The New York herald., 1872-10-19

English writer's and English statesmen have
SO persistently assured the outer world that
their country is peculiarly the home of free
dom that most people accept the statement
with unquestioning faith. Of course there is
in the partially informed mind some vague
notion that this happy, enviahle state Of per-
feet freedom is only enjoyed in it's purity
within the boundaries Of Albion proper. In
deed, no one would expect that the priceless
boon of freedom of discussion and political
action should be extended across the channel
which divides the Green Island from the white
cliffs. Liberty would only be thrown away
on the wild, poetic Celts, who, according to Mr..
Disraeli's notion, live in constant converse
with the melancholy ocean. This habit of
listening to what the wild waves say
having engendered quite an unreasonable
dislike in the Irish mind to freedom
loving Albion, Englishmen are obliged to
somewhat circumscribe the liberty of the po-
etic, emotional and somewhat violent Celts
This departure from the doctrines of freedom,
we are gravely assured, is entirely in the in
terest Of the Irish themselves, who, being
primitive and ingenious race are likely to be
humbugged into disloyalty, and even rebel
lion, by designing demagogues, unless the
staid and solemn English are prepared to
check any emotional demonstration by the
application of the bayonet. Only short time
SINCE in their anxiety for the proper instruc-
ton of the Irish people, the authorities
warned two Dublin papers; but as this
attack on the liberty Of the press happened in
Ireland it naturally attracted no attention,
Late advices from England, however, inform
us that the Postmaster General has issued an
order prohibiting the registration of Mr.. Brad
laughs paper for transmission abroad through
the mails. This is an unwarrantable
attack on the liberty of the press,
and we see no reason why the Eng
lish government should not take one step
more, and suppress all papers that are hostile
to it. If the Postmaster can violate the law
with impunity, then the right to freedom of
discussion is at an end. It may be tolerated,
but it has ceased to be right. Such liberty
as this the French press enjoyed under the
reign of Napoleon when his power was at the
highest; but the toleration of Prime Minister
is but poor exchange for the grand right Of
which Englishmen were once so proud. While
other nations are advancing in the road Of
progress, can it be possible that England alone
is retrograding and sinking back into that
slough of tyranny from which France is
emerging? Certainly it is not favorable
sign when so-called liberal and progressive
L. t1,ok1 1,ox hoov,
regarded as the most sacred. What protection
is there for Magma Charta, the Declaration of
Rights or any other bulwark Of the famed
constitution of England if power to write
and publish what they please be taken from
the people? The English people allowed
without protest, their government to enact
tyrannical laws, modelled after those Of the
French Empire. to crush freedom Of opinion
in Ireland, and it would now seem as if
poetical vengeance were about to fall on them
by the precedent being used against themselves.
We are convinced that the English govern
ment would not have swept away SO old and
respectable superstition as the complete
liberty of the press unless there existed some
cause more important than appears on the
surface. Can it be possible that in spite of
toady professions of loyalty from the middle
and upper classes, the spirit Of republicanism
is making dangerous strides among the masses
Of the English populations This would ap-
pear to be SO, as the only reasonable solution
of the action of the Postmaster General is
that the government was forced to choose
| hetween two evils. But whatever may have
been the motive, the attempt to interfere with
the liberty of the press must be regarded as
dangerous to freedom, reactionary and
especially damaging to the good repute O
England as the boasted home OF liberty and
free speech.
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