The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-21

tortured, to be silenoed OF TO be enslaved, and
who strike for freedom and for Justice, are, as
a matter OF course, to be crushed like beetles,
that the terror Of their death may extinquish
manhood and make creeping and bringing
subjects OF all survivors. This was royal phi
losophy in the days Of the Roman Emperors.
and the question for this age to answer is
whether enlightened governments can
afford to act upon a similar policy. II |
was presented to us Just now In the |
discussions concerning the fate of the Fenian |
prisoners; and it elected wise and benevolent |
remonstrance from men like Mr.. Stuart Mill |
and M. Victor Hugo 1t is mainly question |
of the time of day. Fifty years ago, in like |
case, when an intellectual eunuch like Castle !
reagh could ''dabble his sleek white hands in |
Ireland's gore," there wOuldh have been no |
doubt and no discussion. Irish peasants |
would have been the sport of an insolent sol
diery, and Irish priests have been hung by |
law military, or without any law, in the bar
racks. We insist, in dealing what is called
justice to the discounted Fenians, that this
former page Of 1reland's history shall not be
forgotten. The extenuating circumstances,
we know, are very old, but then they were
very terrible TO begin WITH and in no other
country does tradition so lipger and so ex-
cite. 1t is feeble to say that the cruelties of
the English Government, scare, out of all pity
by the French revolution, were indefensible.
A generous man, even now, cannot read of
them without fire in his heart and water
in his eyes. 1t is not that the old Irish re-
belliOn was put down, for that was
simple matter of course; it is the coarse,
rude, bloody way in which it was put down
by murder, by rape, by arson, by farcioal
and summary trials and executions speedily
following - it is the cruelty practised by
majors and by captains and by justices of the
peace, in these dark and sanguinary days,
which rankles at this hour in the heart of
Ireland, and which, in common equity, it is
impossible to forget. After ALL it was only
yesterday; for what is half century in the
history of a nation We insist that in judg-
ing the Ireland of the present, the Ireland of
the past shall not be forgotten. Fenianism
may be toolish-we do not say that it is wise
but the craze is not of to-day, aud began
under extemporized scaffolds and by the light
of burning villages. 1t has been nursed by
the gnawings of hunger; it has been stimu-
lated by ecclesiastical insult it is the legiti-
mate result of bad measures executed by
worse men, and of blunders and villanies
stretching from the days of Elizabeth to the
days Of Victoria. What record In judg
I ing Ireland, in common charity, let it be
always kept in mind. The poor country has
/ its history and it has had its people; and if
! feeble remnant of the finest peasantry in the
| world sometimes does things which seem to us
unwise we will not be bullied into forgetting
the savage policy which has driven the race
ter of history. Nobody dares to defend it now;
but it did not lack defenders even in the days
of Dean Swift, who hated it in his rough
and cynical heart, and ventured to say
what smaller men would have been hung for
saying. Nobody is fitted to Judge the case
who is not familiar with Irish history, and
nobody who is not so familiar can wonder at
anything which happens in Ireland. The
penal code which the English Church applied
to its Irish sister, the very invention and
handiwork of the devil, would not be believed
in by historical students if it were a little
older, and if fragments of it did not to this
day exist. Here is people purposely kept
ignorant, and purposely kept poor, and not
assimilating itself with the conquering party,
simply because assimilation was forbidden by
statutes, many and ingenious; and when
race so oppressed plays now and then fantastic
! tricks, men wonder if Ireland will ever be
| quiet and they make little jokes about Donny-
brook Fair. We do not know how much hope
there may be for Ireland; but to joke over the
contortions of dying man, to mock his bitter
memories, and to kill him because, like
! Charles II, he is "such an unconscionable
time in dying" is at least uncivil, and posi-
| bly, may be considered unchristian. "There
is anguish in Dublin" says M. Victor Hugo.
Alas when was there ever anything else
there?
1t may be said it is difficult to decide what
shall be done with an unreasonable and rest
less people. We know that it is; but we hap
! pen also to know that this is difficulty of
England's own creation. There is the histery;
and foreign children know it by heart. The
modern Englishman may not be responsible
| Tor the sins of his fathers; but in dealing with
Ireland he has no right to ignore them; while
he shares the plunder, with what justice would
he be fercely Draconian in judging those
whose ancestors were robbed The letter of
the law says hang behead, and disembowel;
but the spirit of the age says, "Pity and for
give ~ There may be no executions; but
why should there not be moderate and care
fully guarded amnesty Let modern Britons
expiate the crimes of the Tudors by the exer-
else OF little charity, however distasteful.