The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1854-07-03

suIt eiscioses Itself; you have to admit that the
~ H. oody OF this rich English nation has sunk,
ias, sinking, into state to which, all sides Of
nssonsidered there was literally never apy parsl
ls. Al stockport Assizes, mother and father
are erraigHed and found guilty of poisoning three
10. 'nslf nf own cndren to defraud burai socie.
Oh some 33 So. d. due on the death of each
cnid; they are arraigned. found guilty and the Of
heiai authorities, it Is whispered hint that merriam.
lne case Is not solitary that perhaps you had better
poos ; .urtner INTO that department of things
emerged into view; under which lies whole NOM.
taln region and land, not yet emerged human
mother and father had said to themselves ,xhat
snail we DO to escape starvation We are deep
sunk mere In our dark cellar; and help is far-ves
In the Ugolino hunger-tower stern things hammer -
The Stockport mother and father think and hin,
Our poor little starveling Tom who cries aIl dar
70! vctuais VINO viii see only evil and not good in
THIS world II he were out of misery at once he well
Dead and the rest OF u.s. perhaps kept aliye9 7, ia
thought, and limited: at last it is done And nory
Tom being killed and all spent and eaten ia II moor
hule starveling Jack that must go, poor little
starveiing Willa-What committee of ways and
means
SIN starved. sieged cities; in the uttermost doomed
ruin of old Jerusalem. fallen under the wrath OF
God, it was prophesied and said, The hands of
the pitiful women have sodden their own children
The stern Hebrew imasination could conceive no
b.seker gulf of wretchedness; that the ultima
tum of degraded, God-punished man. And we
here in modern England, exuberant with supply
Vi all kiLUS, Deetigru ny IL IL O0 not DY
invisible enchant1nent are we reaching that2'
Reaching that Yes, indeed; for long since this
Dantesque picture was drawn, the trade of straug-
ling children for sake of the burial fees became SO
common that grand Juries presented the benevolent
burial societies themselves a nuisance, and re-
commended their abolition by law, lest Englishmen,
descendents of the yeomen of Azincour, should
turn into generation of ghonls.
Take this one fact, because it is the most start.
ling and hideous fact; and take England because il
ia the riche1t irduo
goriously civilized as it believes amongst all ma
tions. And now, is this the progress are to ex.
ult over and gloriiy ourselves uponl What have
the printing.press, and the electric telegraph and
the prosperous commerce done for those twelve
hundred thousand workers, who sit sullen in the
work houses of England with their hands lying idle
in their bosoms Say, have not those grand en-.
gnes of what you call Civilization and the state of
society they have created,-have not those yery
things lamed the cunning right hand of those twelve
hundred thousand What, but this very progress
has made ghouls of British fathers and mothersg
III were to cross the channel and picture to your
imagination an isiand-charnel, and green, beautiful
place of sculs, such my eyes have seen it, might
call on you to set down another gloomy item to the
debtor side of the nineteenth centurys account
Debtor, to two million human sacrifices inundated
on the altar OF com ce,-commerce for the sole
sake OF commerce-an obscene god who was wont
to be named Mammon, and reputed fiend If
that thing which is called British civilization has
been, even in England, failure it has been in Ire
land fatal fraud and wide-spreading desolation
Five hundred years ago (not to venture back into
the times of mere mythical tradition) Ireland was
in every sense more civilized, more wealthy
more refined country than she is now. Before Eng
lish law and social poity were forced upon that isl
and it ia well known to those who have had oppor.
tunity to study the authentic annals of the time,
that the Irish at that period, not only enjoyed more
OF the material luxuries which the dadal earth pro-
duces for mankind, more pleasant and nourishing
food more wine, mead ale, milk, better and richer
clOt binuh hyt 81 naYiny ardo toI irE
measure the soitening and ennobling influences of
music and song and other Embellishments and
graces OF lite Nay. another and still higher dis.
tinction had the ancient cansmen of Ireland-they
loved and reverenced and obeyed the law and its
administrators; and they had law over them, to
which they could be amenable without terror, and
loathing which they could obey without cursing it
in their souls Consider what difference is here
For real law, that is justice, makes the only civil
cation the only life of State. If you would know
how an Irish Chief won glory from Bard and Bre-
hon. and made his memory fragrant in the records
of his time, hear how the venerable Four Masters
in announcing the death OF certain O'Donnell, in
1905, describe his character: "ODonnelI was the
best for either peace or war, and the most dstin-
guished of the Irish in Ireland in his time for GO
UerRment, laws, and regulations-for throughout
Tyrconnell, during his time, no watching was kept
and only closed the doors to keep ont tie scind-
He was the best patron of eccesiastics and of men
of learning, and a man who gave immense aims in
honor of the God of the Universe"
VI CnleItaln, tne anall5tS record tnat ne
was rigid enforcer of the established laws and
ordnances-a man during whose time the seasons
has been favorable so that both and land had
been fruitful and productive during his government
and who had established every person in his coun-
try in his righttu inheritance so that none of them
might bear enuaity to another"
Whereupon certain reviewer ofthese annualists,
Remarked call that state of society Civilization.
But how is the law (or what passes for law regar
ded in Ireland now Who has more sympathy and
10 he Irish N thic
century-the man who " "enforces the laws" or the
man who breaks and teaches to break and evade
them? In this Nineteenth century when neither
fertile land nor teeming is fruitful to us-when
the harp and song are silent in our halls-when in
stead of Brehons, we have juries, and God be be-
tween US and harm y a Lord Chancellor and Com
rnissioners of Incumbered Estates,-when the wind
whistles through our roofiess mopasteries, and
man will tell his own foster brother to go to the
poor-house-this call social disorganization, re-
progression and relapse into barbarism."
Doubtless there were cruel evils done under the
sun in those days too there were forays and ra-
yaees but there was no universal clearance system
what we call determination; there was bloodshed
enough but there was no national famine In the
very lap of plenty. There were many crimes OF
violence, for men had red blood boiling 10 their
veins and it must be confessed there was no pop
ular literature" but also there were no babble-com
papies, there was no Exeter Hall, there was no
cant.
Bear with me if dwell too long on this one in
on it, not because that island was my own native
country, but simply because it is the most conspic'
nous example of the utter ruin, desolaion and de-
gradation which sometimes in this century OF 'pro-
gress" comes upon a nation of men, and comes up
on them by virtue of that very progress wherein
they are told to boast and glory.
On the whole, our enlightened age is fast darken-
ing for England into an omnous twillght-has al
ready gathered Ireland into blackest stariess
midnight in which it needs strong faith even to
hope for dawn. The reason Is, that The true lie
OF nations, the only well being OF human society,"
consists not in commerce. not in gas, steam or eec-
trcity, but in simple justice Where Justice is de
MED or is dead benevolence is impertinence. That
life having died out all the apparatus OF pampered
raodern existence is bat an additional evil; yes, II
the thought that is in man, that has been accepted
and endorsed and has become current, be indeed a
false and foolish thought then the fewer vehicles OF
thought the better The printing press will vomit
forth only rubbish putrid itself, and injecting with
putrescence whatsoever 1t touches-the telegraphic
wires will whisper more falsehood than truth, ana
make electricity itself an instrument OF wrong. On
rsway cars many indeed will run to and iro put
knowledge will not be increased. And In all the
sump,uous garniture that has been contrived 20
clohe human lite wifhal, as il marches In s stately
progress" there will be but dead corpse MAKING
progress to perdition
II the age be decadent in any country at any Tune
49, ba n IA