, 1865-10-06

DbCNoI4 oiO VnCOSO oAal ANSO bNOu OIL
to ireland, the Roman Catholic Archbishop
of st. Louis, much TO his own honour,
has gone so far as to exclude members Of
the association from the rites Of the
Church. The Government of Ireland,
however, has little need Of such warn-
ings, for it has ample sources of infOrma-
ton at its own command. Treason in
Ireland has ever been venal !; and there is
probably not an illegal muster in the
remotest wilds of Kerry or Come
mara of which intelligence is not con
veyed within q few hours TO the Castle
at Dublin. We are bound to give Lord
Wodehouse and Sir Robert Peel credit
for having selected their opportunity well,
and the zeal and ability with which the
orders Of the Council were executed by
their subOrdinates deserve the highest
praise.
1t is greatly TO be hoped that the Fenian
leaders still at large, whoever they may
be, will now he induced to pause. Their
enterprise may not be the wickedest, but,
so far as we can judge, it is by far the
widest, except, perhaps, Smith O'Brien'a,
that has yet been planned by Irish agita-
tors. Almost the only thing that we
know for certain about them is that the
establishment of an Irish Republic is one
of their main objects. A more extrava-
CANT and chimerlcal idea never entered
the head of an Irishman. An Irish Re,
public would, indeed, be a portent ia
history. Granted that all classes in IRE
land were united, instead of being divided
by religious, political, and social ieuds-
that Saxons could be distinguished from
Celts, and then expelled from the island
that Great Britain could be humbled,
with or without American aid, and COM
PEELED TO recognize Irish independence
what then? Is there any people under
the sun more unfit for a Republican form
of Government than the Irish ? Is there
any character so deficient in those poliii-
cal virtues which are the life of Rrpub~
lies as the Celtic Is there any country
more destitute of those resources, moral
and physical, to which the United States,
for instance, owe their marvellous sue
cess? Is there any more inevitably
doomed to he the dependency Of some
other Power7 The truth is that Fenian-
ism has not and could not have sprung
up Spontaneously on Irish soil. It is en-
tlrely Of exotic growth, an importation
from America, and entirely out of harmo-
ny with real Irish sentiment. One proof
of this is the fact that it seems to have
been propagated chiefly from the towns.
There is so much smouldering discon-.
tent, and such a natural lawlessness
among the Irish peasantry that ready in
struments for plots of any kind may al
ways be found among them. But, ex-
cept SO far as Fenianism represents ha-
tired of landlords, it is never likely TO
take root in this class, nor is there any
other class of any influence in Ireland
which does not r~eprobate it. The priests
see that it breathes q spirit of anarchy
equally hostile to civil order and spirit
uaI subordination. They have therefore
declared against it, and by so doing they
nave earned the gratitude of the Govern
ment aud the public. The mischief done
by such movements is not to be measur-
ed by their strength. They may be ex-
travagant and hopeless in the last degree,
and yet may produce a sense Of insecure
ty rninous 10 the welfare of the country,
driving away capital, increasing absentee-.
ism, and undoing the good work of many