Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-11-20
Amin osities of Race and Religion
I'm Ireland.

Free Communicable, a Southern Presby.
terian paper, writing from Londonderry
Ireland, October IL, 1867, gives the fol.
lowing sketch of the bitter animosities
arising from difference of race and relig.
ion, which unhappily divide the inhabit-
ants of that country:
The country around Derry, as all Nor
thern ireland, is largely Presbyterian.
A Scotchman and his descendants seem
naturally to incline to church gov, rn-
meDt by Presbytery. Certainly it ac-
cords with his love of freedom, and gives
him that liberty and participancy in ec-
clesiasticar matters necessary to his hap
piness in an enjoyment of spiritual con-
Germs; and, although more than two hun
dred years have elapsed since the plant
ing of Scotch colonies, the religion of
the fathers is that of the children.
Here in Ireland we have religious an
imosity in a greater degree than any
other land. 1t is one race and religion
against another. Whenever the domi.
nant party celebrate their past victories,
it reminds the native that his is con-
quered race, that another rules in the
land of his fathers, and that stranger
with different faith has usurped his
place in this fair isle. Mankind in
stinctively pay honor to the valor of
their ancestors; but here its tendencies
to awaken slumbering animosity are so
great that wise Legislation forbids it.
Nowhere in the world are laws enforced
with more rigor than in Northern Ire
land; and We will venture to assert that
among Anglo-Saxons there are nowhere
laws which so violently trench upon the
domain of reserved liberty.
To allay the strife and hate incidental
to the proximity of antagonistic nations,
the English Parliament have enacted
laws which not only forbid professions
with certain concomitants fife and
drums), but they go farther, and forbid
the use of party expressions. If Cath
olic damns an Orangeman, he is fined or
imprisoned; or if a Protestant damns
the Pope or the emblems of Catholicism,
he pays like penalty.
So far does religious bias enter into
all the relations of life, that employers
avoid servants of belief different from
their own. The two parties rarely if
ever forgo even in marriage most sa-
cred of all relations) their ecclesiastical
prejudices. Magistrates must be ap-
pointed of both parties; and even this
does not prevent the most glaring per-
jury. Each side accuses the other of
favoring its partisans, and from revela-
tions, the charge must sometimes be well
founded.
After three hundred years of this
wrangling, tits useless to add that the
numbers relatively adhering to both re-
ligions show no change, although year
ly more than a quarter of a million
Irishmen despairing of righting their
real and imaginary wrongs, leave their
native land, and seek a home on the
shores of our famous Western world.
Irishmen and Scotchmen have each
many noble and exalted characteristics,
but they were never made to live to-
gether in pent up land such as this
Although they are descended from a
common origin, their hopes, aspirations
and characters are too widely different
for them to live amicably as neighbors.
The individuals who carry on this strife
are no worse than others of the same
species, but circumstances have so
placed them as to develop qualities
which, in others, are rarely called forth.
The experiment fully demonstrates that
different men require different institu-
tions, and that the peculiar laws of one
people can never be effective when in
troduced among another.
All this is painful to the heart of
Christians. There's very little "good
will to men" here unless they profess
the same form of Christianity. Perhaps
it may be asked when will better state
of feeling pervade this peoplel Never,
we fear, until the ceaseless tide of emf
grafton leaves only one faith, or until
men cease to differ in matters of reli-
gion. The tendency of legislation is
now toward the disendowment of the
Established Church. Some declare this
will prove a panacea for the nations
woes. If so, right thinking men will
rejoice at the measure. Great as the
wrong of taxing nine-tenths of people
to support the religion of the other tenth
may appear, We fear it will not eradicate
the evil. 1t lies deeper than that. It's
a war, as we said before, of one race and
religion against another race and reli.
gion, and the evil will continue so long
as such elements of discord exist.