NATIONAL UNITY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 16, 18 August 1893, Page 23

NATIONAL UNITY.

In replying to an address presented to him at Omagh on Sunday, Jane 18, Cardinal Logne spoke as follows :—: — Yon mention the fact that oar country has had many evils to bear, has been subjected to suffering, persecution, and bad treatment* and, indeed, if you said very bad treatment I think it would be moon nearer the mark. I agree fully with what you have put forward io your address in regard to this matter. We have been very badly treated in the past, but still we should not recall the bad treatment of the past for the purpose of exciting ill-feeling. We should rather regard it in a spirit of Christian charity. Forget the past ; look more to the future. Perhaps it has been good for us to have received this bard treatment at the hands of those who had authority oter oi. We might have been a more prosperous people from a worldly point of view, if we had not been persecuted and oppressed and harassed, and numbers of our people driven out of the country ; but we might at the Bame timo fall far short of tbat standard of virtue and Chris* tian feeling and lively faith, which are the characteristics of Catholic Ireland at present. We may, therefore, le-ive '' the dead paßt to bury its dead," but I can tell you ! hip, that if we are oppressed in the future it will be our own fault. We have the way open for us now, and if we suffer persecution and oppressi' n in the future it will simply arise from a serious dtfec on our own part. If w« keep united, and march shoulder to shoulder, struggling on for oar rights, all the power of the British Empire cannot oppress us in the futur*. In this nineteenth century there can be no return to the pitchcap or triangle or to the quartering of yeomen on the people, or any of thoae means by which people have been harrassed in thiß country in tht past. Public opinion is too strong for tha', and the light of the nineteenth century is a very bright light. Nothing can be done in hole* and cornerp, and hence, if we take every legitimate meant — remember, I speak of legitimate means— and stick together and work for the measure of freedom and self-government which I believe to be our due, I say aga n the whole power of the British Empire cannot deprive us of it. Some of the statesmen of England may look back with longing eyes to the day. two or three hundred years ago, when the people were driven to the mountains', and English and Scotch planters were sent over here to take their places. They may take pride out of the fact tbat they in those dsys established a garrison to fight " tbe Irish enemy." But all these longings and that sentiment of pride were mere academic things. Let them try it in practice, and they are sure to find that there is only one thing that can deprive us from that freedom, legitimate freedom, constitutional freedom, and tbat is division among the people. That is the one rock on which the Irish have split from ihe beginning, keeping up faction! and parties, sometimes very unreasonable factions and parties, losing sight of the main object which should interest us as Irishmen and followers after side issues. That has been a very serious obstacle to the Irish securing for themselves their just rights in the past, and, if they fail to secure their just rights in the future it will be altogether due to that curse — for it is a curse — of division amongst the people. We should, therefore, let nothing divide the ranks of Irishmen, and, when I speak of Irishmen, I speak not of Irishmen of a particular faith or class. I think we should be all interested in the welfare of the country, and, while retaining our private views, which do not concern the public welfare of the country, we should all endeavour to work for what is the real interest of the country, and once we discover what is good for the country we should all join together and labour for it. Unfortunately it is very bard to keep up this union. There are many causes tending to destroy it. There is one cause at the present day, and it is a very serious cause. Perhaps it is hardly fair to speak about i', but I think it is well to warn the people of it. I believe that the newspapers, that tbe Frees of the country,

