Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 15 December 1910, Page 2064

Notes

Defeat of Tim Mealy The by no means unexpected defeat of Mr. T. M. Healy for North Louth has removed from British polities one of its best-known and most interesting figures, and from the Irish Party one of its most brilliant and effective speakers. Mr. Healy entered the House of Commons exactly thirty years ago, and he has been a member ever since. the very brilliance of his gifts, however, made him somewhat difficult to get on with, and he has ahvavs been more or less of an Ishmaelite in political affairs. For Mr. Healy personally and individually—for his wit, his adroitness in debate his caustic criticism, his independence, his splendid loyalty to his faith— would always be room in Irish politics; but Mr. Healy as the representative of a faction has undoubtedly been a source of weakness to the Nationalist demand. If the return of Mr. Hazleton for North Louth should serve to bring home to ill-balanced politicians—in the only way in which it can be brought home to them—a sense, of the wickedness and futility of faetionism, the. lesson, even at the sacrifice of a man like Tim Healy will not have been dearly bought. ' A Portuguese Priest's Story On . Wednesday, October 12, Father Espinouze, the Lazaiist who escaped from the house of his Congregation in Lisbon, gave the following description of his experi-ences-typical doubtless of the experience of many members of religious Orders-after the proclamation of the republic:—lt has been reported that the scenes of fury and anti-clerical hate, and in- particular the attack upon the convents, were provoked by shots fired at the mob by the religious, and that on entering the convents firearms in greater or smaller number were found. It is an infamous calumny ■ fc ( ,t to speak of anybody but ourselves, there was in the Lazanst residence of Arroios only one revolver with about sixty cartridges. That revolver and about half the cartridges 1 had brought with me from France a year ago. On entering the house, after killing the Superior £t T-i l,rag,es i the riterS must have found about thirty cartridges, but no weapons, for I carried away with me the revolver and the other cartridges. It has been asserted that the attack on the religious houses was made on the spur of the moment and by separate bands. It is not true J here was a general movement directed and planned beforehand by a number of leaders. throughout the city and at about the same hour, squads composed of soldiers, civilians, and women surrounded all the convents In every case the attack was made in the same way.' 'I left our residence at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon of Monday, October 3, to find a retreat for our Fathers and clerical students: the rioters began to gather befo-e d. J hey wished to prevent the escape of anyone, for they spread cut while still at a distance and approached sowly. It was about G o'clock when they had gathered close to the house and began-soldiers, civilians, and women —to fire at all the windows, while some wretches were cutting their way through the door. This done, they called for the Superiors, Fathers Barros-Gomes, the local Superior and leagues the visitor. As soon as they appeared, ami before they had spoken a word, both were shot. From Wednesday afternoon until Saturday, the assassins were on inl ™i * T r& l tim - S * Changed ™y l»cling-place, spending part of the time m a sewer; but Saturday evening a cowherd gave me a wretched suit of clothes, put a Repubican cockade in my buttonhole, and said good-bye to me at the door of his stable, which had been my last place of co ~ cealment. I went boldly through the city to the railway station, although more than once I thought that I had taken my last step. While on the way I law a crowd of men and women, the latter wearing liberty caps and carrying guns, in the act of driving some religious toward the Republican camp. There they were held as ; hostages. When

I was buying my ticket, I feared that someone who knew me might penetrate ray disguise, but the train started off and I felt reassured. At the frontier I breathed freely, tor I was in Spain. When the officers of the Custom House asked me about my baggage, I told them that all 1 had was on mo, and 1 was thankful that I had so much. What 1 shall never forget is the howling of that Lisbon mob as it went surging through the streets.'