New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-01-12

with alarm, as well as horroi, vi ms
mercurial and boisterous neighDor N"no'
norhons meyer saw sworn Fenian III
his Iife), and to foresee new ClerKeh-
well outrage in every meaningless nen"'o
Of his hereditary enemy. More lately sui, 'no
manufacturing counties of England nave peeh
afflicted with the presence OF No-ropeiy
lecturer-himself an Irshman, Murphy by name
who has gone from town to town denounc-
ing the religion, the worship, and the rehsious
ministers of the Roman Catholics, III i"nsuaS9
so violent, vulgar, and obscene, that NY oecen.
person of any creed could hear 1t Without
disgust. This mans path was marked by rlots'
as that of Condo was by cOnfagrations' III
some places whole streets inhabited by roman
Catholics were wrecked" and destroyed In
most instances the Irish got the worst Oh II;
in some they undoubtedly began the rot ny
foolishly trying to prevent Murphy from au
dressing his admirers. There were cases III
which the magistrates of the town refused 10
allow Murphy to lecture; and in one or TWO
places he was actually arrested for deliberately
endeavoring to create disturbance. But THIS
only added to his popularity with his own
party, made him sort of Protestant hero and
"spoutingr and more noise. This campaign OF
Murpby's was continued up to the very hour
of the late elections Of course, all Protestants
of any respectability-we can hardly count the
extravagant and ridiculous Mr.. Whalley among
such a class-repudiated Murphy and Ills dolnss'
But Murphy was, undoubtedly. hero among
the ignorant Protestant artisans of the Low
Church and Orange factions, who abound in
the manufacturing towns and cities OF tie
North.
The Reform bill put for the first time vote
into the hands Of thousands of these men,
Their minds ut the time were possessed with
only one idea-No Popery. They saw men
coming forward as candidates who declared in
favor of conciliating Papists by actually
"leveling down. Protestant Church. That
was enough. No man could be personally less
Objectionable than Miner Gibson. He is n
member of the Church of England f; he never
took any prominent part-hardly took any part
at all-in the Irish Church controversy; he is
the most easy going of men, and probably
never troubled himself about the whole matter.
Yet he is a follower of Gladstone, who is sup
posed to be friend of the Pope, and fol-
lower OF Bright, who is known to be friend OF
lreland-and that was enough. Ashton Is a
manufacturing town. with a large working pop
ulaton, infected just now with hatred OF
Popery and Irishmen; and poor Mr.
Gibson, who probably was never in Ire
land in his life, and has not the
fautest interest in the Vatican, was sacrificed
accordingly. In Ireland just the reverse of
the picture was seen. where Mason Jones was
defeated because he once shook hands with
Garibaldi; and steady, well-tried representa-
tves were rejected in favor of unknown men
from England, who condescended to preach
pseudo Fenianism. The truth is that the
hatred of race and religion is very deep and
bitter among the less educated orders of Eng
lish and Irish to-day, and it is of course bit
terest and deepest in places like the English
manufacturing towns, where the Celt and the
Saxon jostle each other every hour as neighbors
and as competitors. The wonder is not that
this spirit produced some unpleasant results at
the late elections, but rather that, having been
summoned and stimulated by voices so power
ful il did SO little HARM