Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 47, 23 March 1894, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(Piom Contemporaries.)

Lieutenant Hughes, killed with Major Wilson's i!'-rated party in Matabeleland, belonging to tbe Queen's County, where hie father was a prominent Methodist minister for many years. His brother is an inspector of Irish National schools.

A labourer working on the mountain at Balliaagilly made an interesting discovery. While engaged raakins a dram about two feet from its surface, he found embedded in tke solid clay an earthenware veswl about eighteen inches high, peculiarly and elaboritely carved, or, rather, ornamented with fillets of raised work The jar or crock was filled with bones, but whether human or aniunl cannot be just now positively determined. At different times in recent years at least half-a-dozen of these crocks containing bones have been discovered in tbe same neighbourhood, lv every previous instance a copper knife was found deposited with the remains. The antiquity of the find may be judged from the fact that tbe solid clay in which the jar was found was overlaid by bog, which was cut within living memory .

The editor of the Cape Times of Capetown, South Africa, whose leading articles in reference to tbe troubles in Masbonaland have attracted much attention in England, is Frederick York St Leger, an Irishman and a scion of tbe noble house of Donerail, Mr St Leger before he adopted journalism as a profession, was a clergyman of the Church of England. He is agligbtly-built. medium-sized man in the fifties, with iron-grey hair, penetrating eyeß, and palid complexion. Mr St Leger, in the opinion of Miss Olive Scbrpiner, wbo differs widely from him on public questions, is one of the ablest journalists of the day. He is a constant occupant of the Press Gallery in the Legislative Assembly, and his notes in the House, wbich appear in the Cape Tii/ies during the Parliamentary sessions, are known to have a marked influence in the formation and direction public of opinion in South Africa.

J. W. Lloyd read a paper on " Where the best Irish is spoken," before the Gaelic League of Dublin. He said there was some difficulty in answering this question, as nearly everj Irish speaker thinks his own dialect the best, and aa none of tbe dialects were faultless as compared with the literary language, he would not Jo as others had done, who took the pronunciation as the standard ; he would take the idiom of the language as the standard. He agreed on the whole with those who held that tbe Connacht Irish was the best as, far as the pronunciation was concerned, but be thought that, p ;rhaps the Irish spoken in Kerry and West Cork was the bes% the idiom of Irish language found in it being almost uncorrupted. It contained many ancient forms of words, particularly those cf the p^st tenses of tbe irregular verbs. In this dialect only is it customary to use tbe synthetic form of the verb always. And the pirticle do, the sign of the past tense, is beard oftener in Muna^er tban in (Jjnnacit. He concluded by asking them to give more heed to th-j dialect idiom of the language in deciding this question.

At a meeting of the National Literary Society of Dublin on the lth ult., a paper by Mr G. W. Kolleston on " Carlyies Irish Journey " was read by Mr O'Leary Curtis. At tbe conclusw n of the reading the chairman invited a diecussion, to which sever il of those present contributed. Dr Bigerson said Mr Carlyle was hospitably received in Dublin. To all appearance he was pleased, and during the time that he appeared pleased aDd was interchanging compliments with the people whom he met, be was writing shabby libels in his diary, not only of the men whom he met, but also of the ladies in whose houses he was received. Wbea a man set up a* a critic over a people he bad a rigbt to examine his own credentials and see whether he was altogether above criticism. There was no excuse for a man like Carlyle, who waa an historian, coming to Ireland to write about her people, who did not know something of the condition of the people or their antecedent circumstance?. If be did not know their antecedent circumstances' be bad no right to pass judgment upon them, and they should not allow him because of his ignorance to get off for libelling a people stricken by misfortune at the time. There was nothing whatever in the circumstances of Ireland at the time of Carlyle's visit to justify his wrecbed libel. Carlyle should have applied his great ability to tbe careful and studious examination of the circumstances of tbe Ireland about which he wrote, and be (Dr Sigerson) thought they had a right to pass a most severe judgment upon him for not haviDg accomp nhed that task.

