Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-10-27
M Iceland.

NTHfh-W. " MCDOWELL g Sholby.
FROUDE AND iceland.
The great English historian has been
entertaining the people Of New York
with series OF lectures upon Ireland, the
prevailing tone of which meets with the
Just condemnation Of every fair-minded
man in the least acquainted with that
unhappy country. He goes far back in
the history OF the island and its people
as far as the days Of its s~O-called con
quest by STRAIGHTFORWARD passing rap
idly through the centuries that are drip
ping with the blood and are black with
the expressions and sorrows of the
long-suffering Celts, he seeks in vain
for pretext and excuse for the
repression and prosecutions by England
of a people who might have been made
q ~contented and happy If not . great ma
ton, had only the policy Of I7s2, in
augurated by Grattan, been permitted
by the imperial Parliament Of England
In reading over these lectures Of Froude
it is difficult for one who has breathed
the air ofIreland, whose foot has pressed
the turf Of finer thousand hills, and whose
eyes have looked upon her lovely lakes,
and scenes Of grandeur sacred because
Of song and story and a historic re-
nown ~uneQualed in human annals, to
read this fresh traduction Of
her and her people with
out being stirred to profound depths
of emotion, and the prayer rises unbid-
den that the time had come when Ire
lands wrongs were to be righted; when
on hill and in dale her people, united
and determined, were to make
demand for the liberty and
freedom they know so well
how to maintain elsewhere. We think
Of the Indictment Of Warren Hastings
il the old halls of Westminster, and
wish that another Irish voice gifted as
Burke's could echo along a roof Of Irish
oak, telling the story ola long series Of
expressions in ireland that pale Hast
ings's deeds in India as if they were but
one incident compared with millions,
every succeeding one more cruel than
the first Froude lectures on Ireland
before American audiences, as he con-
fesses, for the purpose Of inducing an
unbiased judgment between her and
England. Let it be so. The children
Of the men who fought for the success
fl revolt of I776, resisting a tax that
was not a 1.-THE of what the Irish Of that
day bore, viii know how to decide when
they see the scales with Ireland's wrongs
borne to the earth, and no weight Of tes-
timony on the other side. They know
that whereas their fathers had but few
the sons Of Ireland have many wrongs
10 redress, and that their grievances
must be great, receiving, as they do, the
Endorsement Of the millions that have, |
and do yet, groan under them. Mr.
Froude paints sometimes with accuracy, |
but always with the coIors of q Tory ad-
mirer OF England, Of the English mon
archy and English methods Of ciyiiza-
ton. It would be too much 10
expect that the historian who has
devoted a great ability 10 the
bolstering Of Queen Elizabeth acts o.
murder and intolerance would DO justice
70 the "mere Irish, " the "wild lrish,p
who gave herso much trouble and whom
she sought to cOneiliaUe by imprisoning
and beheading th~eirleaders. The hronic
discomfort Of these Irish, who have been
libeled and belittled wherever England
has or has had supremacy, must be ac-
counted for, and it viii not DO in this
day and time Of Geneva affiliations TO
leave il to Irish hearts aud hands to do.
And so the eminent historian Of Eliza
beth, who has in twelve volumes given
earnest Of his devotion and fealty to the
English system, emerges from his Irish
home TO turn American sympathies
from Ireland, where so many Of them
can look as to the home Of their
fathers. or course he will fail.
The Irish heaven has leavened the
whole lump. American ~sympathies
have worn B way 70 the very heart OF
ireland. II nothing else existed to win
and forever attach this sympathy, the
existence Of the accused penal laws and
the destruction Of Irish manufactures
and industry by English Parliamentary
acts (admitted by Froude) would alone
suffice. Who a forget that Ireland
vas fnst forbidden to manufacture her
WOOL. and next wa compelled to sell ii
England for six pence per pound,
rhence France offered thiTty-siX pencee
Kho can forget that it was made trans
~,ortation and death to preach Christ
srueihed, according to the ancient faitL
Of ireland; that her people under the
same penalties were forbidden 10 receive
education, save through the channel OF
the Established Church, and that Epis-
copalians had only TO put a price and
tender it for whatever a Catholic
had to possess himself oft; who can re-
member this Odious tyranny which in
vaded the sanclity Of home and set a
price upon the fundamental moralities,
without execraung the England Froude
seeks 10 defend? Who can think Of the
denunciati0ns Of Flood, Grattan, Cur
ran, OfConnell, Mitchell and Meagher,
and, a. Ffoude admits, the existing an
tagonism or three-fourths OF the Irish in
Ireland, and all the Irish out Of it, with
out coming 10 a conclusion adverse 10
that to which Elizabetb's historian
points. He has surely come to a goats
house for wool. Nay, does il not
amount to bald-faced impudence in him
70 confront the descendants OF expatria-
ted Irishmen, beginning with those who
proved the sturdiest sons Of New
England, and ask them 10 decide
in favor Of the kingly rule
and parliamentary ruin wrought by
England in Ireland. Standing in pres
ence OF the children OF Thomas Adds
Emmett, Of NeviH and all the exiles OF
'9s, and confronting the Patriots OF rs
how could this man defend a system
that made Il possible for them to be
what and where they are. Surely the
insufierable impotence Of the British
Lion Is not impaired and he Is still de-
termined TO be heard above the voices OF
his victims crying to Heaven, "How
long, o Lord, how long 3" No mission
IN modem times VIII prove so barren q
failure as this ofFrOude, who stamps the
queen Of Scots with the marx Of the scar.
let woman. We know here by the light
Of Republican liberty how utter a failure
the English Colonial system is, and how
all freedom IS killed by British manuac-
turers wherever English guns can reach,
and it will not take US long TO give one
brief verdict in Ireland's case and de-
mand that by the will of her
people she go freei free to work