The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1906. 'BRIBERY, FORCE AND FRAUD'

New Zealand Tablet, 11 October 1906, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1906. 'BRIBERY, FORCE AND FRAUD'

f-COORDIN'G to the latest mails, rumors and surmises are buzzing like swarming bees about , the .. Bryee-Macbonoiell ' message of , hope 'to Ireland. T. P. O'Connor (according to a recent cable-message j accepts the [ message at its face value, and declares" tnal I 1 only a " few hours separate Ireland -from j ; her glorious goal. On the -other hand, an ' article in: .the London 'Daily Chronicle' that has been £ extensively copied by the New Zealand press, enters with^ much detail' into what' it declares to be the Government measure— a measure which, -if the forecast is—accurate (and on this point _w.e are unable .to pronounce), would not be the fulfilment of the ' message •

of hope', but a mockery, , a -delusion,, .and a snare. The new Irish Council, as outlined by the 'Chronicle!, would (says an English contemporary) ''thoroughly deserve the title of a mock Parliament '. . The same paper- adds that, .if the.' Chronicle '- is correct (which it does not assume), ; ' Everything is to remain as it was. The Union will not be - affected ; the Irish representation at Westminster will not be interfered .with ; and the ' powers of the Imperial Parliament'^- will - remain just what they are* The only change, will-'.be the establishment of a meeting house in Dublin, r w,bere . gentlemen elected by the people may talk to their hearts' content. They will be permitted to discuss nearly all sorts of ' subjects, including education arid police;- and. 'to suggest legislation, but beyond that apparently .they are not to go. Nay, special care . will • -taken ::to bind them hand and foot, so that they . may exercise only their elocutionary faculties. We cannot think of the scheme otherwise thani as a' sublimely audacious piece -of fooling.' • , „ -, • :.,,...-> ■ The administration of - Viceroy. Lord \ Fitzwilliam stands as a pillar of salt in - v lrish history— a -warning example of the "dangers of - raising - the people's hopes to a pinnacle, and" then dashing jthem '., (j to '- tlie ground. A measure as outlined by ,the; ' 'Chronicle/ would exasperate, and not conciliate.' - And Mr : . <Red'monid has made it perfectly clear • feat "no-tirikeri'n'gi oir makeshift scheme will be acceptable to the Irish peoplethat nothing will satisfy the aspirations of the nation but a true - and proper Parliament, "with an Executive responsible to it, instead of- the /present forty-one departments of Dublin Castle, over which the country has no manner of control: ' " - ' ' ' 7- * - - . ' ~ ' x Ths heart of the country, has "ever been set hard ""against the Union. Wheni in ' 1799; efforts were jnade to the old Irish Protestant. Parliajnent _ :t6 : t6 commit political suicide; even the Orangemen -were 1 among 'the most strenuous opponents of 'the "Unibn-rtiii : ~ith:eir Grand Secretary, Beresford, took' "his stand, among - the venal crowd who" sold their votes, their -consciences, and their country! for gold. The Act" of Union' was carried, in the face "of the solid public opinion of- 'tlie country, 'by bribery, "force, and fraud \ ' The \ -*l 6 placemen in ' the House were openly terrorised into support of the measure. The opposition of ' rotten ' ] and 'pocket boroughs'- was brought "up Tat' a cost of £1,200,000." An 4 the country had to ".pay the price of its 1 ; for the cost of ' Castlere'agh's . Vast scheme of bribery and corruption was added to " .'the Irish; national - debt. There were- other baits ■ galore. British secret- service money was lavished L upon , i the Irish Bar and Parliament. - ' Over ; £1*000, 000,' ' says •Morrison Davidson, 'was spenf "in/; direct bribes. - A, single vote cost £8000 -down, or an appointment to^ari office u wor»th ,£2o'oo a .. year. if ready i money: was. " riot wanted. Twenty peerages, ten bishoprics^ one^ chiefjusticeship,- six puisne lifttgfcships,. many ; appointments, military,, naval',- and* civil, were showered on traitors or their relations*^- Vast sums were spent on corrupting the Bar— a body of great influence m tlie country. The Bar, however, proved- " less " venal than the Parliament. Lecky (a Unionist) ■ says of the open, • wholesale, and shameless bribery .which was the chief instrument in bringing about the legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland : ',It is a simple and unexaggerated statement of fact, that in' the entire history of representative government there is no - instance of corruption having been applied an. so large a scale and^ with such audacious effrontery ;'.- . , • „, :->- it ,is ineedfess,-. to ..dwell -here- upoji «.the disastrous economic results that have been wrought" in Ireland^by -this •'•ill-starred '" Uriibri: " ' Woe- to -the-s land von- -whose - judgment seat a stranger sits, 'at whose- gates' a stronger , watches '—and (Mitchel adds) ' whose :b6okV r a stranger 'keeps:' Grafctan voiced" the- "hope" and feeling of "the" unpurchasable and ■ incorruptible, nfenibers of , the old Parliament in the concluding .words of his great protest against the . Act of Union :—

' Yet I do not give up the country ; I see her in a swoon, but she is not dead. Though in her tomb she lies helpless and motionless, still there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on her cheeks a glow of beauty. " Thou art not conquered ; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson on thy lips and and on thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there ". This feeling has never died in the hearts of the Irish people at home nor in the heart of the greater Ireland abroad. And nothing will be accepted as a settlement of the old wrong but a restoration of the legislative power that was taken from them 'by bribery, force, and fraud '.