Mr Thomas William Rolleston, who is engaged on a work entitled " What Small Nations Have Done for Humanity," has already won a wide reputation as a critic, and as tbe author of a '! Life of Leasing," says the Literary World. In connection with Dr KrjorU, be has also translated Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass " into German. He is only thirty-six years of ago, having boen born in Shinrone, Kiog's (Jounty, in 1857. He received part of bis education at yt (Jolumba's College, Ilatbfarubatu, and aftorwardo went to Trinity Colleg* 1 . where

hie course was a highly successful one. He won the Vice- Chancellor's prize for English verse with a drama, " The Feast of Belsbazzar," and took the degree of B.A. in 1878. He lived for some years in Germany, subsequently making hie home in London. He edited the Dublin Uioivermlij Ilercw for some time, and turned his attention to various branches of literature. He has translated Epictetue, and edited selec. tions from Plato, poems by Ellen O'Leary (sister of Mr John O'Leary), and the prose writings of Thomas Davis. He is a member of the Rhymer's Club, and poems of hie are included in its " Book." In 1892, on the formation of the Irish Literary Society, London, be was appointed secretary, and threw himself into his work with much S9al and enthusiasm. His organising powers contributed, in a large measure, to tbe speedy succeiß of the society. In Sir Gavan Duffy's work for the expansion of Irish literature, Mr Bolleston hat been a constant helper. He delivpred th* Taylorian lecture at Oxford last year, and gave it to the public in August through the columns of the Contemporary Review, A couple of months ago he waß appointed secretary of Lady Aberdeen's Irish Industries' Afsociation, and now resides near Dublin. In addition to his book on the " Small Nations,' he contemplates a life and study of Wolfe Tone.

A series of papers signed "X " bare lately appeared in the London Fortnightly Review assailing Iri6h patriots at home and abroad, living and dead, with a vindictiveness that has oot been equalled since the late Richard Pigitt and the London Time* went into a literary but unprofitable partnership. The veteran Head Centre, James Stephen^ the late Colonel John O'Mahoney and other Fenian leaden are charged by this libeller with having grown rich on the contributions of their dupes in Ireland and America. As everybody in Bng» land and Ireland knows, or coul < easily fiad out, James Stephens was a poor man all through the Fenian days, and all the years afterwards, and is still a poor man in his honourable old age. John O'Mahoney, as unselfish a patriot as ever lived, died in absolute poverty in New York. The only Fenians who received anything they did not earn were those who enjoyed Her Majesty's hospitality in Millbank, Dartmoor, and other prisons and coavict settlements. "X " makes merry over the Fenian conspiracy, eayingr, '■ It sounds comic enough, but many hundreds of confiding men went to tbe scaffold or penal servitude before thejjoke was fully explained," the " ecplanation " being that Messrs Stephens, O'Mahoney, and other leaders had pocketed the funds. Michael Davit', whose share of the "joke" consisted in fourteen years' penal servitude, bears testimony to tbe chivalrous sacrifices and unspotted integrity of Joho O'Maboney. Of Stephens he says :— " Hiß worst enemies have never been able to fasten even a suspicion of mercenary motives upon a whole life's devotion to Irish liberty. I was one among many Fenian officers who dissented from portions of Mr Stephens' policy 'in the old days,' and I formed one of a council who held an investigation into the merits of his leader* ship in 1867, and I know from most reliable knowledge that he had not £10 ia his possession when he left New York for Paris previous to the abortive using of that year in Irelaad. His subsequent career, as is well and widely known, has been one of bard struggles with that misfortune which always appears to dog the footsteps of those wbo suffer and sacrifice most fir Ireland." Jtmes Stephens, wno knows as much as any man living; of the secrets of Fenianisra, repudiates the other falsehood of " X," that informers were many and prosperous in the daik days of '67 and thereabouts, He says : "Let me give you one fact which shows tbe sincerity and insorruptibiu yof the men of that day. From the 16th September until my arrest, and from tbe 24th November, the day of my escape at Richmond, until the 13th of March, when I escaped to America, I was in Dublin; I was attending meetings of "Centres "two and three times a week ; I wbb ia frequent communication with hundreds of men. Duriog all that time tho Government of the day were offering fabulous sums for news of my whereabouts, but not a man would betray me. When I was arrested it was by accident. And, to coDclude, I must state that when tbe extent of tbe Fenian movement is considered the number of informers was infinitesimal. There are men alive to-day holding secrets of tbe past who have held them botb in peril and in peace with the same fidelity, and will hold them to the grave." No Irishman who has ever loved bis country has escaped the mendacious attacks of " X " ; or if any man of prominence has been spared, the distinction ia not one to be coveted. The malicious zeal of tbe writer makes him overshoot the mark. A man who sneers indiscriminately at every pitriot from Grattan to O'Conuell, and from the Liberator to the latest Home Rule member, puts himself and bis employee alike outside tbe pale of respect. Tbe late Mr Pigott and the present Mr Froude have committed tbe same error. "X" is as honest a witness as either of them, which is Baying he is as honest as Titus Oates. Had Ireland always been as fortunate in her friends as she has been in her enemies, her history would have been that of a happy nation. Tbe misfortune is that Bhe has sometimes bad men like " X " among the ranks of her pretended advocate?.

