Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 7, 14 November 1890, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

CFrom the National papers.; Mb. William O'Bribn's visit to hia native Mallow was, of coarse, the signal for a great popular demonstration, and repiesenUtives of the birthplace of Davis, Oroke, and O'Briea were happy ia me words which they selected to convey their greetings to their distinguished townsman and his bride. They went to their other townsman for their prayer. In his speech Mr. O'Brien eloquently characterised the Archbishop of Cashel's services to Ireland. " Give me, be said, " the mm who, when John Mitabel was on his way to transportation, chose that moment of all others to volunteer to follow in John Mitchel's footsteps and to dare his fate. Give me the friend who forty years ago preached the doctrine and anticipate! the policy which has been the salvation of the tenantry of Ireland, and which is about to deliver this land over to be ruled by the representatives of the Irish people. Give me the man who, when Mr. Parnell'a movement was in its infancy, when it was slandereJ and persecuted, spolce out with no uncertain sound, and who ia every hour of trial •nd danger of the past ten years has spoken words that, like electric ■p-rks, have thrilled though every vein and fibre of the Irish raoe." ru" °£ rlen Dad to dencuDce an insult to this "founder of Irish liberty from a native of Mallow. But the Archbishop is as much w y °£r D wet of the foolish writer of the foolish epistle to which Mr. O Bnen referred, as his patriotism and his statesmanlike action tor the interests of his Church are above the stupidity to which the letter owes its origin. In his speech at Meelin Mr. O'Brien referred to the approaching distress, and the proper attitude in face of it. He said that toe Irish race throughout the world were sick of appeals for tdma that go into the pockets of the landlords They would spend their last dollar and shed their blood to support a fight that goes down to the root of the whole question. The evil of Ireland is Dot the potato blight, but the landlord blight and the Dublin Castle blight. The battle of Meelin and the battle of Tipperary is a battle to the death against the whole inferoal system of landlordism and Castle rue, that has been worse, ten thousand times, than the potato blight, to keep hunger and famine haunting this fertile land of ours. That battle must go on, and the soldiers who fight it and maintain it, and thug lay the foundations of a future for our people safe from the scourges of hunger and disease, we the first charge on the resources of the Irish people. Mr. Dillon is of the same opinion. At the meeting of the National Leagae on Tuesday, September 9, he expressed his agree- i ment with Mr. Davit t that there should be no appeal for charity, that the Government should be forced to do its duty, and that the energies of the wnole people should be devoted to removiog the causes of these ever-recurriog famines. The Secretary for the TreaBury is on a lour through the " congested " districts, and we hope it will be fruitful of more enlightenment than the careeriDgs through Ireland of members of the alien Government on amilar occasions before. The only result of these travels in the past was a confirmation of the characteristic heartlessness of officialism, aDd a discovery that when potatoes fail there remains most excellent seaweed. Meantime, we are glad to see that the indescription cf the " congested ' distiiota is being further exposed. Mr. James Berry writes giving tbe statistics of holdings in one parish— that of Moyros. In that paribh c ghteen individuals hold 68,400 acres, with the result that the land ia relrogradug ioto its wild, primitive state, anJ some of it will be quite useless. The same is irue, mire or less, of the parishes of Clifden. Ballinakill, Louisburgh, Westport, Kilmeem. Newport, and Achill. " The Celts are driven to the summitß of savage hills, or to the water's ed<>e, with the winds sweeping their rude cabins, or tbe wild sea waves dashing against them eternally, while more are cooped up in sandy holes burrowed deep in the bowels of some barren acd borrid islan-1 sand-pits, hot and terrible as the black-hole of^Calcutta. There they dwell in poverty, in ignorance, and ia ra^s, while the walls of their once happy homes, now rum-d, can be seen in tbe distance — homes they dare not approach, for they are now in the hands of the stranger." These people must be brought forth from their misery— not for exportation, according to the kid-glove methods of the Crumwellianism of the nineteenth century, but to possess the land of their fathers. Argnmeot and protest have alike been unavailing in influencine the politics of Most Rev. Dr. O'Dwyer. We have hopes, however, that he will be led to see the unwisdom of his ways by one influence — that of tbe adulali >n which is being showered upon him by the Times and its One of these latter is Mr. Agar-Kllis, the gentleman who contracted with dis Catholic wife to allow their children to be reared in tbe Catholic Faith, and afterwards broke his contract. The merit of " Dr. O'Dwyei," in Mr. Agar-EUis's judgement, is that having, " like every other priest in his Church, on taking Orders, put his mind into commission," "he honourably sticks to his bargain." This is a compliment, 6urely. It ought to be even less palatable to hia Lordship than the practical ■of his conduct tow«rds Mr. Dillon by some of the very bert and most helpful of his subjects. " I am afraid poor Bishop O'Dwyer will be beaten," writes this unwelcome sympathiser. "it is not the Bishops and Archbishops that will cause his defeat. It is the people. They are quite prepared t j imperil their souls if they can get their landlord's land for nothing, or next to nothing. Much as I dislike Dr. O'Dwyer's religious dogmas and his ideas of what a tenant should pay his landlord, I cannot withhold my admiration for his courage. I know his life must have been embittered almost be yond endurance." If this does not reform the " poor Bishop O'Dwyer's " politics nothing can. To be an object of this sort of eulogy is, indeed, a situation b'-yoml endurance. Mr. Herbert Vivian, in that impudent but lively little pap-r, the Whirlwind, tells, as one of the " Reminiscences of a Short Life, " » good story for which he waß indebted to Mr. T. D. Sullivan, fll.P. Writing of Ireland, be says, •' Well, indeed, may such a country be

