Dunedin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 16, 18 August 1893, Page 21

Dunedin Notes.

* (From the Weekly Freeman, June 24 ) Thb Daily News givei currency to the following :— ' Privately approached by a (Jooservative member, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was on Tuesday asked when he thought tho Home Rule Bill would have passed the Mouse of Commons. ' Some time before the 31st of December,' he answered. 'As much earlier as your friende like to make it. But the House will certainly eit till the Bill ie through.' " Tho logs of Liniith(?owßhtre was n t nnfoe9een, thiugh in the excitement of the Btruggle the Home Rulers appear to have lost light of the importance of the Church question in the contest. Wben the reeignation of Mr M'Lagan was first mentioned it was predicted that the Beat would be carried by the aid of the Catholic party, as he had always bcea a supporter of the flat abashed church. The event has proved that the temper of the constituency was accurately gauged. The Church question was the mam reliance of Captain Hope, and though, as the increased poll shows, the Home Rulers made a grand rally, the Church party was too strong for them. The lost of the seat is to be regretted, but it cannot be said to reflect tbe least change of feeling about Home Rule. Mr Sexton, on behalf of the Iriah Party, has made an effective prottßt against the tendency of the Government to whittle away the Hume Bule Bill in the fatuous endeavour to conciliate its dishonest and malignant opponents. The division showed that the Irish Party has many sympathisers among tbe supporters of the Government in resisting a line of action on the part of the Government that can do no good, and may cause serious injury to the Bill. In the lobby the English Home Rulers were quite as vigoroui as the Irish in the expression of their disapproval of the conduct of the Government in regard to these amendments. The Unionists, of course, represent Mr Sexton's speech as a threat. It was nothing of the kind, and it was not accepted in that spirit br the Government or its supporters. The necessity had arißen to remind Ministers that the Bill was the minimum that the Irish nation could accept, and that it would not stand the process of cutting and carving to which it waa being subjected at the suggestion of the Unionists. The unopposed return cf the Liberal for Swansea showa that in " gallant little Wales " the forces on the Bide of Home Rule and religions equality are solid as the rock. There had bean great preparations for a Tory onset, and afcer a. prolonged search a champion of ascendancy and coercion had been found. But wben the moment cams the gallaat knigat was missing. Nor did the Labour Party challenge the candidate of the Liberal Association. While the Government is fighting the Lords over the Railway Servants' Bill and preparing to force tbe Employers' Liability through, it wonld be rather bard to b^ attacked in tbe rear because they were not orthodox enough for Alderman Tillett. When tha Labour Members have exhausted tbe Newcastle programme it will be time enough to resort to such tactics. Meantime they will best serve the canse of labour by helping the Ministry to place on the Statute Book those measures that are essential preliminary conditions to the Labour Party becoming a power in the land. The following communication " from a Unionitt delegate " is published in the Belfast News-Letter — it is too goo ito be lost as it beautifully illustrates the temper and tbe intelligence in which Unionism is rooted among the few British workers who support it : — ♦15 Frazer Btreet, Workington, June 13, 1893. Madam, — I received the paper you kindly sent me, for which I ihack you, aod in return Bend you four of our local papers containing the report of a Unionist and Conservative meeting held at Working on last week, at which Mr Trimble, an Irishman, spoke on the Home Rule Bill, and so great was his sincerity that Mr G. Stuart, the reporter for the West Cumberland Times, and an ardent Home Ruler, waa converted, and many others shaken in their faitb. and brought to thibk as I have done for a long time, that it is but a production of Rome brought foiward under another name by the great Jesuit, W. B. Gladstone, under the control of the whip of Tim Healy and Co , to ruin Ireland, and destroy the purity of the British Empire. However, we are determined to use all our powers to unseat the present Government at the next election, and put in one that will preserve the Protestant faith. My vieit to Ireland in Murch was very pleasant, for I found the Protestants had ever in then memory the remembrance of Kidley and others who died in the faith by the murderous (*k>) hands of the ancestors of some of those who are trying by the subtle measure to destroy the Christian growth and commercial welfare of thrifty Irishmen. In conclusion I may say I will never forget the look of joy and pleasure that was pictured in the loyal Irish faces at the knowledge of the English delegates being amongst them, for, like the heroine of Lucknow, they Delieved that relict had come, and sj it \&s, for even the Radical ccntingtnt are bhaken in their faith ut the Horn* Rule Bill, and many of which will do their best to stem its progress, Ton will learn a little o! what lam doing myself from

