The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-25 00:00:00

CHARLES GAVAN DUFFY IN AUSTRALIA,

There ara few public men, of eith3r ancient or modern
times, whose career has been mirked with such a degree of
singularity, chance and uphill work, as that of the late
proprietor of the Dublin Nation, and the founder and
leader of the Young Ireland party. Most of our readers

are aware of the difficulties and trials to which he was

subjected during the year of the Ballingarry riots, of the
relentless spite with which the Irish Government of Lord
_ _

Clarendon hunted him day and night, and how they failed

in all their efforts to eff ct his conviction as a rebel and a

traitor to his Queen and country

The aubsevent career

of Mr. Daffy finds him a senator in the Commons of Great
Britain and Ireland. His career in that august assembly

failed to effect any good for himself or the people whose
cause he advocated and espoused. All his schemes for the
amelioration of Ireland, particularly his tenant-right project,
he was unable t) carry. So, feeling his political impotence
at home, he betook himself to the auriferous regions of
Australia, with the view of becoming in that distant part of
the globe what he could never achieve in te mother country
—a great man. At the time of his departure for Australia
it was said that Mr. Duffy intended to devote his time and
talents to his profession as a barrister, but they who' knew
the firey political spirit which animated his besot; and
his innate love of drinking the dangerous cup of popularity,
predicted that he would not be long until he once more
entered the exciting arena of political life. Recent events
have clearly demonstrated that the prophecy was correct to
the letter. For some time past every arrival brought us
intelligence of Mr. Duffy's public movements, and of the
exertions which he and his friends were making
to secure his return as a member of the Legislative

Assembly of the Colony of Victoria. At one
time it was considered that he endangered his
prospects by an injudicious speech which he delivered to
the colonists, but this passed over, and his popularity as a
public man again rose. According to the provisions of the
new Constitution Bill, it is necessary for every member
elected to the Legislative Assembly of Victoria to possess a
parliamentary qualification, valued at .£2,000, in freehold
property. This Air. Duffy had not ; consequently, that por-
tion of the colonists who admired his political principles and
conduct, determined to remove the obstacle, by raising a
subscription to purchase the requisite property qualification.
Our advices, by the Lightning, inform us that the object
was effected, and that, on the 20th of August, there was a
grand demonstration in Melbourne, when the presentation
took place. From the statement of the chairman, John
O'Shanassy, Esq., M.L.C., the testimonial was the sponta
neous offering of a large section of the community, both in
Victoria, and throughout 66 districts of New South Wales,
and in Van Dieman's Land, which afforded an ample proof
of the estimation in which the character and past life of Mr.
Duffy had been held. After addresses from the colonies of
New South Wales and Victoria had been read, Mr. Duffy
was banded the title deeds of a residence and grounds. Mr.

