The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-10-16

pathy with France, discourses with some
candor in the following train:
When Protestant England sent into exile
some of the best and bravest Irishmen be-
cause they were Catholics, France took
them in, treated them with distinction, and
made good use; of their valor on many
weil-fOught field. Afterwards, when Ire
land conspircd for independence, France
promised much and sent some assistance.
Again, during the very year in which Ire
land was most oppressed, France was the
persistent enemy of Ireland's oppressor;
and that of itself was title to Irish thanks.
This connection with France has been more
or less maintained under every French
regime. 1t was France under the Bourbons
that gave the Irish exiles of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries q welcome and a
sword. 1t was republican France that sent
Gen. Humbert to land in Ireland, and me-
tiitated ) serious expedition under Hoche.
1t was Napoleonlc France that kept alive
Irish hopes by that unceasing war against
England waged for nearly twelve years. 1t
seems to be, therefore, the "cue" of Ire
land, national" or seditious, to hail with
sympathy every rule that is accepted by
France AS regards the Fenians them
selves, they are no doubt Republicans sim
ply because their American origin provides
them with principles ready-made. But
from the beginning of this war, the Irish
people in the mass-that is, the Roman
Catholic Notwithstanding ympathised
with France against Germany. Religious
feeling had something to do with it, but
general sympathy had more. The Irish,
i;ke the French, are Celtic; like the French
they are quick in their sympathies, eager
in their affection, and with an alacrity of
loving. The two peoples rush into each
others arms "wi: etfusion," and what they
know of each other personally warns their
hearts. Between Germany and Ireland
there never has been political association
of any kind and, personally, the mem
bers of the two peoples are essentially anti
pathetic. In America, where they meet in
large numbers, they never amalgamate,
Prince Albert,~who was German to the
core, wrote to Won. Hupboldt, "I am sur
prsed to observe that you give your sym
| pathy to the Irish they deserve it as little
as the Poles" And the analogy is com
plete, for just as the English in Ireland
have ruled without winning the love of the
Irish, the Germans in Italy and Poland
have also held down by force quick, warm
blooded, mercurial peoples who detested
them. 1t is surely difficult for any think
ing man or woman to despise the Germans;
by -and-by sympathetic men and women
will learn to love them: They are strong,
intelligent, honest, faithful, full of courage,
full of power; but compared with the Celtic
races they are what splendid artillery
horse is to high melted racer. The
Germans do not greatly care for the sym
pathy of other nations; strong at home,
they will be strong abroad and that poor,
weak, fearful, sentimental Ireland should
love France will awaken no jealousy in the
stout Teutonic hearts. The same indiffer-
| epcc makes them, as q milton, lnsens1ble to
the shrieks of pain with which PROSTATE
France anticipates the amputation OF Alsace
| and Lorraine. If German interests require
it, the thing will be done, and any number
1 of Irish orators denounciDg Germany in
HYDE Park or any where else will not in the
least degree affect Count Bismarck's appe-
tite for his breakfast-or for more land.
Nevertheless, in tho long run, there can be
no doubt that inability to win sympathy is
a source of weakness, even to something so
solid and substantial as German power.
England made the mistake for many cen
turtles of trampling- down not only Irish
resistance, but Irish feeling, and of de-
spising and insulting as we'll as depressing
her Celtic dependency. Through that very
cause, Ireland, both at home and in Ameri-
ca, is a source of weakness to us in any
future war; while, won by some senti-
mental consideration, Ireland might have
been what no nation can despise-a nursery
of first-rate soldiers. In Posen and in
Galicia Germans are still disliked by Poles,
even after years of political connections; in
Hungary the hated German ascendancy
has been overthrow; from Italy the Ger
mans have been expelled in Bohemia they
are at constant war with the Czechs. Look,
on the other hand, at Alsace and Lorraine
they are to-day thoroughly French in
feeling, though almost wholly German in
tongue. In seven hundred years England
has not achieved in Ireland that thorough
conquest which France has won in these
German-speaking provinces in u few gen
erations. If these facts convey any Polltl-