compared with imaginary realms of bliss, if, as Charles Kingsley hi* said, ' wherever are love and patriotism, great purposes and lofty souls— even though in a hovel or a mine— there is fairyland.' " He visited Ireland in 1887, and attended a meeting called by Mr. Dillon at Castlerea. " I travelled as far as Athlone with Mr. T. D. Bullivan, M.P., then Lord Mayor of Dublin, who greatly fascinated me, as he has since fascinated all the Englishmen who have been privileged to meet him during his political campaigns in England. He has a most charming manner, quite that of the old school, and talks picturesquely and with vivacity, often with pathos. He spoke with much feeling about the treatment of Irish members in the House of Commons, saying with gentle dignity, ' for you the ambition to enter farliament is laudable and honourable ; for us its realisation ia fraught with insult and ostracism, and until lately we were looked npon by both parties alike as aliens »nd intruders.' He has also his gay moods, and the sly humour of his anecdotes was often sublime. We laughed much over the lett-r of a correspondent, who Appealed to him as the poet of the Nationalist party, saying that te was anxious to lampoon an adversary, but feared the libel laws, and would be grateful for information as to the best means of procuring ft poetic licente I

Describing Mr. Dillon's visit to Cambridge in XBB6, Mr. Vivian s*ys :— People were surprised to fiad that, instead ol being tha gloomy, sardonic patriot they had ceen depicted in the comic prints, Air. Dillon possesses a charm of expression and a sympathy of manner which are aa rare as they are attractive. In fact, it ia only too little knowa in England that, besides being a skilful organiser, a brilliant orator, and a distinguished statesman, he U one of the moit versatile and accomplished men of the day. Not only ate all the Greek and Latin classics at bis fingers' ends, bat he possesses an uniquely intimate acquaintance with the masterpieces of Fronoh, German, and Italian literatnre, which he reads and quotes in the original, and he knows enough Spanish to be able to enjoy Don Quixote unspoilt by translation. He was educated as a doctor, and still keeps np his medical lore ; he is an exquisite connoisseur of art, and a good judge of music; indeed, there is scarcely a subject in, which he cannot display more than the knowledge of an expert. I fancy be is almost alone among men of wide learning »nd accomplishments in also excelling as a brilliant and sympathetic talker, and, which is even still rarer, as a modest and appreciative listener."' On Sunday, September 14, Mr. William O'Brien visited the West, and addressed meetings on the Harmion estate and at Sohull. The tenants on the former have adopted the Plan of Campaign. At Schull he declared they had done their work at Marmion Island, bat that these tenants were not the only tenants who were face to face with a winter of dire and terrible destitution. If they were not going to have the people dying again miserable by tbe ditches it was time to take action. •• If the small farmers of Ireland pay away to the landlords the money which should buy food for their children," said Mr. O'Brien, "we dare not ask the world to come to the rescue of such a nation of slaves." "I do not ask you," be said, "to raise the c-y of no-rent, but I do ask you to raise the cry of no-hunger,'and if no hunger would involve no rent, then I tell you the whole civilised world would hold you jusufied in declaring toat starvation should never again occur in Ireland while your arms are still strong and while you have money in your pockets. I ask you to avow here to-day that if ever again the famine-pits of Schull and Skibbereen are to be opened, it shall not be to receive the corpses of starved peasants famished to death in n land of plenty, but it shall be to receive tbe foul fiend of Irish landlordism, whose breath is a pestilence, whose footsteps are dogged with famine and desolation, anJ whose crime there is no pit deep enough to caver or chastise." The speech roused enthusiasm, courage, and iupe ia Bchull. On Thursday morning, September 18, shortly after saveu o'clock Mr. John Dillon, M.P., was arrested at his residence, Ballybrack, ox a warrant charging him with conspiracy, it is understood, in connection with the fight ia Tipperary. Mr. Dillon was taken off hurriedly by train to Blackrock, where ha was removed from the railway carriage and then driven on a car by road to Kingsbridge. A special train left; Kingsbrid^ at aquirter to eleven containing Mr. Dillon and the police who effected tne arrest, and ie arrived in Tipperary at about two o'clock. Mr. Wnliatn O'Brien, M.P., was arrested on a similar warrant at an early hour at his hotel at Glengariffd, and was conveyed to Tipperary. Mr. T. Harrington, M.P., oalled at the Lower Castle Y*rd. but was informed that no warrant was out for him. Mr. D.llon and Mr. O'B.ien had both taken tneir passages for New York on a steamer Bailing on October Ist. We understand that the following are to be prosecuted on the sume charge .