The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 10, 1868.

111 E AMERICAN MINISTER, CHARLES F.
ADAMS, ON THE STATE OF IRELAND.

A correspondent of the Times calls the attention
of Americans to the opinion given by their Minister
in London on the State of Ireland, with the view of
correcting the erroneous impressions so systema-
tically circulated by the American Press about Ire-
land. In August, 1865, Mr. ADAMS made a care-
ful tour, the particulars of which he embodied in
Despatch No. 1,054, dated London, Sept. 22, 1865.

Mr. ADAMS commences with a reference to the

archives of the Legation, where he found an elabo-
rate and valuable Report, based on a similar trip in
1851, made by his predecessor, Mr. ABBOTT LAW-
RENCE. The routes were not altogether the same,
as Mr. LAWRENCE went from Dublin to Galway,

returning to Athlone, and proceeded South, to

Limerick and Cork. Mr. ADAMS started from

Cork, reversing the above order in passing over the

same ground but not travelling west of Athlone.
in addition, he started from Dublin to Belfast, re-
turning by a circuit through Londonderry, Ennis-
killen, and Dundalk. The views of so eminent,

just, and sound a man as Mr. ADAMS cannot fail to

be both interesting 'and instructive to his country-
men, and we have to thank " A. B." for calling our
attention to it. While concurring in the justice of
Mr. LAWRENCE'S observations, as applied to the
precise region through which he passed, Mr. ADAMS
considers they scarcely give a correct idea of the

condition of the island as a whole. The Northern

portion, embracing the whole of the province of
Ulster, as far as he could perceive, was both quiet

and prosperous. This prosperity, owing to a dis-
tribution of industry between agriculture, manufac-
tures, and commerce, had been greatly increased owing
to the larger consumption of linens, occasioned by the
check given to the manufacture of cotton, through the
troubles in America. " I have not seen," says Mr.

