New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-08-27
THE BELFAST RIOTS,

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that most successful of teachers, expe-
rience, to regard the protestant religion"
(for they make no distinctions among the
various gects of Professionalism as hostile
to the welfare of Ireland, and Protestants
as their natural enemies. Catholicism in
Ireland is not only Christianity, the reli-
gion established by the Savior in person,
and transmitted by his chosen disciples IN
direct descent down to the present time,
the only form of faith whereby man may
be saved; it is also the national Church Of
Ireland, identified in the minds Of her
people with long years of heroic suffering,
and brief periods Of heroic struggle; with
her ancient glory as the isle Of
Saints at time when her hated
conqueror was a nest Of ignorant
savages; with a record Of resoIute opposi-
ton to foreign ecclesiastical encroachment
which more than three centuries Of per-
sistent tyranny has not been able to move
one jot; with a consciousness of spiritual
superiority far transcending in pride the
haughtiness that mere birth, even the
noblest, can inspire. Thus patriotism
and spiritual pride act and react on each
other to strengthen the ties which
bind Ireland to the Church of Rome. She
alone, of all the nations Of Northern
Europe, withstood the torrent Of the Re-
formation, and remained steadtast to the
ancient faith, distinction, in the estma-
ton of her children, cheaply purchased at
the cost of worldly prosperity. To the
average Irishman the tie Of a common
faith is stronger than that of a common
nationality, and an English Catholic is
nearer to him than an Irish Protestant.
Nay, the latter is regarded as his worst
enemy, a renegade, a traitor, an Orange
man, q "Cromwellian, for even to this
day the Irish peasant speaks with detesta-
ton Of the cruelties and tyrannies by
which the Protector sought to settle the
Irish question.
That question, it appears by the ac-
counts of the present disturbances in
Ireland, is not settled yet, although
several generations of English statesmen
have, since Cromwell's time, tried their
hands at it. Coercion has failed to sub
due, and Cancellation to satisfy the unruly
spirits Of the Isle Of Saints, perhaps be-
cause neither the one nor the other has
ever been thoroughly and consistently
tried, the English government, in spite
Of the efforts of her wisest statemen,
always refusing "to justice what she
afterward granted to fear. Thus, to
the French revolutionary war; and the
encouragement derived from it by the
Irish, was Ireland incidentally indebted
for the emancipation act; to the threat
ening attitude Of this country on the
boundary line question, for the DISPOSE
ton which subsequently manifested it.
self in the Maynooth grant. Seeing
intimidation so often prevail where reason
was impotent, and finding that every
concession made to them by the ruling
nation was wrung from it reluctantly and
accorded ungraciously after years Of
agitation, and only in seasons Of public
peril can it be wondered at that the Irish
people, by a natural association Of ideas,
have come to regard England's peril as
opportunity and tumultuous
agitation as the fttest means Of efecting
legislative reforms
Such is, unhappily, the present condi-
ton Of reland-a political volcano burst
ing forth periodically in torrents Of de-
vastating flames, ruinous to itself and
threatening to its neighbors. What is the |
mpelling cause Of the present disturb
ance is not veryapparent The telegraphic |
dispatches are meagre and obscure. We |
1nly know that there has been rioting in
Belfast; that religious luminosity seems the
cause, Catholics and Orange
men fighting and shooting each other in
gangs; that the city authorities
ire unable to quelI the disturbances, and |
hat they threaten TO extend TO other parts |
If the country. Amid the uncertainty
which characterizes the news We get, one
hing, however, is certain, namely, the
hronic disease caused by misgovernment,
which has afflicted Ireland for so many
ears, is not cured; neither the irritants
lor the palliatives prescribed by English
.uackery have reached the seat of the
disease. 1t has broken out afresh in an
cute form, and some new cure must be
ried for it. Neither caustics nor emoIlients
an have other than a temporary effect.