The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT 611"

.d :4IIRIALo.

The Times says the state of Ireland is disquieting. 'tile
election of O'Donovan ROSSO. for Tipperary is an evil
omen for peace. The election of a felon is, indeed, abso-
lutely void; the votes given to him are thrown away, and
Mr. Heron will probably be placed in his seat by the
election judges, But the fact that through favour or
terror a Fenian convict has received the votes of the
majority of those who ventured to the poll in Tipperary
cannot be extenuated. Bad in itself, it oppresses ne
more hccause it is a disappointment of hope. Some-
thing has been done ; more is about to be done ; yet
no fruit of the policy of justico England has entered
upon and solemnly promised to pursue is appearing'
There were two great grievances giving occasion to the
complaints of Ireland—the Church and the Land. The
first has been redressed. The men who accomplished this
feat have promised to redress the other grievance, and are
now studying the means of removing it. Yet there is no
abatement of disaffection. It may even be feared that
there has been an increase of it. What is to be done
Two things. Justice must be offered to Ireland with
unfaltering hands. Crime and encourageMent of crime
must be remorselessly repressed. Ireland wants men
to rule over her. There is a time when a man feels
it incumbent upon him to gird up his loins and be
strong ; a time for rising above devices for appeasing oppo-
sition and bribing uncertain friends ; a time for few words,
for plain, prompt, and decisive action. The Ministry, in
the face of Ireland is now at such a juncture. It is simple
truth to say that the state of the island is at this mono
more critical than it has been for thirty years past. We
must go back to the Tithe War before we meet with a
parallel to the threatening symptoms everywhere observ-
able. Nothing would be easier than to drift into an
agrarian guerrilla outbreak, The result of such a catas-
trophe would be swift and certain, but there is no loyal
subject of the Queen who would not be put to sham
°
if the unity of her kingdom had to be maintained hl
domestic war. Two things are necessary to secure n°
against this mischance. The Ministry must be prepared
with a Land Bill framed with a single eye to justice and
statesmanship, and, simultaneously with this project of
legislation, Authority must assert itself. It must not be
permitted that treason should flaunt itself in the daylight,
and the praises of murder be sung in the very presence of
the guardians of the peace. The declaration must go forth
that Ireland shall not sink to the level of Greece and the
ancient kingdom of the Two Sicilies ; and, to make the
declaration a truth, such preparations must be made, at
whatever injury to next year's Budget, that there shall be
no possible temptation to resistance.
The Standard thinks that the Tipperary election is the,
climax of the Irish agitation—the full development 01
those Irish ideas by which the Liberals are pledged t 0
govern Ireland—the closing sentence of the Irish rePIY t°
Mr. Gladstone's message of peace. This is the effect of e
policy of conciliation ; this the result of twelve months'
rule by a Government which came into power on the
strength of its professions of ability to restore peace and
loyalty to that distracted country. Mr. Gladstone may
well be hurt and mortified. The electors of the county of
Tipperary have elected Mr. O'Donovan Rossa, a traitor, at
this moment undergoing his punishment for participation
in the crime of levying war against the Queen, obviously
and confessedly for the sole purpose of defying andinsulting her Majesty and her Majesty's Goverrner""
Tho insult is decidedly made as gross and flagrant °
possible. O'Donovan Rossa has no peculiar claims on th 7
adieisation or gratitude even of the Fenians. lie !
selected not for his exploits while at liberty, but for his
peculiarly brutal and ruffianly conduct while in Prison.
In all probability it is not that his friends think thus te
procure his release ; it is not that they think to obtain
any political object by choosing the worst of those traitor°
whom even Mr. Gladstone dared not release as a member
of Parliament ; their only object is to insult the House ,
Commons, to bid defiance to the royal authority, and t°
repudiate in the most practical and most offensive '"
all respect or gratitude for Mr. Gladstone's past concession.°
and all confidence in his future policy. This is thelf
message to him, O'Donovan Rossa, M.P.—a inesseg°
returning defiance for conciliation and insult for prof er
sions of sympathy.
The Post declares that the position in which the elec-
tors of Tipperary have placed Mr. O'Donovan Rossa, bY
electing him at the head of the poll, shows that in
dam'
part of Ireland, at all events, there is a spirit of
di"
content which will not be laid by any legislation
which is within possible enactment by a British
Parliament, nor by any treatment which is vow'
cilcable with the duties of the Executive Governissell.
Tho support given to Mr. O'Donovan Rossa is, of course'
only the opening of a campaign, and is probabll
il
intended only as a demonstration of policy and as te
assertion and establishment of a position. Those Whc:
have directed the movement cannot but be aware 0"
Mr. O'Donovan Rossa cannot sit in Parliament, and that
the votes given for him are practically and electorallf
thrown away. His return is invalid, and its accomPlisr
went can have only the effect of a challenge. It Puts' ;
fact, tho county of Tipperary in the position
having thrown down a gage of battle, and of havirl
flung defiance in the teeth of law, of order, it
of the Crown. The Fenians who have t3l"e°
this step are manifestly on the way to offence, and if thecifi
should permit the spirit which has hitherto governe4
them to direct their future policy it may be expected the
it will not be long before they set their foot on a Pa.,t
which will bring them into collision with the Governule
'.
and with law. For that her Majesty's Ministers ..
Will 13
doubt be prepared, and they will not be unmindful of
Oa
fact that at no time is it so necessary to enforce order o_l
maintain peace as when the Crown" and the Parliarneet
are occupied with the consideration and remov'l °
grievances.