ADAMS, " anywhere in England more indicatio.ns of
comfort, plenty, and general good condition than are
to be found through that portion of the Northern
province through which I passed. Neither did I ob-
serve in the more populous towns more instances of
poverty and destitution than are to be met with
anywhere in corresponding places in the three king-
doms, with the exception, perhaps, of North Wales.
The same observation may be made, but in a much
more qualified degree, of the Central and Eastern
region, including Dublin and its vicinity. Although
the prosperity is not so much marked, and the
poverty is more apparent, the aspect of the dwell-
ings, the cultivation of the lands, and the substan-
tial condition of the middle classes, all combine to
disprove the presence of suffering much beyond the
average in most nations of the Old World. The
wretchedness Mr. LAWRENCE describes, instead of
being universal, appears to be confined to one por-
tion of the island. This extends through the South
and West, and is most striking in Cork and Kerry,
Galway and Tipperary. I met with the clearest
evidence of it in passing through the track between
Bandon and Kenmare, especially at Bantry. The
impression which 1 gathered, however, is that, as
compared with the picture given by Mr. LAWRENCE,
I observed a slow but sensible improvement even
here. It may come, it is true, not from increase of
nambers, but is rather the consequence of the
steady diminution which has raised the rate of
wages. Mr. LAWRENCE mentions the price of a
common agricultural labourer during the harvest of
1851 as ranging from four to five shillings per
week. It was stated to me to be this season from
six to eight shillings. One reason of this may be
indeed that the crops this year are exceptionally
good. To us, in America, even this maximum,
which can often be earned in some portions of our
country by a single day's work, may seem painfully
small. We may wonder why such a difference,
when well known to the people, should not lead to
depopulation—at least so far as the able-bodied men
are concerned." This, Mr. ADAMS shows, arises
from the destitution itself. The wish is apparent,
but even the cheapest rate of transport is beyond
the reach of the mass and those who cross either
possess small means, or obtain assistance from the
more wealthy, or from relations settled in America.
" One effect of this form of emigration is to leave
in the midst of the community a great and festering
sore of discontent. Hearing the most exciting ac-
counts of the prospects held oat to them in America,
and powerless to cross the gulf that separates them
from it, the tendency is to repine at their fate, and to
lay the blame of it somewhere. Very naturally the
Government comes in as the great object. The
sense of oppression is aggravated by the distinction
of religious faith, which marks the Roman Catho-
lics as of the servile class almost as distinctly as the
negroes are marked by difference of colour with us.
Whatever their priests may have done in sowing
the seeds of this distemper in former times, I be-
lieve them free from all desire to disseminate it
now. Emigration in such numbers is not to their
taste ; the old impressions, however, deriving con-
stant support from American sympathy, retain their
full force. Hence a singular result which is making
itself perceptible more and more. This is the esta-
blishment of a secret organization having its affilia-
tions in both hemispheres—l refer to the Fenians.
Of its precise naturel have not taken much trouble to
inform myself ; but I know enough to say that its
basis is the popular hatred of the English rule, and
its object to prepare the means of seizing the first
favourable opportunity to throw it off. Of the
spread of this association throughout the Southern
and Western part of Ireland there can now be no
doubt. It organizes into clubs, the members of
which are engaged in drilling themselves at night,
just as if they were preparing for some violent out-
break. The attention of the Government has been
roused to these proceedings and some measures of
repression have been already resorted to. The
newspapers will have furnished to you the details.
I had occasion to observe that nearly all the larger
towns I visited were garrisoned more or less with
British troops, not to speak of the establishment of
the great camp at the Curragh. It is likewise cer-
tain that armed vessels have been stationed off the
Western coast to watch the possibility of assistance
from abroad. An association which has called forth
such energetic proceedings from a Government,
generally so sluggish in movement, must have
gathered numbers sufficient at least to give it a
semblance of political strength. For my own part,
whilst I have perceived the occasion for their un-
easiness, I have never anticipated any difficulty
that would prove serious. The disaffected class may
be large, but it is poor, unarmed, and generally
wanting in the elements of moral power. Any
resort to violence could end only in the slaughter of
thousands, without the possibility of attaining a single
object. The effect would be merely to play into the
hands of their opponents. A far more dangerous
policy would be to keep up and assiduously extend
the secret disaffection, which might perhaps be
done by the aid of American sympathy until the
procrastination of uneasiness should weary the Go-
vernment into Radical measures to remove a con-
stant danger by promoting the transportation of the
disaffected poor at the public expense. lam well
convinced that this measure, however attempted, is
the only one likely to remedy the evils that afflict
the South-Western portion of this unlucky island.
It would effect a permanent diminution in popula-
tion, now much too numerous for the means of sub-
sistence at their command, and yet prolific from the
very fact of its poverty. In their places might be
.substituted stocks of cattle that might be fattened
on lands that now meagrely respond to the industry
of man, just as has been done in the Highlands of
Scotland. The great landholders would thus be
enabled to enjoy the benefit of rents almost as
large as they do without the necessity of squeezing
them out of the vitals of the human race. The
steady extension of the liberal policy already inau-
gurated by the British Government, which might
tend gradually to wear away the remaining traces
of ancient wrongs,and give a homogeneous character
to the people now so much divided, could be relied
upon to do the rest. In such a contingency Ireland
might not be so powerful an integral part of the
empire as it now seems ; but, on the other hand, it
would prove to be a source of real weakness.
What might be lost in appearance would be
gained in fact ; Ireland might become what
Scotland already has been made—a thoroughly
loyal portion of the British dominions. It may
be long before the mode of relief here indicated

