Hicks, and the beading he gave to the news of the hanging of two murderers at Leeds a couple of weeks ago. " Attack on a Judge by an Irish Ruffian " — " Two Men Hanged at Leeds." The distinctijn is the indication o\ a sentiment and the revelation of a purpose. The sentiment ia that of the coercionists in the infliction of their torturea ; the purpose ia their purpose in the war of slander. Professor Tyndall tells the Northern Orangemen not to shrink from the ordeal of conflict in the event of Home Rule. "If you, the successors of men who knew how to defend their liberties with the sword, be driven with unrighteous legislation to the same means of defence, you will not, lam sure, Bhrink from the ordeal. And, trust me, should that hour ever come, then, wnen it comes, tens of thousands of British men will be found ready to leap into your ranks and to help you to overthrow their foes." Let us hope that the Northern host, when it advances, will not, like some of the Tymlalls of Carlow, make its war on old women from the safe shelter of an ambuscade. The Professor will know to what we refer if he looks up the archives of the family, or the criminal records of the Carlow Asßize. An Irish correspondent of the St. James's Gazette — we suppose the same authority that told tne readers of that ultia-Tory sheet that Irish peasant proprietors would be ready to trample on Irish national rebels — informs them now that "it is highly probable that the two great sections of which the Irish National party is composed will be found before long confronting each oiher in an attitude of the fiercest mutual hostility. Mr. Davitt, founder of the Land League, and originator of the whole Irian agrarian movement, has at length desisted frooi his attitude of benevolent neutrality to the National League, and founded the Irish Democratic Labour Confederation, an essentially hostile and antagonistic body. These great factions will come into formal collision before long, as they are in virtual collision at the present moment." l'he prophecy Is so old that we wonder at any editor pawng lor it as original matter. A reference to the files of St. James's Gaaette would have discovered several versions, m better style, be it observed, with all respect to the successors of Mr. Greenwood, which would only require a little touching up to bring them down to date. The present prophet is of the same order with bis predecessors Mr. William O'Brien, in bis brilliant speech on Sunday, January 26, at Naul, gave expression to the opinion of the nation. There 18 a basis for toleration and difference of opinion as to future reforms and programmes in his speech. He has tolerance for everything except inactivity in the struggle of the hour. Mr. O'Brien has cot suffered in order to plunder the nation of itß rights or the workingman of the fruits of his toil. He has fought to win Ireland for the Irish. When the battle is wot the nation will be able to setile what sysiem of land tenure will be for the greatest good of the greatett number. But the battle is not won. and "it will take all the undivided strength and energies and patriotism ot the people of Ireland to do it, townsmen and countiymen, labourers and farmers, mo lerate irat n and extreme men, ai.d that not in any vague or general way, but in that dogged, bard, matter-of-fact way in which the men ot Tipperary are at this moment fighting and beating Coercion." Thiß is the thii.g to remember. Thia is another thing — ir&t it will go hard with popular programmes, not only here but in Great Britain, if coercion is not beaten. Dublin is guiDg to do its part by the Tenants' Defence Association. Already the county ha , given earnest of its co-operation, and the city is likewise astir. The delay in beginning the work will, we nope, result in its bemg more thoroughly done. It will not be for lack of the incitement of a good example. The Defence Fund stands now at £40,000, and the cry is still the subscriptions come I With

that much ammunition the battle for an honest Land Purchase Bill may be entered upon with a light heart. Mr. Michael Griffin, the newsvendor, has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment for displaying a cartoon of United Ireland in a neighbourhood that had the misfortune to be cursed by the presence of a landgrabber. Landgrabbers hate such things as the devil hatw holy water, and this particular cartoon made the particular landgrabber uneasy. Mr. Irwin, the presiding magistrate, observed, in delivering sentence, that he could not sse how Mr. Griffia could dare to act as he did unless he was paid for it. Dnbought service is what no " fellah " among the Removables can understand. It is the only ground of hope for their ultimate conversion that we possess. When Mr. I'win ceases to be paid for it, he will cease to pervert the law to Mr. Balfour's service. The Carriekmacross prosecutions have revealed to the full tho complicity of the Great Northern Railway in the landlord conspiracy. They have also proved the complete success of the boycotting. If there were any doubt about the success it is now ensured. Mr. Balfour is attempting to put a show of constitutionalism about his naked tyranny by pursuing the accused by ordinary methods of trial. Bat the correspondent of the Standard makes known the intention of the prosecution. The " ordinary law " will be executed in virtue of the verdict of a Belfast Orange jury. The English people will hardly be gulled by the change from hired Removables to Sandy -row jurors. Meantime, speed the boycottera I Do the Irish labourers want a special argument for Home Rule f If so, let them read the proceedings at the meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which was held recently. The committee threw out the scheme of the Guardians of the Carlo w Union for the erection of a labourer's cottage near Rathvilly. It was proved that the existing cottage was unfit for habitation, that the site chosen interfered with no rights, and