The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT (iF THE AMERICAN PRESS.

FENIANISM.—TOO MUCH BLARNEy.
Mr. Banks's resolutions of sympathy with Ireland
were sustained by the Democrats as well as the
Republicans in Congress, so that they amount to
little in the way of cajoling the Fenians politically.
Sensible Irishmen cannot fail to see the motive and
despise the act. If this sort of gammon had no
other effect besides deluding such Irish voters as are
too stupid to distinguish blarney from honest talk,
it would be comparatively innocent and harmless.
But it encourages the Fenian leaders in their law-
less and dangerous schemes, and if there shall be
another attempt to invade Canada no small share
of the guilt will rest upon our politicians, who know
the criminality and fully of such an enterprise, and yet
encourage it for the sake of winning a few Irish votes.
The time must soon come when the Irish will see how
shamefully they have been played upon, and they will
never after trust those who so basely deceived them.
No doubt the Fenian rising in Ireland, so manifestly
hopeless and certain to bring sorrow and death to
those engaged in it, is in part to be accounted for
by the doggedness with which the Irish go into a
fight, reckless of consequences, when their blood is
up. But with the leaders it comes from a worse
motive. Men like Stephens and Roberts, who have
sense enough to lead, must know that Ireland can-
not be separated from England until the power of
the latter is totally demolished, and Great Britain
ceases to be a power among Governments. Eng-
land could better lose Canada, India, all her colo-
nial possessions, than allow the United Kingdom to
be dissevered. Why, then, the late rising, and the
terrible suffering of a few thousand Fenians among
the mountains and bogs of Killarney ? The leaders
must have known to absolute certainty that this
little spasm of rebellion would end in the death
of some of their deluded followers, and the cap-
ture and dispersion of the balance. Why do
they inflict these calamities upon the Irish people ?
There is no apparent motive but a mean and sordid
one. The Fenian treasury, which means their own
pockets, can only be replenished by keeping up the
excitement and making a show of doing something.
This was the secret of the false movement
upon Canada last year, and there is nothing
wore in the intimations of a repetition of it
this year. The same motive has prompted the
weak and hopeless attempt at revolution in
Ireland. It ought to be the last of the kind.
Irishmen should be able to see by this time what
Feuianism amounts to, and abandon it as an ex-
pensive delusion. In this country its demonstra-
tions upon Canada are in violation of the laws of
the United States, and an outrage upon its honour,
which no good citizen can assist in or countenance,
to say nothing of the expense and trouble to the Go-
vernment, growing out of the disturbance. The
obvious policy for Irishmen, at home or here, who
seek liberty and prosperity for Ireland, is to act
with John Bright and the English reformers in se-
curing enlarged suffrage, from which must soon
come the removal of the disabilities under which
Ireland labours. But so long as they allow them-
selves to be made the easy dupes of Yankee poli-
ticians who seek their votes, or Fenian leaders who
covet their money, they will accomplish nothing
for Ireland, and only waste money and effort, with-
out getting so much as glory out of it.—Spring-
field Republican.