—Messrs. D. Saeehan, M.P., P. O'Brien. M P., T. Condon, M.P, J. Calliaane, O'Brien Dalton, Walsu, Cashel Sentinel; Daniel Kelly, and J. E. O'Mahony, New Tipperary. Mr. T. D. Sullivan, M.P., was ia Bdrk*mrd week en iin? September 13, working for Home Bule. A correspondent of the Star says that the Horn-? Rule movement m tue Nowbury Division of Berkshire received a decidod fillip on Monday evaning wnen Mr. T D. Sullivan, M.P., addressed a crowdel and enthusiastic meeting in the Town Hall. Mr. Sullivan carried his audie ica with him, aa he lightly brushed away tbe absurd arguments of tha Tory and Unionist parties, that to give Ireland a Parliament for tbe control of its own affiirs meant the disintegration and dismemberment of tbe Empire. " What tremendous fallows we Irish must be," said the ex-Lord Mayor of Dublin, « if 4 500,000 of unarmed people can resist the wishes of a powerful and well-trmed nation like tbe English 1 " It needed but the clinching argumeats of Mr. Morton, the hardheaded secretary of tha Home Rule Union, to arouse the audience o a p.teh of enthusiasm, 8) that they vote! solid for tha Home Bale resolution, and made up their minds to return their chairman, Mr. inomas Stevens, of Bradfiald, » 9 their member at the next election. Sir' John Pope Hennessy is a thorough-going Home Ruler. He evidently believes in Home Hule, not merely among whites but amonf? blacks, not only m Ireland, but in Africa. Writing in the Nineteenth Century oa the question :— " Ia Central Africa Worth Having 7 h« raises the question— for the grit time— bow the parti-

tion of the Dark Continent is to affect the natives. " Recently," be writes, " I had an opportunity of glancing through a despatch I sent Lord Kimberley in 1873, in which I described a visit I paid to Kambia, a wall-populated town a little distance in the interior, at the head of the Great Soarcies River. During my visit I was tha only European in the town. The whole district was under negro administration only. It was admirably governed. I never saw a happier popalation. They were cheerful, contented, indus'rious, in their way good agriculturists, and able to manufacture most of the simple household articles they required. Wnat a contrast between the amiling faces to be seen in the crowded streets of that negro town and the care-worn faces of Cheapside."

Sir John evidently doubts whether the prospect will be as smiling in the years to come. He quotes a phrase from the letter of a Mr. Mrtckay, a missionary, who writes that the British East African Company will do nothing in half <t century to come until they have broken the backbone of native cantankerousness." These words he adds of an honest English missionary after twelve years' work in Central Africa : — " If such words are used by a man like Mr. Mackay what will be the tone and conduct of other Europeans 1 " They will advance civilization in the old way by murder, whiskey, vice, and disease.

The story of the Pope's interference was revived the week endiog September 13 by a correspondent of the Times who signs himself 11 Vatican." According to him not only the Pope but the Archbishop Armagh has congratulated his Lordship of Limerick on the proceedings which culminated in the unprecedented demonstrat on in the City of the Violated Treaty. Inquiries proved »hat " Vatican's " statement about the Primate were totally unfounded ; but the Times states that the other portion of the letter was true. We wonder who it was that confirmed it. The origin of the tale we ourselves exposed some weeks tince. The " letter from the Pope " was a letter from an Irish Archbishop at Rjme, wbosa personal experience of Ireland is rather rem jte. His expression of opinion has been magnified into a Pap^l sanction, and the Pope's name involved in the disgraceful charges of dishonesty, cowardice, and lying against one of tha best loved and most trusted leaders of the Irish race. Our Australian compatriots need have no anxiety in the matter. The cable bad lied ; but it is one of the most disgraceful features of a discreditable peifjrmance ttut any ground was given for the liars to build their fabrications upon.