The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-08-08
NEW SERIES---NO. 8


words than those Of praise, and no other
sentiment than that of grateful recognition.
Reared, as many Of them had been, under
the hard rules OF prescription and grinding
exactlon pertaining to their mother lands.
they fought with ayigor for their new found
liberties, stimulated by the contrast which
happy experience had enabled them todraw
IN favor OF their adopted country. o. the
men who assisted at the second birth of our
Republic none there were who deserved a
larger need of credit than the natives and
descendants OF country which, for long
continued and extreme
SEVERITY OF OPPRESSION
| unrelieved by the commonest prlncipes of
justice, probably stands alone IN the history
of the world. For absolute despotism dur
ing comparatively limited number of
years, perhaps the rule of Turkey over some
OF her unfortunate dependencies may sur
pass all others; but for injustice at the in
ception, followed for centuries by acts of
oppression cruelty and dishonor the course
the English government toward the long
suffering Irish people must be denounced
as infamous in the extreme by every fair
mlIH II St m RBBsul to a.. ,. :.
shall we find man who, taxing Tito GJji if5
Iteration his field of action, rose to greater
stature as General ard hero than Brian
Boru, the Irish King, who finally defeated
and repealed the invading Danes at Clon-
tart, near Dublin, on Good Friday in the
| year A. d. 1914. Or, if we seek later in
stance, let us cite one to whom England
owes not only much of her military prestige,
butalso much Of her recent territory-a man
whom, in the general order to the army by
the Queen, is stated to have been ''the great
est commander England ever saw man
who saved Europe from the dominion of the
first Napoleon, and broke his power upon
the field of Wellington, THE
Iron Duke"-an Irishman by birth, if not
true lrishman in feeling. If we appeal to
the testof royalty where shall we find more
noble type during the twelfth century than
Roderick, who died as the last King of all
Ireland. If we turn to the test of states
manship, where shall we look for more
sagacious, more WISE a more just or a
more learned example than Daniel O'Con-
| nell, the man so dear to the Irish heart.
What more charming novelist is there than
| Goldsmith, whose "Vicar of Wakefield is
read in every tongue; and what more de-
| ightfu songster than the glorious Moore.
| The worlds "Tom Moore" whose melodies
ever fresh and ever new have brought more
pleasure to greater number Of people per-
haps than the similar productions of any
| other author.
There can be no successful charge of per-
verting the truth of history, or attempting
to appeal to the passions, when it is claimed
that the history of the Irish people, since
the English invasion, has been a long record
of
| PERSECUTION, INJUSTICE AND OPPRESSION,
which must always remain as a disfguring
mark upon the English character and the
English government.
Up to the time of the Conquerer the allo-
dial tenure was in vogue among the Eng
Iish people tenure which gave to the in
dividual the absolute right of property.
After the conquest, however,
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
was concurred in, a system which, as Black
stone says, declared that the king is the
universal lord and proprietor of all the
lands in his kingdom. This system pre-
vailed throughout all Europe from the
ninth to the thirteenth century, and under
it the conquest of Ireland and the contisca-
ton of private lands were attempted to be
justified But it is Il matter of record and
proof that in the sequestration Of the Irish
property not even the just requirements of
the fcudal system were complied with. The
whole storyis not one of fair conquest within
the scope or the civilization of that era, but
Of deception, of treachery, OF broken COM
pacts and eXccrable faith, through which
the rightu owners were turned out of pos
session; compelled to pay the lions share
Of their labor to Il titled class who
did not even live among them robbed of II
nationality, and, more than all, perhaps,
compelled to accept II religion not of their
own choosing, ut the point Of the sword.
There is scarcely parallel to it in history.
Feudality under the Romans even found it
not only lust but cxpedient and polite, to
give some privileges 10 the tenant, whereby
he could become interested in the land
itself Under the English system there
were no privileges in the present and no
hope in the future; there was general
estUngement of title and private robbery
and spoiMtion; under the claim of conquest
by force Of superior arms and power, sub
iugation was really effected by means UNI
known even to icudalism. Nor was the sub
iugation the act of year, nor yet of a de-
cade; nor was it the pure product of the
battlefield; but largely of intrigue too base
to bear the name of diplomacy Once be-
gun the end was gradually consummated
through centuries of wrong and injustice.
! As to oppressive laws, we may ransack all
the volumes of statutory cnactments ever
made by governments protesting lberality
and nothing will be found to equal
THE PENAL LAWS
madc by the British Government for the
Irish people, The former slave system of
our own free America was blot upon our
civilization which the people Of our times
have pretty cilcctually washed out; but to
those who have been attentive students of
all the details of Irish history, it must GER
minly appear that n wrong toward n suffer
ING people was perpctrated upon Irish men
and women by II government which
held up its hands in agony at the American
slave system, as great, in nearly all respects,
rs tlut inflicted by the slave drivers, For,
if you rob man of all he has in property;
if you take away his personal liberty, com
al him ,g ,,,,I g., ,.,n and ollaw him