Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1865-10-06
The Fcnian Movement.

The Fenian movement, which is now causing
so much uneasiness in Ireland, is calculated to
dishearten all those who look for the regenera-
ton of Ireland through the exertions of Irish
men; for the simple reason that il proves that
the great mass of them have not proited by
experience. The organization is neither more
nor less than an attempt TO dismember the Bril-
fish empire, by rising OF hall-almed peasants,
without n treasury, commssariat, credit or
leaders, and this in a small island, with the sea
IN possession of the enemy. What makes il all
the more absurd is the fact that the clergy and
the gentry are all opposed to it, and from one
o! these two classes any military movement in
Ireland directed against the government must
draw leaders and inspiration, in order to ensure
its rising for even a single day above the di-
mansions OF riot, as every body knows who
possesses any acquaintance with the mental and
moral condition OF the people. Moreover, the
Protestant population OF Ulster and Leinster,
one of the dourest and toughest races in the
world, would resist it to the last man, and would
be supported by England with as much vigor
and ierceness as if her existence were at stake.
The Fenian movement, therefore, is really a
movement for bringing about the massacre and
starvation of a body of unlortunates on whom
bad government has already inflicted the direst
misery.
There is one ether reason which must pre-
vent any sensible friend OF political progress
from wishing the movement success, and that
is, that its result, if il did succeed, would inc
vitality be state of things which he could not
wish to see. A government established in Ire
land by peasants revolution would inevitably
be sacerdotal government, very much resent
bling that of the papacy at Rome. If laymen
held office, they would only govern in name
| their policy and ideas would be shaped by the
clergy. " a al uha Of tol
organization would be produced by process
OF this sort. There are amongs, the masses in
Ireland no materials for the foundation o ad
ministration of government based on modern
ideas. The Irish people are unquestionably
| politically, one or two stages behind the whole
of the Western world. Who is to blame fol
this state of things is question upon which VT
cannot here enter. The fact remains
They emerged from the tribal condition low
ards the end of the sixteenth century. They
were governed down to that period by an ar
chaic code of laws displaying in no respect
much greater range or depth of legal ideas thar
the code of Menu, or the Laws of the lively,
Tables and this, it must be remembered, in tn,
age of Bacon, Grotus and d'Aguesseau. Hat
| they then come in contact with more advanced
race, on terms of equality, they might have rap
idly caught up with the rest of the civilized
world. They were, however, met by a ruthless
conqueror, and had to endure, for two centuries
more, all that inscriptions power can inhic
on helpless weakness. The result has beer
that the political ideas of other Christian ma
tons have made very little impression on them
and they retain to this hour and show il even
in America. subsection to the influences ant
traditions of clan-life, tendency to follow per
sons rather than principles, and to vote il
Groves under chief, an inability to grasp po
tical ideas as something distinct from politi
clans, which render them, in spite of their won
deriul capacity for discipline and subordinaton
all but incapable of carrying on free govern
ment. 1t is true that the same incapacity ha
shown itself in France and other countries, blu
for reasons wholly different, and which indicat
very different stage of political development
The Nation.