Mr William O'Brieo, wi'h Mr J. C. FlynD, addressed a Urge meeting in aid of the Evicted Tenants' Fund in Bandon on Sunday, January '28. Mr O'Hrieu sail there could not be the slightest room for doubt with respect to tbe intention of the Government with regard tuthe evicted tenants. Their pledges wereclear and dibtinct,

and neither tbe Government nor tbe Irish party could suivive >h« violation of those pledges. Tbe pledges would have to be fulfilled as quickly and loyally as honest me i coold fulfil them. An interesting link with the days of Young Ireland has just passed away at Streatham a south-western Loodon suburb, in the person of Miss Davis, sister of Tbomaß Davis. For some time she bad been an honorary member of the Irish Literary Society, and it was thought till recently tbatehe had many years of active lifebefjre ber. Needless almost to say sho was full of vivid reminiscences of the Young Ireland movement, the early Nation days, and above all of her brother, whose teachings, she had the satisfaction of noting, had grown a more and more potent influence with the ri-iog generation. Some monhsago Mr William O'Brien contributed to tbe Irish Press a widely quoted article on " Tom Duffy, an Irish Scholar," who in the midst of the Connaught mountains devoted himself to scholarly pursuit?, being supported gratuitously by the surrounding peasantry, whose benefactions to him were given through a pure love of education. The wilds of Connaught will know Tom no more. He haa left them for a better world. He died on Wednesday last, January 31, at the venerable age of 100 years. The Gaelic Ltagae, which was founded about six months ago, for the preservation of the Irish language, has been a magnificent success in Dublin. Hundreds of ladies and gentlemen have already joined it, and the applicants for admission to its ranks coutinue to Bwtll from week to week. The classes, lectures, readings, and speeches in Irish at 4 College Green have already taken a front place in tbe intellectual attractions of Dublin. The workers are Irish speakers to tbe manner born ; and having thoroughly roused up and organised the capital, they made a descent on Galway on Thursday evening, Feb. 1, The Lord Bishop of tbe diocese presided, and fully a score of priests surrounded him on the platform. The parish priests and curates, the Jesuit Fathers, tbe priests of the Order of Preachers, the Augustinian Friars, the Christian Brothers, the professional and mercantile classer, were fully represented. The schoolboy and the bud. ding student, as well as their mothers and sisters, were there to hear tbe fr eh and invigorating gospel of th« Gaelic League, and the doctrine of tbe freshest apostles of the too long neglected nationality which has lately been so vigorously brought before the public by the founders and lupporters of tbe Gaelic League.