The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1873-06-29
Bismarck on Ireland.
Your attached old friend,
W. L. II
W. I. H.

From the speech delivered by Prince
Bismarck on the occasion of the discussion
of the government of Alsace and Lorraine
in the German Reichstag, we extract the fol-
lowing passage in which the man of blood
and iron falls foul of the Catholic Church
in his customary manner:
Our task is rendered very irksome by
the working of those elements which, even
machinery of the government is not equally
strained, have prevented us from enjoying
the consciousness of complete interior peace
and have called forth religious and other
conflicts. There is nothing new in the ac-
count of the arms and means used by these
elements for the purpose of making it diff
cult for non Catholic government to Sc
cure the sympathies gifts Catholic subjects,
nay, even to rule them. From the great
and admirable concord and harmony which
exists in the evOlutions of these elements
we may infer that under similar circum-
stances their working must likewise be
similar. therefore believe am not stray
ing from the question in reading q frag-
ments of a diplomatic report to you respect
ing the difficulties existing between the
royal government of Great Britain and its
Irish sui, ects. The writer of this report
says :-"Although the Ultramontane papers
do not go quite 80 far as the radical prints,
behavior is In other respects all the more
injurious to the welfare of the country
The leaders of Ultramontanism know very
we'll that at the present moment open in
surrection would lead to no. other result
than a complete defeat of the insurgents,
which would be followed by q reaction
and coerion (Besehrankang) of the Ultra
montana party, if it had Joined in the
movement. Still less than for open rebel
lion, however, do they care for reconcilia-
ton of parties, calming of passions and q
peaceful solution of the Irish question.
while keeping strictly within the limits of
the law, are constantly engaged in exciting
the people, in keeping up their i'll feeling
against the Protestant part of the popula-
ton, undermining the respect of the laws
and the authority of the government, and,
while ostensibly exhorting to tranquility
AND martyrdom, they keep on stirring the
fire (schuren sic), fostering disaffection and
discord among the people, and by misre-
presentation of facts, distortion and exag-
geration, keeping the old sores open and
hatred and contempt of government alive.
a state of alarm, their sole object is the
omnipotence of Rome. They are trying
to make themselves indispensable to the
government aud sell their influence az
dearly as possible to the rulers, without
giving them any substantial advantage in
return. AT present the Ultramontane or
gans are endeavouring to shake the con-
fdenceof the people in the integrity of the
judges, and are doing their best to pro-
mote the Home rule movement"
They must be horrid people, these Ultra
montanes, who are thus taken to book by
some young understrapper of the Prussian
embassy. If all the diplomatic reports
sent to Bismarck are as conspicuous for
their veracity as the one just given is by
its Misrepresentation of facts and the ig-
norance it displays, all we can say is that
no government in the world is kept better
informed than the Prussian.