The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-02
British Syrnpathies at Home anu
Abroad


lutions, all outbreaks against oroer anu
existing authority on the continent. IheJ
have Afforded asylum for all the destruc-
tiyes. anarchists, and regicides from tha1
mari If the world. In lS4S the crews OF
the national vessels on the Mediterranean
station were unleashed against the little
States of Italy, and allowed to engineer
tho runs of the Red Republican fllibus-
tiers. The English people gave oVatiohs u
rerupees who had fled their countries, AFTER
vaipIy endeavoring to upturn their govern
meuts and erect Utopias conceived IN their
own cracked brains, in their stead. Ana
now we see British statesmen and the
great organ of British opinions gravely
discussing the homogeneity Of nations and
boundaries, and echoing the sentiments OF
the restless Missionaries and malcontents,
or of those greedy and grasping rulers OF
the Continent, whose meditated wrongs
and outrages find some sort Of apology IN
the affected desire to promote the unity OF
nations patent fraud.
But 90 home with England, and there
see how she exhibits these sentiments be-
hold there how she INDUCES her sympathy
for unity and harmony among peoples
and how she endeavors, by shaping bounda-
ries, to avoid national incompatibilities
and redress popular grievances Look at
ireland. There is unity! See how that
happy unity is maintained-a unity OF
force and of oppression! And when Fenlan-
ism, the legitimate offspring of the sympa-
thies and policies, INDUCED and practiced
by England towards all foreign nations,
attempts to break the bonds which forcibiy
bind together two nations as unlike in
every respect as any two civilized nations
on earth, and asinveterately and irreversi-
bly, hostile as it is possible for two ma
tons to be, why all the fine-spun
humane theories Of British statesmen,
all their liberal policies which they SO
heartily commend to OTHER people, vanish
Special policemen, detectives, and spies
without number fill the land. Armed
hands are hurried from point to point, and
the roll of the drum, the flying of flags
and all the appointments of war are sud-
denly heard and seen in quiet communities
and sill the minds Of helplessness and IN
fancy with fear. Men are arrested, and
men are tried and hung for treason-that
treason which Britain breaches aud COM
mends to other lands! They are hung tol
eudeavoring to give to Ireland the protcc-
ton Of that principle Of unity of boundary
that homogeneousness Of political cXis-
fences which England so much lauds in It's
application to other governments. IN
England the principle leads to the hulks
or the gibbet-is continental Europe, it
exalts its advocates to the eminence OF
philanthropists and heroes.
According to the providential economy
which governs this world, it is not possible
but that sooner or later the commendcr of
the poisoned chalice shall have it brought
to his own lips. The approver Of wrong
and outrage will become the sufferer from
his own morality. 1t is mot unpleasant to
see the United States Government dis
charging Fenian invaders Of Canada and
giving place aud honor to distinguished
Fenians. 1t is keen rebuke of the noted
sympalhiSer with traitors and destruc-
tives of other lands, and must cause no
little chagrin and irritation in her mind !!
Although agreeable to just and impartial
minds, this is among the less important in
cidentals of the returning of her bloody
instructions" to the teacher. There are
more important matters for England to
consider. Is this restless and chained
spirit of Ireland-wrongly held and OPP
pressed by force Of arms-to be concil-
lated How long will it struggle to be
free How long will England be able to
resist its struggles? Then, too, there is
the wave of reformation-the leaguers, the
agitators, in her own isle-aiming to de-
stroy the aristocratic principle from which
she has derived her greatest power and
fame. Serious inroads have been already
made by the swelling and foaming tide.
How is that to be stayed? How are her
old institutions to he saved from those
political upheayals and commissions which
she has contemplated with so much plea.
sure while their calamties were confined
to Continental Europe
We mean not to class Fenians with the
madmen and anarchists of continental Eu-
rope. Fenians are actuated by the noblest
sentiment next to the alteration of the
Creator, known to man: love of country.
They see their land oppressed-unhappy-
miserable. They would die to deliver her
That is the Irish sentiment-it is grand.
If they have been impulsive and indiscreet,
| they have been unselish and devoted.
We could wish that impulses SO noble were
better trained and governed, and we have
no more ardent wish beyond our own land
than that Ireland may yet be free from a
hated union with the most selfish and in
consistent Government in Europe