the papers I Bend you.— With kindest love to Ulster, yoareelf, and all friendp, I remain yours respectfully, STEPHEN CABMIOHAEL (Pro T. CarmichaH). Mrs Francis." Was "T. Caimicbael " too intelligent to write himself ? Mr Gladstone's patience is not yet exhausted. Oa Monday he was questioned by a follower who was anxious to learn if the Prime Minister had yet been convinced that the late lamented Mr Smith wjß a good exemplar, and whether he wonld not consent to use the weapon which the Tones had invented to quicken the pace of public business. In reply Mr Gladstone pave expression to the wish that someone would place in his hands a weapon that might be becomingly used to pu*b on the Home Rule Bill. We are to take it, therefor. , that the gentlemen who are woiking to destroy the Bill or to maku it more detestable ha. r e not yet, in Mr Gladstone's opinion, gone to such lengths as would justify resort to the happy and expeditious methods by which Mr Smith succeeded in placing so maoy Tory measures upon the statute book. There may be good policy in this exceeding great tolerance shown by Mr Gladstone. But bis followers are confessedly puzzled by the exhibition. On Monday seven of the amendments to clause 4, only four of which were debated, disappeared from tha notice paper, and on Wednesday a whole page. There remain forty-three to be disposed of. At the rale made clause 4 will <ccupy the House until the end of next week, and it will require a hundred more sittings to get the entire Bill through committee. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Mr Gladstone's friends pressing him to bave resort to & weapon expressly framed by Parliament to meet such a situation as has now been created by Tory obstruction. Unless it is to be confessed that a minority in the House of Commons can prevent the will of the country from being < earned into effect, some means must be taken to expedite public business. Tha right of the majority to bave its decision prevail is even greater than the right of the minority to discuss that decision. Sacred Tory authority can be quoted on the side of making Government by the majority a reality. Liberals ought to be at least as good guardians of the efficiency of democratic institutions. Up to the present, however, the expressed wishes of the majority have been flouted with strange succesa. Had they declared for the destruction of all representative government in Ireland, how much more expeditiously wonld the declaration bave produced its results I The friends of freedom ought to be as zealous, and, if need be, as " unbecoming," as its opponents. Sir Charles Gavan Daffy has come back again with the summer to give tha final push to the new Irish literary movement, and launch it on what we hope will be a successful career. A year ago he laid before his countrymen the project of renewing the attempt or perhaps we should say continuing the good wook, which he and bis comrades began fifty golden years ago to give Ireland a literature rucy of the soil. It was suggested that a limited liability company should be formed to publish a series of books which might, allowing for changes of circumstances and time, promote the same good purposes that the authors of the famous little " Library of Ireland " had m view. This idea, however, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy stated in bis lecture to the Irish Literary Bocie'y on Saturday, has been abandoned. The main difficulties were not, we believe, financial, but managerial. Debates r>n these matterß delayed the project, but we are glad to see that they have been conquered. A. spirited tpublisher, who has already helped several Irishmen and Irishwomen, hat had something worth reading to vend, to find their market, has offered to do che publishing if Sir Chnrles Gavan Daffy and his helpers provide the books. That they have had do difficulty in beginning. In fact some of the books were already there. Meantime S.r Charles Gavan Duffy appeals for help for his generons effjrls to every Irishman who wishes 'to make our Celtic people all they are fit to become." He himself has always had a high, but at the same time a practical, ideal for them. " For my part," he says, repeating an old preference, " I would rather see our people developed becording to their specul gifts than to Bee them masters of limitless territory or Inexhaustible gold reefs. A Celtic people, trained to become all that nature desired them to be — humane, joyous, and generous, living diligent, tranquil lives in their own land, and sending out from time to time, as of old, men whose gifts and faculties tittei them to become benefactors of mankind — that is the destiny I desire for my country," This may sound dreamy, but it is the dream of a patriot and a statesman, who knows that men must walk with their feet oa the ground and be keen for their footing, even tbongh they do cry " Excelsior I" Hie literary feast is not to be all poetry and romance, The main dishes are to be blue-books— not cooked, but made savoury all the same — and history. " Ireland, know thyself," is his maxim. It is a business principle as well as a moral one. "'Self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control" are the old patriot's specifics. " Self-knowledge "is a condition of good housekeeping, as well ac of moral triumph. He meaos bis advice in that senea. His bookp, if he can get them all written, will teach Irishmen what they must know if they are to make Ireland a going concern as well aa a m' : "U worthy of respect. The ringing old Gaelic ballad will be heard again, but bo also will lectures on the problem of Swift the patriot, how to make two blades of grass grow where only

one grew bi fore, tiir Oharlea any not achieve ah his luieum. But he has laid his lines where all parties can help, and if he gives as e?en ten good books with an Irish heart io them he will have done a g^vd work for Ireland.