Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-11-05
THE LECTURES OF MR. FROUDEON
1RELAND-THEIR AIM.
From the N. Y. Evening Telegral

x
Mr.. Froude, the English historian, has
now favored us with two instruments of his
special pleading for England in its English
conquest of Ireland. From these two lee
lures we can deduce two things as the mar
row of his reasoning. The first is that the
might which conquered Ireland and holds
her is right; the second, that the inability
OF the Irish, from whatever cause, to over
throw the English power, is q proof that
Ireland, no matter what her suffering,
should have no sympathy from America
and Americans. When the conclusions
which Mr.. FrOude has prepared for us are
thus markedly stated, they become repulsive
to any but savages, yet, with all his skill in
Juggling facts, assuming motives for his
historic characters, and drawing from them
specious and erroneous differences, the two
barbaric arguments we have stated above
form the sum total of what he has to say
in England's behalf against Ireland.
The dismal portions of Irish history
which are little studied by US Americans,
and on which be has dilated, have absolute
~ no value in determining the question be-
tween Ireland and England to-day. The
Geraldines, the TyrOnes and the Eizabeths
OF those times have as little influence In
Ireland now as the Dutch Governors of
New Amsterdam en- New York politics to
day. We do not care, therefore, to dig up
the horrld graveyards with which England
herself or the Irish factions which she fost-
cred, dotted ireland as with leprosy from
one end to the other during the centuries of
her bloody reign. 1t is the Ireland of tC-
day with which we must trouble ourselves,
il we take up the question at all. This ius-
tce OF her accusations against England, & q
lncompatibllity OF the two peoples so fierce
iy antagonstic to-day, the Indebtedness of
her peasantry at wiil-whO have
learned In deep rooted despair to regard
any spot on Gods footstOol but Ireland as
their home, are irremovable facts, among
hundred others, why we of America
sLoaid synpa-hize with Ireland rather
than with her policeman" which is the
highest office Mr.. Froude claims for EGG.
land in that regard.
But there is more pregnant point on
which to examine this historians endea-
vOrs to discredit Ireland's cause among
Americans, and that is, his Emission"
Why England, strong as she pretends to
be, SHOULD dispatch a learned emissary,
with talent for special pleading and beg
English wrong, and resurrecb religious pre-
JUDGES which, thank God! are buried TOP
deep for that deyilish work, is something
for us to ponder over. What straits must
she be reduced to when this beggarly array
OF rotten feuds Of hundreds Of years ago,
dished up in vaguely polite way, is the
latest weapon he has prepared to stab Irish
dlsatfection! The plea of a possible media
ton by America between Ireland and her
policeman" is diSsipated by the willy vim
dictiVeness which ne uses against the for
mer. 1t is, on the contrary, vain and !
desperate attempt to enlist America at all |
hazards on the English side-to seal the |
empty professions of international friend |
ship so lavishly made to-day, over the pros !
trate body Of Ireland. The pirates Of olden |
times, when hiding their 1l-go.ten gains,
murdered prisoner above the spot, that |
the deed might Ue pledge of answering |
fidelity to each other, and that the spirit Of |
the victim might guard the unhsllowed |
mound. England, with the dripping
knife in her hand, asks stainless America 4
TO join hands with her-Ireland TO be the |
victim over which to swear. America
shrinks from the offer. If Ireland is dis
weak and miserable, we see no
reason in that to rejoice with her jailOr. 1t
needs no more than ten years of our histo-
ry to tell us where, between the two, we
are to look into the future for our friends
DR. for our allies. The red history Of the
FudOrs, or the ruthless massacres Of Crcm-
well, will not change the fact that England
vas our bitter, persistent enemy in the
lays of our national tribulation. The
Of 1741, true or false, great or
small, as it may have been, does not lessen
)le man in the muster roll of the hundreds
If thousands of Irish soldiers who fought
,ur fight from Sumter to AppomattOx
Court House, nor do the English-bOrn
reacheries of the Ormondes or Desmoades
u the seventeenth century ba5e one lot of
be whOle-sOuled fidelity with which the
rish in Ireland sympathized with our
ause when England was launching Con-
sderate cruisers and subscribing for the
ebelIion.
For these reasons we conclude in the
pinion which the English Chancellor Of
he Exchequer, Robert Lowe, expressed to
ne English emissary, Mr.. FrOude, that lis
lissiOn to America ''wouid do no good"