The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-07-30
81 forming Star and Catholic Messenger.
NYW uRLRAMs. SUNDAY. JULY 20. is7S
IRISH HOME RUzE MOVEMENT
|sY A. N. SULLIVAN, EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN
RATION AND N. p. FOR COUNTY LoUTH.

RATION AND n. p. FOB COUNTY LoUTH.
~ tcsshono world for July1
IContinued.l
When, on Friday evening, the 18th O
ii Septem Der, 1865, the British government
y aaizcd the leading members OF the Feniar
Society and flung them into Richmond Jail
it became consideration of come dihcnlty
with the prisoners and TIER h iEle1as nov
I enc sense they had plenty of counsel to
4 s,hoose from. Such occasions are great OPP
Dortunities for briefess advocates to strike
In. like ambitious authors of Enacted plays
\ who nobly offer them to be performed on
THANKSGIVING day or for some public char
ity. No doubt the prisoners could have
had attorneys and lawyers OF this stamp
i easily enough but it was not every man
whom they would trustequally. for, his abil-
ity and his honesty Besides, there was
the money difficulty. The crown was
TO retain men of the front rank ct the bar
would coat them thousands of pounds to
retain men of inferior position would be
worse than useless. Could there be found
amongst the leaders of the Irish bar even
one man bold enough and generous enough
to undertake the desperate task and pro.
fracted labor of defending these men,
leaving the question of fee or remunera-
tionsto the chaRce of funds being forthcom-
inef What of the great advocates of the
state trials OF lS43 and 1887 Holmes
cIaYam ct venerable fonsen-dead! Shie!-
gone too Whiteside--on the bench OLA
San-als6 o judge; Sir Colman OIoghlen
"a crown prosecutor Butt-yes, Butt,
even then in the front rank, the most skill
full, the boldest, the most eloquent, and
-znost generous of them all-he is just the
aman Where is Butt Z
Where, indeed9 He had to be searched
and sought for, 30 utterly and so sadly had
o great figure silently disappeared from the
forum. Thirty years before Isaac Butt was
tho Young hope Of Protestant conservatism,
the idol of its salons. He had barely
passed his majority when he was elected to
The professorship of Political Economy IN
Trinity College; and, at an age when such
to a "niik gown" as Queens counsellor at
the bar. Yet there was always about
young Butt an intense Irishism; he was o
high spirite d Protestant, chivalrous con-
aeryative; bUteven In that early time the ca
gle eye of o. Council detected in him an Irish
heart and love of the principles of iber-
ty that would yet, so he prophesied, lead
Butt into the ranks of the Irish people.
The English Tory leaders enticed him over
TO London, and sent him to Parliament for
one of their Observation-Disclosures. They
made much of him-and were his ruin. In
the whirl Of parliamentary life, IN the fas,
cination of London society, he abandoned
his professional business and fell into debt,
difficulty, and dissipation. Had he been
less independent and lees self willed, he
would no doubt have been richly placed by
liis ministerial fIiende. Somehow or an
other he and they drew apart as he went
sullenly and recklessly downward. In
1864 he had almost dropped out of sight,
having just previously ceased to ait in Par
hament.
To the solicitation to undertake the de-
fsnse of the. Fenians prisoners he responded
by giving them it may be said, three whole
, years of his professional life. He flung
himself into shat fight for the men In the
dock with the devotion, the enthusiasm, the
desperate energy of o man striving for life
p itself. His genius and ability, conspicuous
before, shone out more than ever. He was
admittedly the hrst lawyer Of his day and
now not only the crown counsel but the
judges on the bench felt they were dealing
with their master. OF money he took 10
thought. Indeed, in the best and worst
days of his fortune he gave it little heed.
He has been known in the depth of his diff
ficulties to hand back special fee OF
hundred guineas which he knew poor
client could not spare, and the same day
pay his hotel bill with check doomed
never to be cashed. The incident is unfor-
tunately only too typical of one place Of
his nature.
Three OF four years immersed in such
labors--one protracted series of etate trials
al. dealing in the most peintnlIy reallsCl'
way with the problem of Ireland's destiny
could not fail to have profund effect on {
man like Butt. Meantime, he grew intt
immense popularity. His bold appeals fol
the prisoners, which soon came to be the
sentiments Of the man rather than tn,
pleadipgs of the advocate, were read will
avidity in every peasant's cottage ant
workman's home. The Fenians broken ant
defeated as an organization, yet still rami
flying throughout the country, looked t
him with the utmost gratitude and conf
dence. Under his presidency and guidanc
= a society called the Amnesty AssociaSiO
was established for the purpose OF obtain
ing the royal clemency for at least some
the Fenian convicts. A series of maeI
meetiugs under it's auspices were he'll
throughout the island and were the large
>1assemblages seen in Ireland since the RI
peal meetings of Tara and Mullaghmast.
hne, Mr. Butt found himself Popul'
leader, at heheadof, at all events, the pr
Fenian section of Irish political element
and daily becoming power in the countr