The Shasta courier., 1868-01-04
SHASTA COURIER
Feniai,ism Growing under Reprcss.on.

sA%ts Z 3 r r 4s
In the course of an article on g Fenian-
ism," the Dublin Nation has the following
remarks, the spirit of which shows that the
sympathy with the conspiratoEs against
English rule is not confined to members of
the Fenian organization, but is spreading
among other portions Of the Irish population.
The Nation is not Fenian organ, and is
rather moderate ii its tone, for fear of Gov
ernment prosecution: aE
The expedition to Abyssinia is q trife to
English Statesmen compared with the pres
ent aspect of the Irish difficulty. Even
Russia in force OF the Indian frontier has not
so formidable significance. England has
a bad conscience, and fears the day of retri-
button. Her policy of suppression has ut
terly failed. The Irish race can be satisfied
with justice, but cannot be repelled by force.
They have standing point and fulcrum
that England cannot touch. They are the
right arm of the greatest power on earth-a
power whose internal necessities may compel
her to a foreign war before the storm that
now brooks over Europe has passed away
and they are at present held in check only
because the necessities of policy and a weak
administration compel such a course.
The Irish in America are a nation within
n nation, with an organization and an auto
1ioHlJ AoIilCt GuQ uliGRSi. lUeY are Tree,
and prepared to act, if the Administration
withdraws the hand that holds them back
This is the dread of England; for it is easy
to see that this will be the issue before long.
Then she has the Irish difficulty at her own
doors, and is powerless either to penetrate
the web in which she is enshrouded or to
cheek the progress of the association A
patriot in the dock in Green street, or in
Cork, or Limerick, is, by the decision of
9udge and jury, converted into an English
felon, and into household god to be en-.
shrined in the hearts of Irishmen. A pris-
oner is placed in the dock in Manchester,
even before conviction, in the infamy of
chains and England fancies she is degrad-
ing Fenianism in the eyes of the respectable
She is simply intensifying the national feel
ing in the breasts of the moderate and waver-
ing, and reluming the fire that had lain
hidden beneath the ashes Of selfshness and
indifference. Men who repudiated the
teachings of the Irish people, and even de.
nounced Stephens and his clique, are daily
and weekly fired into patriotism by the con-
duct of the English Government and the
language of the English press They may
manacle the limbs of patriots, but they can
not chain the mind of Ireland and the
burning eloquence of many of the convicted
and the manly dignity of all, is as familiar
to the Irish race over the earth as the tones
in which they were lulled to rest on their
another's heart. For every felon in an Eng
lish prison, ten Irishmen, before Indifferent,
have been converted to the late political
heresy that is rapidly becoming the national
faith-for every link clanking in the chains
of the prisoners in Manchester, hundred
hearts have beat the silent but solemn throb
of resolution, and hundred souls have
awakened to a burning sense of manly shame
at this indignity offered to their race
England's wisdom overreaches itself, and
evinces a total want of comprehension of the
nature of the race with which it has to DEAL
1t is sowing the seeds of disafection, while
the authorities fancy they are looping off its
most vigorous shoots.