The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-07-07

INSTRUCTIVE ADDRESS BY JOHN FERGUSON,
OF GLASGOW.
ulster Examiner. June Q.

" JbSb bbBub tuO u0W 1OA0 huIo 0nhS
Castle street, Newry, which was opened
few months since, was filed with large
audience on the occasion of q lecture by
Mr.. John Ferguson, of Glasgow, under the
auspices of the Newry Homo Rule Associ-
alton. The subject selected by the lectur-
or was "The Present Aspect of the Nation
al Cause" and throughout its delivery it
was listened to with the utmost attention.
Shortly after eight O'Clock, Mr.. Ferguson,
accompanied by several gentlemen, enter.
ed the hall, aud was received with loud
cheers.
Mr.. John Ferguson came forward amid
loud and continued cheering, and said:
Mr.. Chairman and gentlemen, am here
tc-,ight at the request of the Newry
branch of the Home Rale organization.
That branch selected my subject, and q
more useful one it woald not have been
possible to select. It is not by aoy means,
however, the most popular subject that
could have been selected. It would have
been more agreeable, doubtedly, to the
audience, and perhaps easier to the speak
or, to have selected one of the stirring his
torical subjects in which it would have
been possible to have brought up the back
pages of bygone times, and to have stirred
the hearts of the audience with those events
in which Irish history abounds. Had we
heard the witnesses of historic fancy, and
gone down the valleys of time; had we
exhausted ourselves with that glorious
period when Ulster swept the English to
the gates of Dublin, and stout Phelim had
his own rale in Newry town or were you
to have pictured that glorious uprising of
the worth of the men of 'Se, when one hun
dred thousand Protestant gentlemen threw
themselves into the nations arms, and
enunciated the celebrated declaration
from the church at DuDgannop, there
would have been plenty to catch the pop
lar ear. There would have been grandeur,
no doubt, in the contemplation of the
characteristics of the great men of those
times-Henry GrattaD, towering head
and shoulders in moral and Intellectual
stature above all his fellows, man the
power of whose genius and the breadth of
whose spirit and federation not only disc
armed the bigotry of his own co-religiopist,
but caused those who had been suffering
to forget their blood and their tears, and
turn and grasp the outetretched hand of
their Protestant countrymen before the
altar of Irish nationality cloud cheering.)
But, gentlemen, my subject tonight is
drier, more practical, and therefore
more useful to one (hear, hear.) The land
people of England. Ireland, and Scotland.
Trade is dying. The manufacturing towns
of England are no longer pouring forth
their goods to foreign markets as in former
times (hear.)
THOUSANDS OF OPERATIVES ARE STARVING.
capital is no longer remunerative, wages
are being reduced, and no one can clearly
see the daylight through the darkness
which has settled over the trade of the
country (hear, hear, and appiause.) AL
ready riot and disorder in the streets have
indicated the possibility of still more an
archy aud disorder as the pinch of poverty
becomes greater. Now, we look across the
sea from England, and we observe France,
Belgium, and some parts of Germany en-
,R >arsA
every department of manufacture and in
dnstry been fully employed (hear, hear.)
We ask how is this / invite yon to look
at the figures of the subject. Up to the
year 1873 we had a continued increase in
our exports for at least twenty years. We
had touched the enormous figure of &250,-
600 600 in 1873, and since then our exports
have decreased with frightf1l rapidty.
We have lost ESQ 600 900, or nearly a
quarter of the whole, in four yeare. Now,
it is obvious tlat with an increasing pop
ulation aud decreasing trade the pres
[hear, hear How is that to be removed,
ls the question. 1syour trade to disappear
before foreign competition tor foreign
competition ia undoubtedly the cause OF
the decrease in our exports. Jewelry
from Switzerland and France can beat
Birmingham Belgian ore is coming into
the very centre of the iron districts of
Great Britain and beating English manu-
facturers. Cotton goods have been sur
passed in the market, and even the Last
trade which Ireland has succeeded in re-
taining-the linen trade-has given way
before Belgian competition (hear, hear.)
| A perusal of the statiatics annually pub
lished by the Uleter Flax Association will
prove that this is the case Now, before
proceeding further, 1 will simply direct
attention to period when something
analogous to the present condition of things
existed in Great Britain-I mean the peri
cd about quarter of q century ego, on the
repeal of the Corn Laws. Robert Golden
called that repeal ga shaking out of the
reef in our sails which would give us an
Gtn9r ge %as aiIet rigbt " Bst CobSen " aso Foressw
that at the end Of that period of time we
would require to shake out another reef
a still larger rector our trade would die
away (app!ause) He foreeaw that that
would be the first reform that England
would have to accomplish, and he said that
the repeal of the Corn Laws would be as
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