will be resorted to ; meanwhile the less effec-
tive and more dangerous process of voluntary emi,
gration to America of the able-bodied of the middle
classes will probably go on. The political effect of
this is not inconsiderable. lam inclined to attri-
bute it to the almost universal manifestation of ill-
will to the United States, in the late struggle which
took place, among the better classes in this island.
It is much more marked here than elsewhere. Little
as they value their population, they cannot disguise
the dislike they feel to the loss of them under an
influence which springs from a kindred nation under
different institutions. There can be no doubt that
to this cause must be traced the prevalence of the
same tendencies among the privileged classes in
general throughout Great Britain. But the feeling
was less strong in degree in proportion to the view
taken of the temper of the lower classes. In Eng-
land a few persons consider a serious insurrection
a possibility ; in Ireland few ever have it out of
their minds ; conscious of the existence of the evil
and hopeless of any system of remedy, instead of
thanking America for the relief which emigration
gives them, they are disposed to quarrel with her
because she creates in her people a desire to go."
It is clear that Mr. ADAMS considers the poverty of
the Irish to result from the disadvantages of the
soil, and not from English tyranny or misrule. His
remedy is a philanthropic application of the idea
which once suggested itself to some fiend in human
form—that the country should be submerged for an
hour ! Aware that the means of obtaining a de-
cent living do not exist in the island for the
present population—while their poverty ties them
to the soil—he would bring the Government to
the rescue, and bodily transport them to a
country able to support them. The suggestion
is well worth discussion, provided it could be ac-
complished in conjunction with the Government of
the country into which they were transported. At
present, as the emigration is almost confined to the
able-bodied, the bone and sinew of the family are
removed, and the weak and poor left in hopeless
destitution. Naturally those called upon to sup-
port such persons dislike the system in force ; and
the adoption of Mr. ADAMS' plan would to them be
a gain. The Government would benefit—the landed
proprietors would benefit—and the people, both
those removed and those who remained, would also
benefit. If the United States received this immi-
gration it would, we fear, be a loser; for instead of
getting the cream of the population, the weak, the
halt, and the intensely poor would be poured ou the
soil. Judging, however, from Mr. ADAMS' despatch,
America would raise no such selfish objection.
Two considerations might suggest themselves
to the British Government, independently of
the expense. The first is, the increase of
" the Irish power in America," which we have
discussed in our leading columns ; the other—
the opposition of the Roman Catholic priest-
hood. If the Irish in America would be satis-
fied by the expenditure of some millions of British
money in locating the Irish peasantry of the south-
west in such a State as Kansas—or lowa—
or Illinois, or wherever the United States should
dictate, and the people select, the plan might
prove the true solution of the Irish difficulty. But
would they ? We believe Fenianism to have been
founded on the rush of Irish emigration following
the famine ; and would it be wise for Great Britain
by another great rush to aid in building up the power
which expresses such undying enmity towards her?
Were such a move contemplated an outcry would
arise in Ireland against the perfidious English Go-
vernment that, after squeezing every means of ex-
istence out of the people, then proposed to cast
them from their homes on a foreign waste. Ever
suspicious of British intentions, and profoundly
ignorant, it is not impossible they would re-
fuse to go. The despatch has, however, a value
independent of the suggestion. Not only does Mr.
ADAMS imply that the poverty is attributable to
defects of soil and climate, but he limits it to the
South and West of the island ; and he bears testi-
mony " to the steady extension of the liberal policy
already inaugurated by the British Government."
His despatch ought to be read by all the members
of Parliament who will be called on to deal with
these momentous questions during the approaching
session.—Anglo-American Times.

nature ; if he has courage he has degenerated'
from the species. I must once more revert to
the Histarisch Politische Bliitter, which lately
treated the same theme in the following words :
" There are men enough in all grades of society
in Austria imbued with perfectly correct religi-
ous principles, but they fail, unfortunately, in
courage to proclaim them aloud and to act up
to them in public life. One example will suf-
fice. One of my friends, a man of honour from
head to foot, an excellent husband and father,
was in a political conversation, driven by me
into a corner by the reproach of having totally
sacrificed his Catholic convictions. He de-
fended himself stoutly from the accusation,
and, hastening to a fire-proof safe, he drew
forth triumphantly from its depths a sort of
memoir, in which wag laid down in the cor-
rectest expressions his confession of faith.
After having thus, as he thought, refuted and
disarmed me, his confession of faith was laid
up again under lock and key in the fire-proof
safe, where it rests undisturbed to this day,
while its author does not dare to come forward
and stand, by his convictions in public life.
Of this kind we may count men of honour
by the thousand." So far the Historisch
Politische Bliitter ; but even it allows that an
improvement is taking place among us. One
may now meet in Austria with many a genuine
Catholic, Austrians of another species, who have
advanced beyond the transition state of Joseph-
inism,—for this iron-safe Catholicism (of which
the above is a notable example), this Catho-
licism under lock and key—is nothing less ;
but Catholics, thank God, are now to be found
here, who have advanced in the right direc-
tion, and who have got firm footing on the
ground of genuine Catholic thought and action.
The more the anti-Catholic and anti-Christian
spirit unfolds and reveals itself under Jewish
and Masonic influences, the more will the
people who still preserve a faithful heart and
incorrupt manners be aroused to their own
defence ; already they are gathering around
the elite of their clergy, and around their (with-
out exception) most excellent bishops. The
nobility also are coming forward manfully.
However our despicable Government may put
down the enlistment of troops for the Papal
army, only the more will hearts be enlisted for
Rome, only the more will wandering sheep be
driven back to the shepherd by the howling of
thewolves.

