The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-06-14


gotten how. their leading journals bounded
them on to rise against the Irish, to crush
the " Fenians," to inangurate q war. of
races They have not forgotten the recep-
ton given to the deputation who were
foolish enough to proceed to Windsor with
the intent of presenting to the Queen Pc.
tition ON behalf of the Irishmen then under
sentence of death for participation in the
Manchester rescue. Nor are they at all in
sensible to the indictments that even now
are addressed to them to inf1ame their anti
Catholic bigotry, and their anti-irish pas
they should consider the time was up for
another outbreak, and seize the first oppor
tunity that presented itself to crafty their
brutal instincts, to safe once again their
fiendish hate of the Irish people by riot, ard
devastation, and pillage, and cowardly
murder.
The reports of the rioting at Ashton-un-
der-Lyne, copied from an English journal,
are unquestiOnable evidence Mt once of the
cowardice and the ferocity of the English
rioters. They planned and prepared the.
riot, they sought for it, and they brought it
on. When one series of insults to the feel
ings of the Irish residents did not provoke
them to action, another was had recourse to.
The challenges offered on Saturday having
been allowed by the Irish to pass unheeded,
there was o renewed of them on Sunday
from provocations of this sort to outrages
was an easy transition, and it ia needless
to say, for common sense will tell to every
impartial mind, who were the agress0rs in
these scenes. The riot 80 much desired by
the English mob was got up at last. The
quote shows that the Irish, thus assailed
and driven to bay, defended themselves
oallantly until overwhelmed by the swarm
ing numbers Of the English mob. So long
as the numbers were anything like equal,
the Irish defended their quarters success
n tod and rho cd hn v-p1ffi0
who dared to attack the. But this could
not last long our poor countrymen were
but a handful ameng their foes, and, OF
course, they were scattered and overpow-
cred. Then the Englislnen showed how
much of true spirit and gahantry was in
their nature, by murderous Outrages on
defenseless old men and helpless women,
and little children-aye, even upon infants
in their cradles. They broke into the houses,
of the Irish, smashed, tore up, and burned
every article of property they could lay
hands upon furniture, pots, pans, bedding,
everything inside the walls they destroyed,
taking especial care to demolish the reli-
giOus pictures and emblems which are al
ways found even i'll the humblest homes
of Irish Catholics. The Catholic churches
were assailed and wrecked in like manner;
the furniture was torn up, the statues were
broken in fragments, the pictures cut to
pieces, one scoundrel of the lot taking es-.
pecial pleasure in running his knife through
a picture of the Sacred Heart! The details
of their horrid savagery are positively
sickening even to read efy-But wlthal, as
we have already remarked, the, English
sayages showed themselves quite as cow
ardly as they were fer0ciOus. The Irish
men, when not more than half their number,
routed and hunted them again and again,
and the presence of a few policemen, armed
only with batons, was always sufficient to
produce like effect.
Rut What of those police? How did they
conduct themselves during this outbreak of
English higotry and brutality9 tits enough
to say that they acted as the English police
always do on like occasions. The facts OF
the riot, the license practically enjoyed by
the English mob, and the havoc committed
by them, give the measure of the activity
displayed by the police in the repression of
those outrages. The English rioters had
free play in the Irish quarters almost as
long as they cared to have it. No interior
ence was made with them while they were
effecting their work of murder and ruin in
Hill street, Flag alley, and other places,
while they were beating the helpless in
mates to death, and making bOntires of the
poor peoples furniture in the streets. Va
rious explanations of the lnactlon OF the
police are given in the English papers but
what is most relied on is the statement that
they are too few to cope-with such disturb
ances, and that the system OF prompt ana
etficacious suppression of popular tumult is
altogether foreign to the mind OF England.
Whatever may be the explanation, lrishmen
in England have experience of the fact that
whenever the English mobs choose to turn
out for the splitting of Irish blood, the :tction
of the English magistracy and police Is
-dilatorv and not effective for any good
until after the rabble have accomplished a
large share of the mischief they intended
Under these circumstances, it behoovcs ON