The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-12-06

true q member OF the realm, Dut
withered member, which all who fear
and hate England, point to with a fin
ger of scorn.'
TESTIMONY OF SYDNEY SMITH.
Sidney Smith, who, besides being one
of the most celebrated writer's of mod
ern times, was also an Anglican canon
of St. Paul's Cathedral, said:
"Such jobbing, such profiigacy so
much direct tyranny, such an abuse OF
Gods gifts, such proclamation OF Gods
name for the purpose of bigotry and
tparty spirit, cannot be exceeded In the
HISTORY of civilized Europe, and will
long remain a monument of the infamy
and shame of England. The
great misfortune of Ireland is that the
mass of the people have been given up
l for a century to handful of Protes-
tants, by whom they have been treated
as Helots, and subjected to every species
of persecution and disgrace"
DEFINITION OF COMMON RIGHTS.
Sidney Smith adds
"The sufferings of the Catholics have
been so loudly chanted in the very
streets that it is almost needless to re-
mind our readers that, during the reign
of George the First and George the Sec
ond, the Irish Roman Catholics were
disabled from holding any civil or mil
itary office, from voting at elections,
from admission into icorporations, and
from practising law or physic. Ayoun-
ger brother, on becoming Protestant.
might deprive his elder brother of his
birthright; by the same process, he
might force his father, under the name
I of a liberal provision, toyield up to him
part of his landed property; and If an
eldest son, he might, in the same way,
reduce his fathers fee simple to a life
estate, and erea from holding long leases.
And any person might
take his Catholic neighbor's horse by
paying for it. If the child of q Catholic
father became Protestant, he was ta-
ken away from his father and put
into the hands of a Protestant rela-
| ton"
The same writer says that "the spirit
to which this legislation gave birth yet
remains"
INDUSTRIAL RESTRICTIONS IN IRELAND.
Of all the injuries to Ireland those
which weighed down her commerce,
manufactures and agriculture are among
the worst. They were lasting letters
and hindrances to the recuperative pow
ers of her people. And in the right to
labor freely and dispose of the products
thus created are centred not only the ma
tcrial prosperity ofindividuals and fam
lilies, but the means of advancement,
and in many cases the power OF resist
ance to vice and criminal temptations.
| Until 1899 Ireland had foreign com
merce in cloth of her own making. The
British Parliament, fearful of this COM
petition, presented an address to Will
liam the Third, begging him to suppress
this branch of Irish industry.
Wherefore" they said, "we most
humbly beseech your most sacred
Majesty that your Majesty would be
pleased, in the most public and effectual
way that may be, to declare to all your
subjects of Ireland that the growth and
increase of the wOolen manufactures
there have been, and will be ever looked
upon with great jealousy by all your
subjects of this kingdom, and, If not
timely remedied, may occasion very
strict laws totally to prohibit and sup
press the same" The King answered
that, che would do all that in him lay
to discourage the woolen manufactures
of Ireland"
Soon afterwards, acts were passed, the
object of which was to oblige the Irish
to send their wool to England, where 1t
was manufactured.
No colonial product was allowed to
enter Ireland before it had been re-
shipped in an English port.
These restrictive laws have long
ceased, but the result was to establish
trade in unnatural directions, and pro-
duce results from which Ireland has not
recovered. when the capital of in
dustry, commercial currents, privileges,
arms, and strength, have been carried
elsewhere, they are not brought back III
day"
AGRICULTURE AND LANDLoRDIsM IN IRE
LAND.
'Irish Catholics do not possess their
country. Under Elizabeth and Crom-
well n-elevenths of the Irish soil were
wrested from the Catholics and divided
among Protestants; hence to-day, the
enormity that English and Scotch Pro-
tcstants, who form nearly a sixth part
of the population, are masters of seven
eighths of the land"
I INA