The Daily News refers to Lord Shaftesbury's letter °ll
the subject of the Dorsetshire labourers, and says that
bc:
gives information of what he, as a most exceptional 1314,1-
lord, does to eke out their wages. He lets them liT to
well-built cottages for less rent than they would have;
pay for very ill-built ones ; and gives them, as WO gat-eei
from his letter, an allotment worth two shillings a Vt-lco.
But Lord Shaftesbury can hardly represent this P-
wages. The commissioner was surely right in taking
every case what the men earned from their niastergh-.'
what they got in return for their labour ; 11°.t
the exceptional charity of a philanthropic landlo rd beste'llers
upon them. The object is to learn what wages the farni::t°
pay their labourers, and even on Lord Shaftesbury's eo7.h
the sum is, by his own shewing, 12s. 3d. a week, at
best.them His lordship, as a philanthropist, houses a,";
nominal rate, and gives them a bit of land—in fact 0';
them a present of some 2s. 3d. a week. The labourer their
if
his estate
are therefore just so much better off than 5
neighbours; but they are better off, not because thel re
much better paid, for the market rate of rages will rule
everywhere, but because the soil on which they 11,-,ratO
belongs to a philanthropic nobleman, and he supPlera.„--
their wages by a most honourable charitY• his
indeed, only by his liberal treatment of the poor on
estate that Lord Shaftesbury's name comes into this "1
con-
cussionin
at all. The only point at which ho comes deft'
tact with it is in an endeavour to supplementer
ciencies of our system of agricultural employmt -;
t f
usual liberality as a landlord. Nor is there the 100 of
that in the course of any investigations into the Poeiti°l: 10
the agricultural labourer, Lord Shaftesbury will Or:out
any other capacity than that of a philanthropic Ob'e- of
who is doing all that is possible to lighten the pressar-
a bad system to those who are compelled to bear it. m 34
The Telegraph, in paying tribute to the learning ;IA
judgment of the late Mr. Justice Hayes, remarks thf:or
was the reverse of a dry lawyer; his wit was asU„
g
he
peachable as his learning, and, when Serjeant 1-W-d;ecif
was one of the wittiest men at the Bar. Perhaps, 11/ f tuo
he was the best remaining specimen of that lawier
old school who, though amply equipped with legal knob,l ;$
ledge, lived in an atmosphere of fun and jokes. 1-1°: f all
that the law, which might seem the driest and graTes; °es of
professions, has produced so many witty men? Pneil
jest-books might be compiled out of the jokes lev:1
the Bench itself in the frequent moments V 4
a 9
al'
unbent its awful majesty. As for the Bar, it Da° at
times been so facetious that it might seem to haven,°;,,-
else to do than to be witty or grotesque , and at th '-`713t0
table, the jocularity of the law is so. profuse a° .6, Ilea
appalling. In the old days of Scottish convivialitif 09
Edinburgh was as famed for its brilliant talk as
sicgileo
toddy and its claret, the judges of the Scottish b
were the best diners-out North of the TWO', a lit
Robertson—better known as "Pat Robertson„ P5l- in a
and humour enough to keep a whole CO'llatg, other
roar of laughter from one year's end to a-°cliiv
One morning " Pat " amazed and horrifica,.:ilt°l
burgh by publishing a volume of sou"--:fter
poetry, full of halting rhymes; and so°ll -table
wards, when he asked Lockhart at the clifillern'
gerri°, 0
to extemporise an epitaph upon him, the -aihslac
--as Lockhart was called in the famous `- tlie
Manuscript "—referred to the poetical offence

epigram—
Here lies the peerless paper lord, Lord Peter,
Who broke the laws of God and man and ractre.
0-
5
Lord Peter's wit has at least been equalled by
-
Judges, such as Mr. Justice Maule, whose fauloils Itatiotk
to Sir Cresswell Cres3well, if too irreverent for
011°010001:1-
in print, will not be readily forotten. Baron -11:41°
was a wit, so is Lord Westbury; and Mr. Justis/O
ce
was not the least witty member of a witty profes.%
he Ar
We are informed that Prince Orloff 110
4°''9. -t `t
pointed to fill the vacant p_os.jofß us@lan 16.101-13-
Inurt of Vienna.-. 31.0.