The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-01-25
Ireland.

The London Times, of the 2Sth
ultimo; in a long leader upon nation
alities, thus discusses the claim of
Ireland to be recognized as a distinct
nation:
To the Irish claim to legal nation
aiity and preferential national treat
ment, we simply reply, that nation
allty IS question Of fact, and there
is no such Irish nationality in the
Greek, Italian OF German sense.
Foreigners, wilfully or ignorantIy.
choose to believe that there is, but
there is not. The fusion of races has
been very much greater than is gene
rally supposed; for, besides those
whose religion indicates O mixed
blood, it has very long been observed
that a vast number of names held bv
the Roman Catholics show English
extraction. AS to half the popula-
ton Of the island, it may now be pro
nounced impossible to say they are of
pure Irish blood. That difficulty in
creases the higher we ascend in the
social scale, and even when we come
to the smallest Irish "squireen, we
find English intermarriages. An at
tempt to make the native Irish the
governing class of the island could
only be compared to an attempt to
reverse our own Norman CONQUEST.
after eight centuries, by a general
rising of all who might choose to call
themselves Britons, Saxons or Danes.
Such an attempt here is not only i'm
possible, it is inconceivable, for it is
almost Impossible to put ones finger
on pure Briton.
The French revolution Of the last
century has been described rs a
rising Of the Gaul against the Frank
clement. 1t might have something
of that i'll it, but takes quick eve
and a fine touch to detect these in
gradients, and the French themselves
were not consciously fighting war
of race when they asserted the rights
| of the people. There was too great a
variety and mixture Of races among
them to allow Of Frank and Gaul
being more than matters of history n
century ago. In like manner Celt
and Saxon have been passing for
centuries from out of The world of
facts into that of history and IDEAS;
aud for the past generation this
change has gone on at a greatly ac-
celcrated pace. Meanwhile the old
fusion of races in this island has
latterly been quickened in even a
greater ratio. In this metropolis,
especially, and in the other first class
ports and cities of the island, Eng
llsh, Welsh, Scotch, Irish, and even
Germans and French, have been con
tlnually intermarrying. Many, in
deed, are the households in every
class OF life among us, in which there
is not an individual who can claim
pure English blood. Our towns are
the hospitable refuge OF wandering
poverty, wandering enterprise, wan
derlng misfortune, and wandering
duty from every place, far and near.
These people are not English in such
sense IS that they can be held
answerablc for any old lnisgovcrn-
ment Of Ireland, or made objects of
political antipathy.
If the facts of the case were more
fully known, they would dispel, both
at home and abroad, a good deal of
the mlsapprchension fostcred by
Irish takers and writer's, and the
still less scrupulous Englishmen,
who, in spite Of better knowledge,
choose to take that side. The fact
of common refuge for ali emigrants
from these islands in our IN ense
colonies all over the world and in the
United States, speaks for itself, and
grows too fast for description. But
there are two other classes Of facts
which we could wish to see rescued
from speculation and conjecture by
careful observers. The first is the
proportion Of the races and the ex-
tent Of intermixture in Ireland; and
the second is the respective proper
tlons, the intermixture, and the local
predomipance of all the races in this
island. Before railways and our in
ternal migrations and currents have
entirely obhterated all local peculiar
lt'es of race, whether in physical ap-
pearance or in languap' y full
and exact description .petent
persons would be one most