Paris, Feb. 5, 1868.
I was much struck during my late visit to
England with the advantage taken by the pre,
sent Tory Government of the outrageous con-
duct of the American Fenians in London.
Had the Americans sent over a man who had
insulted every feeling of the Catholic religion,
like Garibaldi, he would have been received
with open arms, carried intriumph through
the streets of London, and considered a fit

guest to be received at the table of Protestant
noblemen. It was the extraordinary reception
given to Garibaldi that gave a new impulse
to Fenianism and rebellion. The Reform Bill,

which is nothing more than a further extension
of the rights of the people, gained strength by
th'at reception, which, on the part of the Pro-
testant nobility, was only intended to prevent
Garibaldi from falling into the hands of the
people, for fear lest he might show them that
if there are slaves in Italy there are also many
slaves in England. The people showed their
sense of liberty when they pulled down the
iron railings of Hyde Park. It was the same
feeling that sent gunpowder and money to
Garibaldi to blow up Rome. The public press
was almost unanimous in showing that the best
step towards reform was to destroy the Pope.
They could not see that by destroying religion
they were destroying the only moral power on
earth from which springs every liberty that
mankind enjoys. But in England the strangest
logic is taught. When you -visit friends or dine
in company, how often do you not hear the
phrase Roman Catholic put instead of the word
Catholic ? It looks as if two meanings are in-
tended—the one meaning a sect, Roman Catho-
lic, and the other the real and only one true
Catholic Church of Christ. But that is not
intended, because if you ask the question you
are told that they consider themselves a branch
of the true Church ; as if there can be two
Churches of Christ ? When God became man,
and dwelt on this earth, He did not quit it
without leaving a representative to be the guide
for future ages, and Peter was the first man
chosen, with unlimited powers, for to him was
given the keys of heaven. God could not
leave man without a guide ; if he had left no
guide all must have been confusion. Can a hive
of bees exist without a queen ? Can a nation
exist without an Emperor, a King, or a Presi-
dent ? Can an assembly or a public company
meet without a chairman ? A head is an abso-
lute necessity; without it, all is confusion.
Everybody knows the fable of the dragon with
many heads and one tail, and the dragon with
many tails and with one head. In religion
there cannot be manyheads without the greatest
confusion, and that is why there are so many
sects in England—all of them calling them-
selves religions: The natural inference, there-

