The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-02-28
John Mitchell and Old Ireland.
louisville Courier-Journal. Feb. 10.

John Mitchell and Old Ireland.
louisville Courer-Journal, Feb. 10.
There was an interesting debate in the
House of Commons last evening. John
Mitchell has been elected to a seat in that
body, and Mr.. Dsraeli opposed his admis
sion on the ground that he had been con-
victed of felony and banished, aud had
never been pardoned. The story of the
packed jury, of the unjust proceedings,
and the extraordinary ruling of the court
under which Mitchell was convicted, was
brought up, and the expressions of Ireland
for the past half dozen centuries were vivid
ly presented in the light of the nineteenth
century.
The long catalogue of prosecutions of
which England has been guilty really pre-
sents a disgraceful picture of brutality and
wrong, and reproduction Of the story will
greatly excite the people of that outraged
island, particularly rs they have by no
means derived the full benefit of the hui
name and liberalizing Influences of the pre-
sent century.
There are many Irishmen who do not
appreciate the rigorous prescription to
which their ancestors were subjected. All
of them do not know that for some CEN
turtles after the reigu of Henry III. Irishmen
were killed like game, and that there was
no law Furnishing English poachers. 1t is
likely, As an old historian tells US, that
doss even were used, aud as the O'Connors,
| the OLeaiys, and the McDonalds, ard all
the other Macs and O's, bolted from the
thicket, they were hagged by English
sportsmen, who took stands aud brought
! down their game with as much Zest AS the
Englishman of the present day brings to
the ground stag or a wild boar. With the
accession of Henry II. came the 1.-THE sAs
! TEN, to which it ia estimated about one
million of ltves were sacrificed aud for a
long time afterward Iiishmen were excud-
ed from every species of office it was
made high treason to marry with the Irish
| blood, and feloay to permit an Irishman
to come into religious houses. Captain
Rock, in his celebrated "Memoirs," tells
of an occurrence which took pace as late
az the reign of Henry VII. which is illus
trative. When the Earl of Kildare, aided
by good many Irish chiefs who fought in
| the English army, gained great victory
over the Irish Insurgents, Lord German.
stown, after the battle, aaid, turning to the
Earl 1--WE have now slaughtered our
enemies, but, t" complete the good deed, we
must proceed yet further and cut the throats
of those Irish of our own party" And
! Leland gives the same anecdote upon the
authority of an Engishman. Henry VIII.
did rs bad, and little worse, and bis
daughter, the good Queen Elizabeth, on
hearing that O'Neal was preparing for an
insurrection, gave the key-n" to the po
licy of her reign. "Be not dismayed," said
she !; "tell my friends if he arise it viii
turn to their advantage-thcre wH be eS
tdteS for those rhO ,rdmt." Soon after THU
prophetic speech Munster was destroy e
by fire and sword, Sir Walter Releigl
butchered the garrison of Limerick in cole
blood, after selecting seven hundred to bt
hanged, and Goo, 600 acres Of land were for
! feited to the Crown. Only two centnrie
and a half ago Montjoy compelled Iris
rebels to massacre each other, and two no
bemen, who were English commanders
, saw three children feeding on the flesh o
, their dead mother. James |. c0ntiscate
a nearly one million acres, and allowed hi
soldiers to indulge with impnnity in th
most Garharous outraEes upon the people
, Charles the FIRST black mailed them, an,
then betrayed them, and Cromwell con
, hscatcd two aud n half millions OF acres
, and tor five days continued the massacre G
, the Dr"ghoda garrison, to whom quartz
= had been promised. After certain da
y he decreed that any Catholic found out G
{ C"nnauPht should be punished with dealt
:. Like Moliere's hysiciaH, he scorned a
a tedious processes of determination, an
o While others meanly take whole months to say
/. Dispatched the grateful patient in IA day."
= A priests head was worth five pounds
Q goodly sum in those times. AS late q
Q the reign of the second George, priet
: who married an English subject to a Iris
It Catholic was punished with death.
n These facts are taken from authent
d history, and it is net wonderful that til
!, intelligent Irishman who is familiar wit
:, them should be bitter and rebellious. Dal
g ing the past half century much has bee
o done to appease this injured people, bt
: the relief has by no means been adequat
> to their wrongs and we may apply tn
g words of Sidney Smith, written in 1872
o with almost as much justice as he apple
: them to the English policy England
Il said he, "seems to have treated Irelan
9 much as Mrs. Brownrigg treated her ar
e prentice-for which Mrs. Brownrigg
), hanged in the first volume of the Newgat
l Calendar. Upon the whole, we think III
3 apprentice is better of than the Irishmar
as Mrs. Brownrigg merely starves an