The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-04-26
RrRxua Star AND CATHOLIC lIEssENaER.
Jew oRLEANs. suNpAY. APRIL %, lea:
n, BRIGHT ON IRELAND.

Auest hearts of q country are leagued to
~0Eect the accomplishment of desired end,
do result can only be a question OF time
That that time is near at hand, as it bears
On the Irish question, is quite apparent
From recent unmistakable prognostics, the
lniyuity of centuries is about to be wiped
4sut The London Spectator, from which we
derive the following comments on MIR.
Bxights method CT dealing with Irish
grievances, will not be accused of undue
Y.rtiality for the religion or material inter-
.osts of the Sister Isle:
Mr.. Bright's speech at Birmingham shows
nWO great Qualities one natural to him and
800 acquired, each of which belongs sepa-
xabely 60 many who discuss the Irish ques-
&sen, but few of them-needful as they both
.Are to any statesmanlike policy on Ireland
10 both we mean true imaginative SYM
aa;athy with the popular feelings of Irishmen,
and great caution as to the method of salts
Ysying them. 1t is not perhaps curious, after
Last session, to find Mr.. Bright carrying the
may cali excess. But Mr.. Bright is begin
sziDg to feel the weight Of practical respon-
Sibility attaching to his recommendations
almost as q cabinet minister feels it, and it
ass certainly not amiss that the holder view
az Irish reforms should be put forth by the
guarded manner MS to conciliate the strong
fsArty who think more of "prudence than
-sf principle. Heartily agreeing with all
Ne Bright proposes to do, and only fearing
Shat Oh the land question his policy has too
much of the prudence of half-measures,
which are never prudent at bottom, we re-
gard this speech as the beginning of n great
English movement which may even sue
coed III penetrating Ireland with IL cOnvic-
siOn that it is possible for Ireland to be
governed with u sole and entire view to
.Lzish needs, and yet without any dissolution
.sf the Union.
What Mr.. Bright sees so clearly, and what
sd few English politicians who discuss the
sase of Ireland do see, is, that it is not
enough, and never can be enough, to have
sxtinguished what we now call the old in
i4uities OF our rule in Ireland-that we may
well he expected to do something much
! mare than this with race peculiarly open
L 70 .fhe moral and imaginative side of politics
-Gaat she reign Of English oppression hav-
eng lcsag been at an end, the reign of Eng
aish preiodioes and didactic prepossessions
and cold patronage must also come to an
lend, before we can hope to win the heart Of
Ireland, which is q matter of even more
Importance than satisfying its sense of strict
ilsIstice. THE rule of England in Ireland
-xas once the reign almost OF II malignant
rfurv; now, for forty years, it has been the
ss4gn of a cold step-mother, bent on deal
:sng ont strict justice to her step-childrea as
wen as to her own children, >but SO pro-
Soundly impressed with the belief that what
is good for the latter must be u blessing to
the former-a blessing, indeed, beyond what
a.bey had any right to expect, blessing,
(which they could not have had but for the
Providence which gave them for half
brothers and sisters creatures OF such SUI
y,eTior biood-that an English discipline has
been forced on the Irish with II cOntemptu-
GUS sort of benevOlence almost more irrita-
ting to susceptible feelings than the bloody
rifle Maaich preceded it. What is this Pro-
frstant establishment 9-what are these ar
suments with which it is defended about the
moral advantages to Ireland OF having many
worthy Protestant white neck-ci0ths dis
tributed over Ireland, to show the Irish what
an English Protestant vicar is like what
.ssrts,is defense offered for enforcing the Eng
lish system of agriculture in Ireland, name
Iy, that we are bound to raise the Irish to
our own admirable ideas of farming Tex
%. .cept different forms of the same grand as
sumption, that Ireland can only be civilized
by being Anglicized, which accordingly we
sI.et about with the full vigor of u cOnscien-
rieus governess? How deeply rooted this
,elass of notions is in England, is shown not
esnly by the invariable contempt of the lead
lfng English press in dealing. with Irish
questions but by their absolute intellectual
>inaccessibility to argument on properly po-
a@tical questions like the land-tenure. a
number of papers which have long ago
learned to treat religious questions mat
s1ers which must be left To the preferences
II the populationy papers which, therefore.
- never advance any apology for the Irish
Protestant Church, seem wholly unable to
realize that the same principle really APP
plies to the certainly no less arbitrary sys-
tern of land tenure, which varies quite as
1nuch from country to country, and has quite
AS much to do with the special character
and genius of the people as religion itself
Here, for example, is our able contempt
lrnry, the Pail Mall Ga-ette, criticising Mr..
Bright's proposal to assist the Irish farmers
i'm becoming masters of their own farms
with sort of sublime condesccnsion. We
Sllnve no objection to it, says the Pail Mall
ut il all very well if the Irish will work