fore, is that there must be one guide, and
that there cannot be two, otherwise there would
be confusion; in the same way there cannot be
two Churches, and therefore all we have to
seek is the guide. If the successor of Peter
does not reside at Rome, in what town or city
does he live ? If you cannot tell me the name
of the town, I conclude that he does reside at
Rome; in that case Roman Catholic or Catholic
means one and the same thing, as nobody can
be a Catholic without being a Roman Catholic,
as the word Roman can only imply the domicile
of the guide, the place where you can address
a letter to him or go and see him with your
own eyes. The guide is not an ideal, but a man
like ourselves, made of bone and flesh, with
eyes and mouth and a head upon his shoulders.
It follows that as the guide resides at Rome a
person who is not a Roman Catholic cannot be
a Catholic, because to be a Catholic you must
be able to give the address of the guide, other-
wise he would be unknown to you. It can miry
be by a quibble of logic that people can be brought
to believe that the delegate of Christ resides at
present in any other town or city than Rome.
That, however, must be taught in the uniTersi-
ties of England, as when you frequent English
society it is surprising to see the care they
take that the words Roman Catholic be not
applied to their so-called National Church. By
that name• they mean a patriotic Church ; and
they make use of patriotism to entangle reason
and to puzzle the mind, and to this end they
break through every rule of logic which is the
essence of prejudice. When a mind is preju-
diced it is capable of believing anything, how-
ever unreasonable; it can be brought to believe
that .a National Church is the Church of Christ,
although it is clear and evident- that the dele-
gate of Christ upon earth cannot be a native
of every empire, kingdom, or country in the
world. Therefore, if he is born an Italian
he cannot be born an Englishman ; that
is a miracle which has not yet been performed.
It follows that a National Church cannot be
Catholic, since it must recognize another than
a foreign power as its head, and as Christ
only delegated one head, and that head is to
England a foreign power, it follows that the
so-called National Church of England can be
neither Catholic or Roman Catholic. The
gentlemen of England who . give you such
splendid dinners believe, however, the con-
trary ; it is not easy to say by what process
of argumentation. It would be too bad to
discuss such knotty questions when you are
in presence of fine pheasants and every kind
of luxury ; but it is said that the prejudices
taught in their universities make them look
down upon the delegate of Christ at Rome
as the anti-Christ of the Bible. They, there-
fore, in sincere Protestant faith, believe that
all the troubles of this world spring from Rome,
and that is why they were such admirers of
Garibaldi. His speeches at Geneva, although
so anti-Christian, were not sufficient to prove
to the bigots of England that he was not still
a man having better ideas on religion than
the anti-Christ at Rome. In France the
Protestant paper, the Journal des Debats, found
fault with the Minister because he recalled to

the memory of Parliament Garibaldi's words,
and argued that it was very bad taste to con-
sider such words, and endeavoured to make
his readers understand that they had been
wrongly interpreted. But the barrel of gun-
powder has decided the controversy ; it has
deranged the happy quietude in which all
were living. The gentlemen and the nice
ladies of England have lost all faith in Gari-
baldi. They have now more respect for the
delegate of Christ on earth, and they must now
know that it was a very great mistake to make
the people believe that he was the anti-Christ.
They are even surprised that the Catholic
bishops of England and Ireland speak against
Fenianism. Such an order of thought, if it
had been carried out logically, would have
made everybody Catholic. Every gentleman
and lady saw the necessity of Conservatism,
and even the people became more Conservative.
Both gentlemen and people presented them-
selves to be sworn in as special constables to
preserve peace and order. During a few days
it was most consoling to notice the change that
had taken place. You no longer heard Garibaldi
praised even in the humble walks of. society ;
in those nice country seats so beautifully scat-_
tered all over England, which make it the gar-
den and fairy land of the world, and in the
splendid mansions of London, you could hear
and enjoy conversations which in a degree
harmonized with the Catholic conversations of
the chateaux of France. But such harmony
could not suit Protestant ears. The teachers
of prejudice saw the danger. They had re-
course to another plan to darken the dawn of
reason and of good faith, but, at the same
time, to make Fenianism the highway to Con-
servatism. They puzzled the minds of the
ladies with an amalgam of words which left
Fenian, Irish, Catholic upwardmost. By such
means, in conversation, it was almost difficult
to distinguish one from the other. Was every
Irishman and every Catholic a Fenian ? It
certainly looked very much like it, when you
came to consider the logical meaning of what
you had heard. It is only by similar entangle-
ment of words that the Protestant faith can
exist. This new order of reasoning once
adopted in society, the special constables were
put forward to keep up the excitement created
by the barrel of gunpowder ; the excitement
was necessary to make the people more Con-
servative. The daily press came forward every
morning with three or more columns headed
Fenianism, Scotland-yard lent out constables
and detectives in plain clothes to many railway
stations, hotels, public buildings, churches and
chapels, to guard them against being blown up.
The French clergy, at the French chapel, more
accustomed to similar manoeuvres in their own
country, sent for the police to protect them
against the specials, told them that they were
not worth blowing up, went to bed as usual,
and awoke the next morning not blown up, and
saved the expense of tea, and pipes, and pots
of beer in their house all night. The fright
was general, and at its height when I left
London. W hat has become of the crisis since,
I shall be glad to learn on my next visit to
England. -In what way it may affect the ad-
vance of honest logic, reason—say common
good sense--in religious matters, remains to
be seen.