that the whole schema was a bonafide one. The Right Hon. Henry Bruen, himself a Privy C luncillor, was a witness in favour of the scheme. The Local Government Board's inspector supported it. There was nothing against it but the non placet of a landlord. That was sufficient, however. The landlord succeeded in his obstruction, and got five guineas costs for his trouble. The decision shows that there is absolutely no guarantee under the existing law that the most moderate and impartially devised plans for the bettering of the condition of the labourers will not bo spoiled by the opposition of the landlords. This decision of the Judicial Committee acknowledges the right of the landlords to an absolute veto without rhyme or reason. It is virtually an amendmentof the law, and is another example, for the special benefit of the labourers, of the power of the Castle Executive to mar all beneficent legislation. The Judicial Committee, by the way, had no fewer than three lay landlords m it ; while at least two of the judges are also landlords. We need no explanation of the extraordinary result of their private deliberations. The tour of Canon Keller and Mr. O'Brien in England has resulted in a series of remarkable demonstrations. Canon Keller's presence on the English platform has been as effective as was anticipated, and the story of the wrongs and sufferings of the Ponsonby tenantry could not have been told more moderately, or with more striking results in awakening sympathy. The picture which Unionist orators had drawn of the Ponsonby tenants represented them as fat thieves, rolling in comfort, who set to the work of robbing Mr. Ponsonby in the gaiety <>f their spirits. Canon Keller showed that they have been living for years and years in beggarly and starved destitution oj property which they created with their own bauds, but for which they were so rackrented that it became for them a question to fight or go. They have fought, and the nation fights with them. They have the sympathy of Great Britain, too ; and we may Bafely forecast the results. In his powerful speech at Manchester Mr. O'Brien passed from the immediate occasion of his presence to spea* of the higher significance of the meeting itself. It was, indeed, suggestive of all that has been accomplished by the policy of conciliation in removing misunderstandings, moderating animosities, and laying the basis of a lasting friendship. The guarantees of the permanency of the newborn relations lie in the history of the last four years. Mr. O'Brien put in a striking summary the history of Balfourism. '■The constitution suspended; the representatives of toe people insulted and flung into prison ; Mayors of five of their nhief cities put upon the p'ank-bed as criminals ; numbers of the most respected clergymen of tae stamp of Canon Keller subjected to all the miserable, paltry, squalid tortures of imprisonment , thousands upon thousands, literally, of the very best men and women in the community either prosecuted, imprisoned, or evicted ; sixty of them shot dead in the streets by the rifleß of the police ; the right of public meeting at an end ; almost every Nationalist newspaper in the country prosecuted ; the whole country groaning under the rule of the armed policeman and the mercenary magistrate — all this has been done in the name of England by a g-ntleman who has never been able to refer to an Irish representative without a sneer, or to the Irish nation without some phrase of insult and derision." But the Irish people by their splendid patience have defeated the design of it all, and Mr. O'Brien is now able to bring their indomitable trust in the people of Great Britain as the best argument in favour of Home Rule. By his addresses, Mr. O'Brien has done magnificent service. But the service could be bought at too hi»h a price. Balfourism hat gained one of its objects. It has weakened his physical strength. The signs of his weakness have caused positive p tin to all his country, men ; aod their one desire at the present moment is that Mr. O'Brien should immediately submit to the advice of his physician, and take the rest which he badly needs. It is with very great regret we announce the death of the Ber. Henry Stuart Fagan, Rector of Great Cressingham, Norfolk, one of those Irigh Protestant clergymen whose field ot work lies beyond the Church, and who inherit the historic patriotism of the Protestants of the past. He was an ardent Nationalist, and did not hesitate for a moment to throw in hiß lot with the cause of Home Bule in England when Mr. Gladstone gave the word. The Prinarosa Boycottwi

attempted to punish him for this ; but he was not to be intimidated. Since 1886 he had been one of the most ardent and effective workers in the cause of Ireland. It will be no surprise to bis countrymen to find that his sympathy embraced tbe English worker as well as the Irish. "By the poor he was much beloved," say those who were witnesses of his work. That ia the beat of epitaphs. A correspondent of the Star writes of the deceased : "To me he bequeathed a trust to take up his interest in the matter of William (Joll, and to PMah forward tbe agitation for repeal of that cruel sentence in season 3rd out of season." Rev. Mr. Fag in was born in the year 1827, and was educated at Oxford. He passed through with distinction, and became a Fellow of Pembroke College. He w<n ordained in 1852, and was then appointed an assistant master of King Edwards Grammar School, Birmingham. He was subsequently head-master successively of Burton-on Trent, Market- Bosworth, and Bath Grammar Schools. In 1859 he became Sector of Cnarlecombe, which living he held until 1870, when he went to a living in Cornwall, He was transferred to Great Cressingham in 1882, the living being in the gift of the Lord Chancellor. Thus he was a striking witness to the falsehood of tbe assertion that the Protestantism and educated intelligence of Ireland are altogether opposed to Home btule.