whether for their own interests or not, I believe they are keeping np this division among the people, and I think it should be discouraged. You find newspaper fighting against newspaper, and trying, wlen there is some chance of healing division, to flpen up wouDda again. You should make the gentlemen at the head of tht papers feel that we have an interest above all tneir petty wrangling?, that we have the interests of Ireland to struggle for, and that we will neither let their interests nor the interests of any other class, whether great or email, whether literate or illiterate, stand between us and the effort 3we are making for the welfare of the country. Keep wide of division. I have a reason for speaking about that on this very ground, thnt you havo had divisions amoug you, though not bo bad as in other places. I know that some of those who in the not very distant past laboured hard and effectually for the interests of the country were led aside by divi&ion and faction. Some of the energetic men in your own neighbourhood got on the wrong track, and once men get on the wrong track, there are various obstacles to their getting back again. There is pride, the reluctance a person naturally has if he finis he is wrong to acknowledge that he is wrong, and there is the mietaken judgment, and other causes. But still I think the people, if they looked into the matter as they onght, would be prepired to sink all theae differences. If they remembered the important, the all important interests which may be rained by their divisions and their petty dissensions, I am sure they would end them at once. I trust now that there seems to be a brighter future opening up for tha country, that the fate of the country, us it were, if I may be allowe t to use the word, will be helped on by the sons of the country, and you will not have your work to be done by Englishmen or Scotchmen, no matter how friendly they may be. You must help the old cause, and the best help you can give it is to move on as one man to work for 3 our country, and work united with all classes of the people. Co-operate with them as far as they show pood intentions and good will, and cooperate with every one who legitimately helps you in working out the welfare of our country. Jam sorry that I detained you so long laying stress on these topics. I referred to this matter, because it is a matter on which I feel very strongly, and when it does turn up, as it did in the wo r ds of your address, lam perhaps likely to say more on the subject than I ought to say. I felt strongly for two or three years'past that perhaps the only opportunity Ireland had for a century might be lost because of the cuised division amongst the people. I believe, gentlemen, that if the people stood together and kept one simple object in view, one end before tbern — that is the best interest of the country and the welfare of its people — it would be impcssible for any stateman or succession of s a'esmen to defeat the effort made for bettering the condition of Ireland. The Home Rule Bill may be thrown out by the House of Commons or th" H >use of Lords, and it may be thrown out again and again — not once but t\vic r \ or even three or four times — a/c, or half a doz".n times; but thco is one thing that is immortal, that they can never kill, and that is the aspiration of the people towards freedom and their (iefermuiation to obtain their just rights. No matter how things may go, you simply keep on quietly wi'hin the law, noting with prudence but with perseverance — labouring for the welfare of the country, but always confining your effor's to the limits allowed by the law of Ood, the law of morality, and within the law of the land, and you are sure to attain all that you are justly entitled to, Tbere is plenty of room, and to spare, to cirry on your struggle within the four cornjra of ihe constitution of the country. You have the electoral fr.incV.i9e, a weapon by which, if properly used, you miy be certain of securing for your country her rights and justice for the people, and all that yon can lawfully l»y claim to. WV do not want anything extravagant. We do not want to reilise any wild dreams. All we want is a rational share of liberty — to give us to some extont at least the working out of our own destinies. All that, I have no doub% we •hall have, if it be not ihe fault of the people themselves. I think I have now s'iid enough on that subject, I did not intend to rtfjr to these matters, but, having teard tha paragraph i r i jour address, I thought it might do some good in th" 1 intercs s of th > peop'e to direct their attention to the great interest at ttakr, and to in Ince them, for sake of these great mterestp, to forgt't fieir petty diss nstons and IB Isiong, and at the sarru t'me tj hivo ihe wisdom 1 ot to be led astray from th 3 high road into mere aide paths either by writers in the pablic Press or speakers on the public platform). I wou.d a-k the people to reason a little for themsjlves, to keep before them

above all things, as the principal object of their struggle, the welfare of the country. If this be done, there is not so much danger of that division among the people whicn would be sure to work the rnin of the country. Remember that your fathers and your grandfathers, that all thos) who have gone before yon, have never ceased straggling to bring the interests of the country to the position in which they are found at present. With you now, in the words of the old ballad, "It is only one stroke more." Just one stroke, arid one stroke more, and you are sure to succeed. Keep away dissensions and divisions. I think if I were speaking to you for a week I could not give you any better advice than whea I say to you— keep out of divisions, keep away these dissension? 1 , and, if anyone tries to keep up divisions, look upon him as the eaemy of the couu'ry. Keep clear of him, and, if you do, you will be sure to Bucceed.