The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-05-14
NJ ,rning Star and Catholic Messenger.
NV "1''ANs. SUNDAY MAY "A. 1871.
English Administrations and Catholic interests
THE TIDE TURNED-RECAPITULATI

The suferings of the Irish people ha,
reached their climax when George III
came to the throne. 1t was no part of til,
policy of the sovereign to relieve them
but his Ministers we're sometimes more far
seeing than their master, and both parties
in Irelapd-the Catholics and the Protest
ant patriots-assumed AIN attitude increas
ingly manly and formidable. Under the
viceroy ship OF the Duke of Northumbe
land, even the attorney general, Tisdall,
denied "that any great national interests
bad flowed from the penal code and as to
the conversion of papists, it had been mis-
erably inoperative--forty in each year. on
an average, was the utmost numb that
The severity of the penal laws, together
with the scarcity ofemoney employed in
commerce and improvements, drove more
and more of the people into dependence on
sheep farming and tillage of the ground.
But here they encountered great misery, in
consequence of the landlords belonging to
an alien race, and having no regard for
tho poorer classes who surrounded their
dwellings or toiled on their estates. 1t was
natural that the peasantry should form
Themselves secretly into associations for
the purpose either of self-defence, agrees
sion or plumber. The Whiteboy orgaDiza-
ton of that period was the offspring of the
Rapparees, who avenged the cruelties
wrought by the soldiers Of the Prince of
Orange; and the Whiteboys in their turn
gave rise to the Ribbonmen, to the Terry
ats, and ultimately to the Fenians. How
ever strongly such societies are to be con-
demned, they are the natural result of
laws being made against the people, and
of courts Of justice being in the hands of
the oppressors. In the first instance the
Whiteboys and the organizations of the
same period were not directed against the
m n III had
any political aim; but they. taught the
people their own strength, and they led on
to consequences very different from those
which their members intended. Being in
direct opposition to authority, they con-
spired with tho Irish patriots-with Lucas,
Flood and Burgh-in forcing concessions
from the reluctant rulers of the land.
Small as these were in the beginning, it was
something to have turned the tide. The
young King had not been three years on
the throne before an attempt was made in
the Dnblin Parliament to mitigate in a
slight degree the penal code against Catho-
lies. Though the attempt failed, it was
succeeded in time by others which we're
more successful and the easy, conviviai
Lord TOwnshend was sent over in l767
(when the Duke of Grafton and the Earl of
Chatham were at the head of affairs). to
break up the power of the Irish oligarchy,
and to couDtenance a measure on which
the patriots had set their hearts. This was
the bill for limiting the duration of Irish
Parlaments, instead of allowing members
to hold their seats for life. But when the
boon was grasped in the shape of an Oc-
tennial Bill, it did not prove 80 valuable IA
the patriots had expected. Extravaganza
and corruption still prevailed ut headquar-
lers /; and the owners of borougbs made a
market of their patronage every eight
years, instead of once or twice in the course
Of their lives. The venality, intolerance
and shortcomings of the patriots them
selves were the main causes of their own
disappointment, and whatever advantages
attended the Octennial Act arose mainly.
rs McNevin has pointed out, from "the
principles propounded: and the spirit dis
played in the debates"
Signs of political life multiplied during
Lord Townshend's administration. Dr..
Lucas conducted the Freemdn's Journal, a
paper which first Appeared soon after the
accession of George III. It was soon fol-
lowed by the Hibernian Journal, to which,
and to the former, Burgh, Hussey, Flood.
Yelverton and Grattan were contributors.
But these able and earnest writer's had not
yet learned that the true strength of their
cause would be found in cordial union
with their prosecuted Catholic fellow sub
3ects. An unusually. long period elapsed
between the dissolution Of the old ParIia-
ment and the assembly of that one which
was elected under the new Octennial Act.
During the sixteen months which thus
elapsed, the court was busy in buy
ing the representatives of the people in
detail instead of dealing, as they had pre-
xiously dealt, with "undertakers," or great
borough owners who monopolized the
traffic. When the Parliament assembled,
long contest ensued, a contest of conscience
against gold, in which the latter came off
victorious. The patriots in general proved
sufficiently venal, and the "English In
terest " was still in a majority in the Houses
of Parliament. When it was enacted under
the same Viceroy that 940 year in lieu of
ESQ should be allowed to every "Popsh
Priest" who turned Protestant, the adj
ditional douceurs of s10 per annum were
not so efficacious as the Government brides
offered to political renegades. Clown
shend's Golden Drops" as the Irish called
them, were plainly at a discount. A special
encouragement was given to the Protestant
proselytizers, under Lord Townsbend's re-
gime, in order to counterbalance measure
which was supposed to be in some degree
favorable to Catholics. This gracious boon
consisted in their teing allowed to take
~