LONDON TRUTH AND THE YOUNG IRELANDERS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 21, 19 September 1890, Page 31

LONDON TRUTH AND THE YOUNG IRELANDERS.

( (To the editor of tbe Sydney Freeman's Journal.) BIB,— An extract from London Truth, published in your issue of last week, expressed sentiments which no one of intelligence could endorse. A society journal, whatever its value in collecting the tittle-tattle of the servants' hall about the drawing-room, or in chronicling the backstairs intrigue of political life, can never be regarded as An authority on questions of historical or political significance, and, in this instance, the writer in Truth has gone beyond his depth. At the outset he completely betrays himsslf by the following sentence :— 11 They had started a newspaper, the Nation. It was not anything like as well written all round as tbe Nation is now, where genius is more modest. Still there were fine bits in now and then, when the writers forgot themselves enough to be natnral, and it was unquestionably a very creditable sort of paper as papers then were." To understand the humour of the words " as papers then were " one need only remember tbat Delane's editorship of the Times began in 1841, the year before the Nation's birth. By the way, did not Dickens' bard, who advertised " Jarley's wax show " in doggerel, condescendiDgly admit that Bill (meaning Shakespeare) was a good man m his day ? To compare the Nation of to-day with what it was is ridiculous. Writing in 1870, Leoky thus speaks of the Nation:-" I know few more melancholy spectacles — no more mournful illustration of tbe National party in Ireland than is furnished by the contrast of that paper with its past. What it is now is needleaa to say. What il was when Gavan Duffy edited it, when Davis, M'Carthy, and all their brilliant companions contributed to it, and when its columns maintained with unqualified zeal the cause of liberty and nationality in every laml, Irishmen can never forget." Nor has tbe paper improved since tbe above words were written, for the late A. M Sullivan, then a surviver of the old band, has never been replaced. In Bayinp that their eloquence was " slack jaw," the writer still further proves his ignorance. As Justin M'Carthy justly observes in comparing Bright and Gladstone, an orator must be judged rather by his highest effort than by all round and consistent excellence, and according to this standard, Thomas Francis Meagher should be reckoned among the first, if not the first, of Irish orators. The literary ability of the Young Ireland party does not need to be defended from the attack of those whom an ironical fate now permits to pose as •• gentlemen of the Press." Such past masters as Macaulay and Jeffreys long ago acknowledged it, and Carlyle, not given to hysterics of sentiment, was actually on terms of admiring intimacy with these "wrongheaded young men." In Davis, Denis Florence M'Carthy, Clarence Manfjan, Richard Dalton, Williams, " Speranza," Samuel Ferguson, and a host of others too numerous to mention here, the Nation commanded an array of genius and talent which it would be hard to collect from the living English-speak-ing world. Nor is it aay more correct to deny their possession of practical ability. Granting the truth of Fletcher of Saltoun's words about the laws and the ballads— and even Carlyle endorses them— Davis may have had more to do than either Parnel) or O'Connell in shaping Ireland's destiny. Many of the party died young, all experienced more than a just share of the world's reverses, yet, under tbe most unfavourable conditions they proved themselves possessed of more than their share of practical ability. They may have shown to poor advantage in the " Cabbage Garden," but before many years all, or nearly all, distinguished themselves in a field bounded only by the poles. Most of them, Buch as O'Hagan, the Fergusons, Richard O'Gorman, and Dr. O'Doherty, attained distinction wherever their lots were cast, while some of them showed t» capacity for even higher things. Gavan Duffy became the leading public man in Victoria, while in New South Wales, Young Ireland left its mark on Bar and politics. With life and ordinary health, Thomas Francis Meagher might have attained the first position, not merely in the Stale legislature, but in the United States Congress, while it is impossible to con jecture how far the assassin's bullet which cut fchort the career of Thomas D'Arcy Magee, probably the ablest man of tbat brilliant band, affected tbe course of American history. The Young Irelanders need no defence on your part or mine, for both their ability and virtues have long since been acknowledged by their bitterest enemies. I would, however, advise Iruth— for which, by the way, according to his own admission, Mr. Labouchere, who is rather cynical than "genial," wiites very little— LOßtick togossipand scandal -mongering and leave Young Ireland alone, for Young Ireland is above the range of the " Bociety " journal. Yours faithfully, A '48 Man.

There was a tragical scene at a funeral in Scotland the other day. A clergyman, who is fond of elaborative ceremonials, officiated, and in proceeding through the kirk-yard to the grave, he thought proper to walk backwards, with his face turned towards the coffim anb mourners, and offering a prayer as he went along. As the Tfcverend gentleman headed the procession, there was nobody to wara Elm when he reached the grave, the coosequen"e being that he fell imo it backward?, to the indescribable consternation of the company. He wsg ignominiously dragged out, only to hear a venerable speot »tor describe bim as a foolish Galatioc, and anotter remarking tbat the proceeding was "just a vain and silly ploy." He was lucky not io break bis neok or his back.— Truth.