Washington telegraph., 1854-05-10
ENGLAND AND THE FEsESEE.
John Witche2E's advice to the Irish
in regard TO the Eastern War.


The enemy's difficulty though they try
todisguise and make light of it, as come
Shall it be to Ireland an opportunity and
how?
| would to God that could make myself
heard by every man in Ireland under forty
years of age while [ try to describe some
leading points in the position Of England
and of Ireland now to show how deeply
England needs our country and how dear
an interest Ireland has to fail England at
that need
am told there is but little Of the nation
al spirit alive in Ireland now; and if one
were to Judge of this by the public journals,
and the wretched, helpless, driftless "agita-
tons which are still kept half alive there
rather Ii would seem, from the old habit
of agitation, than with any earnest or man.
ful hope Or faith in our eountry,s rights or
destinies-there would be some excuse for
believing that the heart of Ireland is crush
ed and the soul gone out of her.
do no. believe it. Aside and apart from
and lying underneath all these pettifogging
parliamentary agitations, there must be still
a powerful intense. burning through smoul-
dering remnant of that profound horror of
British rnle which has for many an age lain
ready to burst forth in a flame upon any ap-
pearance of chance or half chance.
True, England is a potent and polite
nation. True, she has been able, she,
numerous and wealthy nation, with all the
vast resources Of a great empire, with
huge army and navy, and yet more huge
and conquering commerce, all in her own
hands-has hitherto been able, to her i'm
mortal honor, to keep down and grind to
powder small and disarmed and divided
people, to steal away their trade and manu-
factures to make them poor aud dependent,
to make them pour out their blood and coin
their brain in her service, to use all their
industry for her own profit, and to turn their
soil into a store-farm for her supplies
England may well be proud of this feat.
But whether it be a matter of pride for
the English or not, to us it is bufnlng
sharne. And | believe there are men in
ireland yet who have manhood enough to
feel this gnawing, emaciating disgrace
The British institutions Of Famine and Fe-
yer have not surely worn down all the spirit
Of that ancient land. The Exodus has
not yet drained all the blood cut of her
veins. And assuming that there is still
vast, though now latent, fund of disaffection
to draw upon--trusting that there are yet
in Ireland many hundrens of thousands of
young men whose cheeks flush with secret
passion when they think on their country's
lowly condition, and who statedly curse in
their prayers the felonions Union Jack, and
the pirate dominion of which it is the sign
and symbol, address myself to them and to
them alone
There is no occasion to attend to the dri-
velings of those who may suggest that it
would be unmanly to avail ourselves of the
embarrassments of our enemy-that Eng
land is now chivalrously devoting herself to
the cause of justice and constitutional liber-
ty in Europe that-if Ireland indeed love
and covet liberty, constitutional England is,
after all, more her friend than despotic Rus
sa, and the like. We all know that we
have on the face of the earth no enemy but
England We know that whenever she
met disaster it was always blessing to US
and ours when her flag has been torn and
trampled, and when she dared not deny US,
she has always relaxed her deadly clutch
upon our country-otherwise meUer. When
the Americans had swept her red-coats out
OF this land she yielded Irish Independence
llor tlme) to the mere flash of the Irish
Volunteer sword. Unhappy for US that she
did, would she had tasted it then and ma
Gy years famine and resolution might
have been spared us since We know that
alter British fraud and foolish Irish trust
and gratitude had disarmed that citizen ar
N.Y. 1t was for as the French conquered at