The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1871-03-05
Morning Star and Catholic essenger.
NEW ORLEANs. SUNDAY, MAI s. 1871.


his sad, yet lofty and ifignant ACCENTS.
"My Lord, he skid, "y are impatient
for the sacrifice. The bod which you
seek is not CONCEALED bf ae artificial ter
Tors which snrrOund yo4victlm: IL circu-
channels. and in a little me it will cry to
Heaven. Be yet patient have out,a lew
worda more to say: al going to my cold
and client grave; nv lip of life is nearly
extinQuished; I have krted with every
thin that was, dear tolhe in life, and, for
INV country,e cause. Yth the idol Of my
soul, the object of mHhecti0ns. My race
is run; the grave Opel TO receive me, and
I sink into Its bosomEI have but one re-
uuest to ask at my Heparture from this
world-it is the chair of its silence. Let no
man write my epitau; for as no man who
knows my motives 2fes now to vindicate
them, let not prelude or ignorance asperse
them. Let them 1bt in obscurity and
peace; let my momty be left in oblivion,
and my tomb ref}in uninscribed, until
other times and ot&r men can do Justice
to my character. hen my country takes
her place among b nations of the earth,
then, and not tilthen, let my epitaph be
written. l have 0ne." There ia some
thing extremely 1thetic in this mournful
address; and it itpires US with the liveli-
est regret that anation which could pro-
duce such spirit9s Curran, Grattan. Bage..
nal Harvey, Wife Tone, Lord Edward
Fitzgerald, ,Lo4 Cloncurry and Robert
Emmett, should age after age, have been
trodden- down IKE the vintage in q wine
press. "Were to number" says Thomas
Moore, ''the mel, amongst all whom have
ever known, wb appeared to combine in
the greatest dejree pure moral worth with
intellectual pdwer, / should among the
highest of the few place Robert Emmett.
Wholly free frSm the follies and frailties of
how, capable he was of the
most devoted passion events afterwards
proved-the pursuit Of science, in which
he eminently distinguished himself, seemed
the only Object that divided his thoughts
with that enthusiasm for Irish freedom
which in him was an hereditary as well as
anational feeling-himself being the second
martyr his father had given to the cause"
"Sucb," he concludes, "ia heart and mind
with gifts that would have made them the
ornaments and supports of a well-regulated
community, were yet driven to lead the
life of conspiritors, and to die the death of
traitors, by q system of government which
it would be difficult even to think of with
the present aspect of the whole civilized
world, that such system of bigotry and
mierule can never exist again"
If the Irish are peculiarly impressionable
they are surely no less open to good than
tq evil impressioHs. If they are hasty to
resent, they arc siso prompt ID grateful ac-
They are patient and peaceable when un-
provokeds and the fact of their having
submitted at all to English supremacy
proves how easily their loyal submission
might have been purchased, and how firmly
.judicious indulgence would have bound
them to the British throne. In proportion
as their eyes were opened in the last CEN
fury to a true sense of their degradation
in proportion as the schoolmasIer went
here and there among them scattering the
seeds Of hnowiedge-the mother country
treated them>with more severity, and their
disaffection towards the mother country
increased. If the picture drawn by Sir
Jonah harrington of their social condition
100 years ago be faithful, they were more
loyal and peaceable than they were at the
close of the century, nay, more loyal and
submissive than they are at the present
time. "The Catholic clergy" he says,
chad then an unlimited influence over the
people of their own persuasion. Though
the cruel impolicy of the penal statutes had
not been altogether set aside, they remained
dutiful and obedient to the sovereign power,
cheerfully submissive to the existing laws,
and friendly and affectionate to their Pro-
testant fellow subjects. British supremacy
had then no overt enemies save its own
ministers, nor any conspirac1es against its
power but the arbitrary determinations of
its own Cabinet. The Catholic clergy had
every inclination to retain their fiocks
within proper limits, and they found no
difficulty in effecting that object"
But since the period of which Sir Jonah
Darlington here speaks, how had the loyalty
of Irish Catholics been tried by the time
that the Union was passed, by the persist
emit refusal Of one Ministry after another to
propose measures for the removal of their
disabilities by the crueltiss exercised
against them whenever they ventured to
complain in public of their grievances ;
and, finally, by the Union itself cutting off
from them the last hope of home govern
.ment, and cheating them of the very COM
pensations and advantages which they
were led to expectwould follow Immediately
in its train. The case is altered now.
Emancipation broke their letters more than
forty years ago. The Protestant Church in
Ireland has been disestablished and olsen
dowed. The land question is more or less
satisfactorily adjusted. The 4 Act s Of Union h
been supplemented in the beginning of the
century, but after how much agitation, how
grudgingIy, with what delays! Will the
irish now rest satisfied with the Imperial
Parliament, or will they continue to ngitate