History Repeated

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 16, 20 April 1905, Page 1

History Repeated

'Russian discontent,' >says ihe 'SIT. Pie\ie>*v,' Ms applauded in England. But Irish discontent is still as unpopular as ever there.'

This is one of the cases which has repeated it. self. Mainy British journalists, like, Russell Lowell's: f ilous editor, ' believe in Freedom's cause, e-z far away ez Paris is.' But they do not believe in it across the Irish Sea. In 1859 and 1860, lor instance, the Italian political kettle was boiling briskly. Cavour and his paid agents among the secret societies were encouraging the sfrijb>jects of Pius IX. and of Francis Joseph of Austria and of Ferdinand of Naples to rise in rebellion against their rulers. The London newspapers cracked their cheeks in blowing the embers of re\olution into flame. They -burned out reams of entreaty and of passionate infective upon the peasantry who were content to wear their * fetters ' uncomplainingly, or who were too cautious^ or too cowarSly, or too satisfied to seize ' knnes and hatchets,' brain their rulers or sljt their throats, and ' strike if they would be free.' The London

' Times ' published a leading article which gave the first serious impulse to the Fenian movement. It said in part :— 1 That Government should be for the good of the goveijneKl, and that whenever rulers wilfully and persistently postpone the good of their subjects, eitner to the interests of foreign States, or to abstract theories of religion or politics, the people have a fight to throw off the yoke ; are principles whicth have been too often admitted and acted upon to be any longer questioned. . . The) destiny of a nation ought to be determined, not by the opinions of other nations, but by the opinion of the nation itself. To decide whether they are well governed or not— or rather whether the degree of extortion, cor- , ruption, and cruelty to wnich they are subject is suffi-_ cient to justify armed resistance— is for those who live under that Government, not for those who, being exempt from its oppression, feel a sentimental or a theological interest in its continuance.' • The ' Daily News,' the ' Sun,' and other London papers supplied James Stephens with other deftly fashioned arguments. Lord John Russell— then Minister for Foreign Affairs— emphasised, in a speech at Aberdeen, the ri^ht of the subjects of Pius IX. to choose their own form of Government. A passage in the Queen's speech enforced the same political doctrine. And Lord ElleWborough fervently hoped that the subjects/ of the Pope would ' rise to vindicate their right to choose their own Government, and clutch the arms by which alone it can be secured.' All this led to a remarkable miovemeint in 'Irish political life. It was known as ' Talang England at her word.' A monster National Petition was 'dtvawn up, praying for the extension, to Ireland, of the principles enumerated in the speeches delivered by her Majesty at the opening of Parliament,, by her Foreign Secretary at Aberdeen, and by ' many other statesmen and persons of high position in England, and in the writings of the most influential English newspapers.' The ipetitkm wafe signea by qver hal£ a million adult Irishmen. It was duly presented to Q'uecn Victoria. But no reply was ever vouchsafed to it. It was tossed contemptuously aside. British statesmen and British journalists went on imploring the people of tne Paptel States, of Naples, and of No_ther|n Ttialy, to ' strike if they would be free.' All this was a ready-made gospel to the Fenian movement. ' EJvery Fenian organiser, 1 says Sullivan in his ' New IreJ-and,' ' had these quotations on his tongue. The fate of the National Petition was pointed to ; the contemptuous silence fof the Sovereign was called disdain for a people who would not clutch the arms whereby alone their right to choose their own Government could be securea.'