Duffy then made a long and rather eloquent reply. After
briefly thanking the generous donors for their splendid and
substantial present, he remarked that great political liberty
was in store for the colony of Victoria, if they carried on
their legislature for its people, copying whatever was good
in the governments of other countries, and rejecting that
which was bad or deleterious. Alluding to the " Old
Country," he hoped they would not revive its parlia-
mentary system steeped in corruption, its government
ruled by one favoured class, and its bigotry, which teaches
men to hate their neighbours. As to America, they mi:h
imitate the energy and decision which exhibited themselves,
as much in the arts of locomotion and commercial enter-
prise as in the battle-field, and their love of simplicity, which
had given them codefial laws and cheap and effective govern-
ment, without adopting the servile fear of a majority, and
the indifference to spiritual aims, which seemed to him the
dry rot of their system. He could not see what any man,
high or low, wise or foolish, could gain, in the long run,
by setting Protestant against Catholic, and Catholic against
Protestant ; for, after a generation of bad blood and wasted
energies, the struggle would end, leaving every one
who outlived it in a worse position than if it had never
taken place. After justifying the pretensions of the
Roman Catholic party to a fair representation in the Colo-
nial legislation, he declared that since he had landed in the
colony he had constantly urged that it was their interest
and duty to fuse into a common Australian nationality. la o
men seemed better disposed to do so than the men of his
own race and creed ; but they were not members of the
Peace Society, and if they were misrepresented. or assailed
without cause, they would naturally stand or. the defensive.
If they were threatened with political extinction, they were
entitled and bound to answer, and all fair men, of whatever
creed, would applaud them for answering. To make helots of
them was what they could not do, and should not do. The
country belonged to the Catholic as well as the Protestant ;
and, to the extent of their political fitness, they had as good
a right to political power and authority as any Protestant.
It had been insinuated that Catholics ought to be deprived
of political power, because political power and religious
liberty were denied in Catholic countries. That was intel-
ligible ground to take, but it meant repealing the Emanci-
pation Act, and, for his part, he would rather sell his children
as slaves than allow them to live is a country where arch a
doctrine prevailed. But is it denied in Catholic countries,
asked Mr. Deffy a It is as true as that witches ride on
broomsticks, that one Englishman can beat five Frenchmen,
or any hundred other fables of ignorance or prejudice.
Pitt and Fox, Plunkett and Peel, answered it long ago. I
have a tolerable familiarity with the present state of
Europe, and I maintain that since the answers of these
statesmen Catholic countries have continued to set the
noblest example of religious liberty. Take Belgium, for
example, the best governed country on the continent ; there
are more Protestants in Collingwood than in the entire
kingdom, yet that Catholic people, five and twenty years
ago, selected a Protestant as their King, and endowed the
clergy of the Protestant Church in the same manner as
their own. (Hear, hear.) Take Hungary, it is a Catholic
country, yet the Hungarians placed Kossuth, a Protestant,
in the highest office of State, and he declares the Catholic
bishops were his warmest supporters. Take France, a
quarter of a century ago the French set an example of
religious equality to the world. Take Poland : that Catholic
country was the first to emancipate the Jews, an example
which England has not followed to this very hour. There
are Catholic countries which refuse civil and religious
liberty; but why ? Because they are governed by the old
despotic system which prevailed at some time or other in
every State in Europe. Is the fact of their being Catholics
to account for it ? America is Protestant, and she deals in
negro slaves; but is her Protestantism to be held answerable
for that ? She has twice decimated and plundered the
Mormons for their religious opinions. Does it follow that
toleration is not permitted in Protestant countries ? There
are Catholic countries undoubtedly which refuse civil and
religious liberty, but are there not Protestant countries which
refuse them also ? A Catholic is as ill-treated in Sweden
as a Protestant is in Naples ; in Prussia a Catholic is made
as uncomfortable as a Protestant is in Austria. The Swiss
Protestants have shown themselves as great tyrants as the
Spanish Catholics. Even in this new world we have the
spirit, mitigated by the nineteenth century. The Church
of England established a settlement at Canterbury in
New Zealand, and one of the fundamental rules forbad
any person to attain political office who did not take
the sacrament of that church. The Church of Scotland
established a settlement at Otago, in New Zealand, and
by its local laws no school is permitted to share the
public grant for education which does not teach the cate-
chism of the church. Look at the example England her-
self has sent down to this generation. Thirty years ago no
Protestant Dissenter could sit in Parliament ; it is but two
years since he was admitted to the Universities (I had
myself the pleasure of voting for the measure) ; he has still
to pay church-rates for the support of the establishment ;
and it is not a very long time since carting Quakers, and
burning the houses of Unitarians have ceased to be a popular
pastime. These facts might teach us that there has been
bigotry and cruelty wherever uncontrolled power existed,
no matter to what. creed it belonged. I decline to answer
for the House of Bourbon or the House of Hapsburg; but
I answer for the Catholics of Ireland, and I affirm they
never denied civil and religious liberty. (Cheers.) When
you talk to an Irish Catholic of his creed being the symbol
of persecution, and Protestantism the symbol of liberty, he
may well think you mad. He, or his ancestor's, never per-
secuted any one for religion's sake. (Cheers). In the
reign of Queen Mary, English Protestants fled to Dublin,
and were sheltered in that Catholic city. (Cheers.) In the
reign of Queen Victoria, a large number of Catholic con-
stituencies elect Protestants as their chosen representatives.
But every generation for' three hundred years, Irish
Catholics have been robbed and oppressed, because they
were Catholics ; down to this hour when they are compelled
to support the richest church in the world, for a handful of
the population. It is realising the fable of the wolf and
the lamb, to raise a cry of intolerance against them who
have not inflicted, but endured the pains of ascendancy.

MARRIAGE.
On the 2nd inst., at the Chapel of the Betish Embassy, Alex-
andria, by the Rev. George Hanley, John Clarke Nelson, Esq.,
eldest son of the late R chard W. Nelson. Esq„ of Dublin, to
Cecilia Emily, third daughter of Robert Bentley Lindsay, Esq., of
Alexandria.

p. 7. Births, Marriages, and Deaths, are only inscrted:when sent
to our Office duly authenticated.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE MARKET.-N,w 24
Per stone, 201bs. Per gOtbs. a• 'I. ad•
s. d. s. d. Potatoes, Seedlings 00to 0 0
Hay, 01d...... 0 8 to 0 9 Ditto, Kemps .... 3 3 to 3 6
Ditto, new.. 0 6 to 0 8 Ditto, Whirerocks.. 2 8 to 2 9
Ditto, clover 0 6 to 0 7 Ditto, BalshaWs .. 2 8 to 2 9
Green Clover
Vetches 0 0 to 0 0 Ditto, cattle ...... 0 0 to 0 0
Straw, wheat 0 3 to 03} Per ton.
Ditto, oat 03to 0 3i., Turnips,,,,,, lB otol9 0
Ditto, barley .... 0 2I to 02i Carrots 0 0 to U o
Oats, In straw , 00to 0 U Mangle wurzet ooto 0 0
rilanure F, 0 to 7 0

PATENT LAW REFORM —A. meeting was held at the
Town-hall, Manchester, on Friday evening, to memorialise
the Lord Chancellor to appoint paid scientific commissioners
instead of the present law officers. The chair was taken by
Mr. W. Fairbairn, C.E., and a memorial and resolutions in
favour of the object for which the meeting was called were
adopted,