The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-11-22
The Irish not West-Britons.

Ireland" The chair was filled by Isaac
Butt, ESQ.,, @. c., who, on the conclusion
of the lecture, addressed the audience.
His remarks on the English rule, and Cas-
tie tyranny were scathing. In closing he
said:
He had been greatly struck by one pass
are in the lecture, Dr.. Waters asked what
country had preserved her nationality as
Ireland had in the face of such dlfhculties
as she had to contend with. A voice, 70
land.) No; not Poland. Has Poland been
oppressed SO long as Irelandf Are there
distinct colonies of Poles in two lands to-
America, Canada, Australia, over every
quarter Of the earth, as the Irish have ana
are they known as Poles in every country
in which they have found homeS NO
other people of all the descendants OF
Adam, save one, have preserved their dis
tinctive nationality as the Irish have done;
and that is Gods chosen people. The
Irish and the Jews have alone preserved
their distinctive nationality for centuries,
despite every form of persecution, and In
the face of every difficulty (cheersl. The
Jews have preserved their nationality in a
marvellous manner; but they have not been
placed in such adverse circumstances as
the Irish. They were not shut up. as 1t
were, in one spot, alongside powerful
neighbor, who, for centuries, increasingly
and unscrupulOusly brought to bear against
them every art of oppression, seduction
and bribery, in order to make them what
some one called the Irish-W est BrltoDs,
The Irish people have been thus circum'
stanced, but they have preserved their ma
tionality-they are not yet West Britons.
"a voice-and never will be-cheers). They
are still q distinct race. No matter what
name you call them-and have been cen
sured for calling them Celts-the Irish
people are still distinguishable by the in
etfaceable characteristics by which Provi-
dence, for some wise purpose of its own,
marked them out rs n separate and dis
tinct race (checrs). All the power of Eng.
land, during seven centuries of almost
ceaseless war; had failed to destroy their
individuality. Trcachery, bribery and cor
ruption had failed to absorb their nation
ality. Ali the arts of civilization, as they
are termed, had failed to destroy their dis
as a separate race, or to make
West-Britons of them! They were not
West-Britons yet. They were still sep
arate and distinct nation tremendous APP
plause). There was something in the Irish
i'll the blood of the Irish
in the intellect OF the
Irish race: it might be its rashness or its
wildness; but whatever it was, there was
in them that marked them out
as people distinct from all other races.
There was not man in that room with
Irish blood in his veins who did not bear
the unmistakeable marks of his origin and
his race. Seven hundred years Of English
had failed to destroy their ma
tionality, or to absorb them into the Eng
llsh nation. Seventy years of what is mis-
called ''Union'' had failed to incorporate
them.
The exodus of millions of the Irish race
an exodus unequaled in magnitude in the
history of the wor!d-had failed to stife
their national aspirations. They were still
a separate, distinct, indcstructib!c, and I'M
conduerable people there the applause of
the audience prevented the speaker from
continuing for several minutes). He be-
lieved in his soul and conscience that the
Almighty God who rules the destinics of
the world had a design in thus marking the
Irish race as separate and distinct people;
and he believed that God had miraculously
preserved the Irish race, through centuries
of persecution and wrong, for some mighty
purpose of his own Immense checring).
Dir. Waters had referred Co the great or.-
tors OF the past-tO Grattan, to Plunkett,
and to Curran-and said that they had left
their memories and the records of their ge-
MUS as IL precious heritage to the Irish peo-
pie. He was right. No power on earth could
rob them of that heritage. No one could
say that either Grattan or Curran were
Englishmen. Their names were Irish, and
their genius was Irish (cheers). Ireland
had been called "the dsinherited onc;''
but there was one heritage of which she
could not be robbed, the genius of her sons.
They needed no license from the Castle to
remember them, and no police permission
to cherish their memories (applause). The
memory of the great Irishmen who adorn
the pages of Irish history made the Irish
people proud of the country which had
given them birth. Beyond the Atlantic
ocean, in the midst of the freedom by which
he is surrounded, the Irishman is proud Of
his native land ;-when toiling by the banks
of the Mississippi, or far away across the
Rocky Mountains, he does not forget the
turns to the old home of his fathers, which
he hopes to revisit again (cheers). The
memory of his native land-of her glory
her sorrows, and her wrongs-of the grea
men to whom she has given birth-forms
sacred bond of union between Irishmep>ir
every land. Afar off, or at home, they
| cherish those memories which help to pre-