More ' Outrages'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 12, 21 March 1907, Page 10

More ' Outrages '

When' history, has repeated itself in given circumstances fifty times, it is tolerably". safe to predict that in similar circumstances it will, repeat itself once more. One 'does not need to Ye a 'prophet or the : son of a pro l -phet to foretell thus much. >Hence we took few risks when, a few months age, we ~t hat the approaching campaign for Home Rule to .Ireland would 7 be met by a bountiful crop " of the usual mostly bogus '.agrarian outrages'. It. is 'generally ho easy matter to make the most v mqraj., and least criminal .part of the .British. Isles yield a sufficient record of ' outrage ' for the purposes of an anti-Irish* political ; campaign 1 1.1^ 1 f When (as in the early " eighties) a Cabinet- desires' a Catalogue .for a fresh ."Goer- . cion Act,, it is reduced 'to -making '..outrages' pui of thewhistling of .' Harvey i)ufi,,' : by a smaU boyr-or-out - of an adult's 'smiling in a threatening manner' i at a 4 peeler ', or • ' blowing his nose in a disrespectful 'manner rln the presence of another; sensitiyie .'"minister iv the" force . Or a_ Sergeant . Sheridan and-^his . uniformed ., ' pals ' may. obligingly, perpetrate^a, convenient - number of \ genuine outrages. in their 'district, -and then ," discover ' them with rare" acumen, and.\s wear a number of innocent men into long-terms of imprisonment. . This, however;., is neither a very ; safe,-nqr,Dopular. method of swelling tfce . statistics of Irish ' agrarian outrages .'. since the. sensational -exposures of 1902. "In: factj- the- whole^principle of 'faking' ' outrages,?" for political purposes" has fallen into considerable disrepute since tnen. It .is .now,- abandoned to the rag.-tag-and-bobtail'of , the Irish 'yellow' press and party, " and to a few oi their echoes on the other sid» of the water. _ . : .U They, however, are • venomously inventive— as we predicted" they would be." And if we were to credit their fairy-tales of a far-off land, Ireland is just now spotted over with a rash of ' agrarian, outrage '. The stories of the ' outrages " are in- nearly all cases generous generalities. They occur on a big scale, at no address, and their perpetrators have no local habitation or a name. For all thek Argus eyes, the police are in "a state of baptismal innocence as to knowledge of this ' newspaper " • outbreak '. So are the coroners, ,the justices, the judges and juries. And -.still like snowfiakes fall;; over numerous, counties the ; awhile- gloves, that intimate the - absence of criminal business assize after assize. The-"-great and sudden -moral slump is visible only to [the yellow eyes of the^initiated. Mif. Bryce (the late Chief. Secretary for, Ireland) pciked the ribs of the outraged mongers with .gentle raillery at the farewell dinner which was. given- to him a' few weeks ago at the Manchester Reform Club; : We quotef a part of his discourse from the ' Weekly ' Freeina'n. ' of' 3 February 2:— %i 'If they were to believe ail that was seen 'in the ! •newspapers,- or in some newspapers'; they, wpiild thimk ' Ireland was in 1 a" state of suppressed" insurrection, that the' law was-* i^ot* enforced -there; arid* thaVthe whole c country was given" up*t6" ribband 'violence. 'He was sorry to say there were so'in'e 1 ' people^ In' Ifelano", ably seconded --by ! sonJe'-peopteYinHhe. f Erigtfs&" 'press aiso, who ettdfcav'ored-' to '.represenf'-ihe. "very worst about btiher people* in> Ireland 5 ,"' '-'and '•who 1 ,' v whenever any 'little unf 6r- - tunate inqident occurred, endeavored ,Iko magnify it! A curious incident the way in' which news from Ireland was given to' the people of; England, He alluded to a long letter of- one and a half in the London _ Tunes'' a few days ago dilating upon a newspaper report of something that had happened at an e\*ctio n . lire right hon. gentleman quoted the original allegations, and the authentic facts as supplied to him at the Castle, adding that it was "the ljatest occasion* on vtt&ch

incidents in Ireland could be exaggerated when' they were seen, through partisan spectacles,- aud~ through- the imagination of a newspaper reporter. He asked his audience, when, in future, they read news cf that kind, pot to believe half, or a quarter, or," periiaps even five per cent.,, vJlthout some further investigation.' ' , ,

Fiae per cent ? Well, many of them (as -our columns have from time to time shown) are like the r tales 1 pi old jLafeuls traveller, who lies three-thirds '— and s * s^ald^ be once heard and thrice' beaten . Jl'hey are^Jjie, fcri- ' bute that falsehood and. injustice. pay v to' reason?.- an4.\ , right all the woxJd ove~, from Paris to Timbuctoo. ' The lion ', says Newman, "nfends. his prey and gives; no--reason, but man cannot persecute . .without assigning ..to. ' himself a reason for his' act. His^ .very, moral constitution forbids contentment with mere brute force.' Hence, •when in France a 'machine 3 sets, about the destruc-^ tion of religion, pr in Ireland seeks the perpetuation of an ancient wrong, reasons, must b'e 'found, which --will fur--nish an . apparent , justification for their, respective - cam-., paigns. And - (as : Mr. Dooley ' .remarks somewhere).-; they must be - ' good, varchous ■< raisons '-, - tool 'Afhd; : ' where Cthe 'good, varchous : 'i : aiisons ' fail, they 'die speed- "^ ! ily found by the" ready resort' ; pf. misstatement and de-v famation. il.i 1 . Against the Papacy '„ said Luther, t 'l esteem : all thing's lawful '. 'Against religion*?'; 7 says theßadi- ~ i! cal-Socialist '. Bloc., 'we esteem 1 all --'things. iawfUf'^ .. : Against- Ireland's right' to manage- her own Jnterifal . affairs V says the .' yellow." ' Bloc ' 'in the Western tiie,' ■ 'we esteem all things iawful *".'• And as the truth does -, not ,7 .happen to suit, '-vive le mensonge ! '— hey, for a . bold, thumping lie ! Like- the brazen termagant' imSheri^ dan's, play,, the ;fact,ion 'that Tammanies Jreland^' has. a -»

■ free tongue and .a bold . invention, ', ..But, „_ like her,.. ! they overdid it. The inscription . on -.the "gates of ■ -Busy- ' 1 rane ran thus : — On the first gate : ' Be bold '; on the ' second gate : 'Be bold," be bold, be" evermore bold ' ; on. the third gate: *Be not too bold'-. The ,y ellow.w '. Irish Tammany has been too bold. It has overdone- the ' outrage ' ruse. And now it cries .- ' Outrage ' . to . a wilderness of contemptuous incredulity. Even the cable- . demjon fails to. echo their Cry. ~ _ - '. '