The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-12-08

OWB WSltlnS LOT tie tu1e r.
n the plow or the spade into the bouptiful
,arth-waiting for an owner. SO the ESg :
ish came from every direction to get Lnis
AIR land of Ire.and-the fairest under Hea-
ron. Crom we'll settled down his troopers
rough, Puritan soldiers. who
same to ireland with the Bible in one hand
and the sword in the other. They tooH
of the country, and, according
To Mr.. Froude, here is the benefit tnaS re-
suited from Cromwelrs transplantati0n.
into a garden !" All the bogs were drained,
all the fields were fenced in, and all tne
meadows were NOV ed, all the falow fields
were plowed, and the country was smihhe
in peace! There never was anything 30
fine seen in ireland, as the state OK tu .t
that, the poor Irish peasantry that were
harassed aud plundered by the priests, anu
bishops, and chieftains. DOW enjoyed peacs
and quiet and comfort as the sertons %
the new English owners and possessoEs "a
the soil! Well, wish for lreland.s sake
that this picture were true. l would nave
no objection to see one-half of Ireland IN
the hands, for q time, of the Engiish SOU
tiers, if the other half was possessed ny
the Irish, and they lived there happy anu
teen years, Of which Mr.. Froude SPEAKS,
must have begun in 1853, because it was
only in September Of that year that the
English Parliament declared the war oVor
in ireland. Up to that time there was war
and bloodshed. Now there was peace but
| what kind of peacei Oh, my friends, they
made q solitude, they made desest, ana
| he calls it peace! He calls it peace. ana IL
was.a peaceful desert!
Oliver Cromwell died in 1858: and now
the "garden," Mr.. Froude's "garden"-
at tbaSrime:s -
"IsefAod, in the language of Scripture,
no~ lay void as a wilderness. Five-sixths
tof hsr people had persisted. Men, women
and children were found daily pertaining In
tho ditches-starved. The bodies OF mHny
wandering orphans, whose fathers had EN-.
barked fae Spain and whose mothers had
y died Of awine were preyed upon by the
wolvesnr
In the years 1862 and 1853, o terrible
famine had swept over the whole country
so that a man might travel twenty or thirty
miles and not see q living creature. Map,
ted those desolate places. The troopers
would tell stories Of places where they saw
q smoke-it was SO rare to see either nre or
smoke by day OF by night. In TWO or three
! cabins where the soldiers went, they found
none but aged men, women and children,
who, in the words of the Prophet, had "be-
come like bottle in the smoke-their skins
black like an oven, because of the terrible
famine" They were seen to eat the filthy
carrion out of the bitches, black and rot
|
even said that they took tae corpses out of
!, the graves. A party of horsemen, out
hurting " Tories on q dark night deserted
, q light, and thought it was fire which the
Tories had made. They used to make fires
in those waste places, to cook their food
and warm themselves. Drawing near, they
saw that it WAS ruined cabin. Surround
ing it on all sides, some of them alighted
and peeped in at tho window; and there
D they saw a great FIRE Of wood, and sitting
women and children and there, between
3 them and the fire, corpse lay broiiing,
, which, as the fire roasted it, they cut and
. ate."
|, The year before Cromwell died, in 1867,
we find a member of the Irish Parliament,
Major Morgan, declaring that the whole
land of Ireland was in ruins. "For, be-
sides the csst," he says. " Of rebuilding the
. churches and court-houses, and the market
3 houses, they were under very heavy charges
. for public rewards, paid for the destruction
/ of three beasts." What do you think the
T Il .e beasts - were The wolf, the priest
D ana the Tory! Now let me explain the
, state of this "garden" to you. During
J, those fifteen years, of which Mr.. Froude
. speaks SO hatteringly, there was actually
: the city of Dublin, on the north Size, that
/ | is to say, on the most cultivated side.
2 to q man-with an abatement of one han
Q dred pounds year in his rent-provided
. he would engage to kill the wolves. ihs
0 wolves increased in ireland from the desc
!. late state of tho coustry. They fed apor
D the carcasses of men and beasts; and they
: increased in ireland, 90 that, actually they
O came fan,ished up to the very gates OF DUO
n lin, and had to be driven away! Does Thu
It look like "garden n La this the kingdom
It of peace, plenty and happiness, where tn
Irish peasant was, at length, getting fat il
II comfort, where everythin was peace an.
= serenity, where the bogs were all drained
and the fields were SO carefully fenced IN
!, by the dear Crom wellians that had got pos
!, session of the land! When the relics of til
# Irish army were embarkinG for Spain, som
n the Irish officers had their dogs-magn,h
"a cent Irish wolf dogs-which they wante
-. to take with them, but they were stopped
ID and the dogs were taken from them, for th
~ purpose of hunting the wolves that infeste
as the country. That is my fret answer t
20 Mr.. Froude's assertion that Ireland was
ne "garden."
The second "beast" mentioned by Majo
y, Morgan, in the Irish House of CommO1I
70 was the priest. He was to be hunted dow