Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-01-23 00:00:00

.Jan.uary 23, 186,

and pointed to a brilliant future as easily within
his reach. CirCumstanc6, however, environed
his path with the thornS and briars of entangle-
ment, retarding his progress, and unhappily lie
has perished when fruition was almost withiii
Ins grasp. In Liverpool, where Captain Har-
rison was well known, and quite as widely
respected as he was known, his loss has caused
a deep melancholy among a large and attached
circle of friends, who with painful sympathy join
his widow and family in 'deploring an event
which has taken from the greater number a
valued friend; which has deprived his family of
an affectionate father and a kind husband.

ItEcEs—
r events ought to teach our Irish Roman
Catholic
friends one lesson, namely,.the foolish-
-17" of excessive praise or excessive blame of the
actors on •the stage of human affairs. If the
vriadom of the sage was summed up in the
dim that no man should be counted happy till
death, it is an instruction quite as applicable
741 more on the level of our sympathies, to pro-
ftunce no man wise or successful till he is well
through his undertaking. Were these Irish
enthusiasts not too impetuous to entertain so
hOmely: a piece of practical wisdom, they would
have been saved froin an exhibition of levity to-
Wards the Emperor of the French, disgraceful to
their understandings, if not to their hearts.
When, in one short month, these gentlemen find
themselves oscillating from the extreme of love
to-the extreme of hate. There is, perhaps, some
chance of their coming to the conclusion that
enmity to. England is not the best or the surest
evidenee of any man's virtue or good feeling to
themselves. After feelings of this sort had been in
so great a measure allayed, and as men thought
alinest forgotten, the Irish Ultramontane Bishops
have incurred the responsibility and the reproach
°ftre-invoking them from the past, without reap•
lug a result which, even in the minds of their
most submissive followers, can justify so much
loss of personal reputation, and even political
capital to work upon in future days. Roman
Catholics must be aware that•these manifestations
of ,frantic, violence, are the very way to prejudice
their position with.the Ministry and the Parlia-
"'lent, and postpone such of their claims as may
he just and reasonable to an indefinite future.
zPerieuce must have taught them that.the most
Yielding Ministry and the most " liberal" Parlia-
ment, have some difficulty in. resisting the pres-
sure of feeling out of doors rand common pru-
feuee ()light to deter them from supplying that
seeling- with the fuel of excitement. Any Orange
• ensitiveness which 'maybe provoked in Ireland
18
verY likely to reach England, and that much
to the prejudice of their 'political standiri,g.
N;r remedial hen Irishmen were really in a position to ask
dial measures, the enmity of which the
religious majority were the mark, without having
the power to repel it, challenged the sympathies
of parties in this country, rather than otherwise.
But now that the whole United. Kingdom enjoys
Political equality, so that if we were asked to
Point to the beau ideal of self-sufficient
arrogance in the Commons of England, we
should instinctively fall upon an Irish Roman
Catholic member. There is but little grace given
to their shortcomings. When they are no longer
backed with a special appeal either to our justice
or our sympathies, we are more disposed to
scrutinise their expressions,, and give them credit
or the intentions which hasty words seem to
naicate. Men who have no tender side to their
character which solicits forbearance,"and attracts
compassion, had need look well to their footing,
and not diverge much out of the way. An Irish
ecclesiastic pleading for political emancipation,
and pleading for the- temporal dominion of the
Pope, are two very different characters, and
invite a very different sort of criticism. That he
should use the same violence of demeanour, and
give the same direct ion to his personalities in both
eases, is enough to exasperate the object of his
spite, and to weaken our • appreciation of. the
power his religion has over him. It is far from
an edifying s'pectaele, when the ministers of
religion set the example. to the world of a com-
plete reversal of the sacred maxim, that " the
Wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of
Gor." And :we. are bound to say,' that the un-
seemly exhibitions on clerical platforms in Ire-,
land, during the past month or two, though pro-
ceeding from the strongest religious convictions,
have effected no result that was expected from
them,but have brought religion into contempt, and
presented the ecclesiastic to the statesman and
the man of the world, as a character not to' be
reasoned with, or advised with, but to be put
down forcibly or got rid of by cunning,—as ,an
obstructive, to be treated,. when possible, with
indifference and contempt, and at the best, never
to be anything but propitiated or cajoled. When
these. liish paroxyims are over, it is but little
Justification to say that a generous nation may be
allowed a little profuseness in words. The accu-
sations these men level, the passions they excite,
the incendiary delusions they scatter, and the
chronic unsettlement of mind they induce, are
not excused by their wantonness, but become
more wicked. They mark only the worst inten-
tions ;- and themselves • make the intentions with
Which they are indulged in, bad.
It would be too much to suspect Irishmen of
sufficient discretion to take the practical hint
'Which the recent fortunes of their agitation so

Plainly offer. Yet surely even they may be
impressed with the nothingness of result from_
their fanaticism and their bombast. Their
distant din has awakened no echo in the
Tuileries ; and if it did, would probably but
south the • sleep which we suppose sometimes
visits the restless brow of its imperial inhabitant.
1n addition to this, they can scarcely doubt but