The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-11-03
j. P, In N. Y Sun.

lLEGEs-ARIsToCRACYA A CURSE.
j. P, in n. Y Sun.
A happy people never leave their native
land. Official English statistics show TIL at
between 1915 and 1874, Great Britain lost
6,112. .9ll inhabitants by emigration to
foreign shores-mnch more than all the
rest of Europe together ia the same period.
The Significance and magnitude of this
figure may perhaps be better understood
when it is remembered that the whole
population of our original thirteen Colonies
or States was less than half that much !;
that it is more than third Of the whole
present population of England, Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales together, and abso.
lutely as much as the entire present popu
lation of both Ireland and Scotland. Nor
can this remarkable fact be all attributed
to Irish discomfort. The same English
statistics show in detail where these emil
grants came from /; and while 1T is true tn at
Ireland's proportion was very great. it is
also true that, considering the different
circumstances and the emigration from
other countries, England's and Scotland's
shares in those S.1l2,9ll wanderers was
extraordinarily large. What volume could
speak more emphatically than this simple
factf Why did these eight millions of
people leave their home and kin ard cross
oceans to seek new fatherlaud Because
there was loyalty aud nobility, roy atty and
church establishments, kings, princes,
lords, bishops, bankers, millionaires, paTks
and palaces, towers and churches, museums
and gafteries-but no bread! And why
did they need bread, who toiled aud strug
gled, while those who idled were rich aud
luxurious7 To keep up the noble fabric
of the British aristocracy! We catch the
glittering and glded glimpses of English
life, We admire ts traditions, love it's
Morship before the shrine of it's
Westminster Abbey, and-forget sthe un-
speakable misery and wretchedness in
which millions of the came race, in the
same country, and under the same Gov
ernment, exc out melancholy existence in
factories and collieries, in mines, fields,
docks, and chops above and below the,
earth. The rich and the powerful have
friends and champions, and artists and
painters and poets as we'll as f1atterers and
fankies and imitators. But~who is there
to go into the huts of equalor, who will
closely approach the foul air of destitution
to draw vivid painting of the life of the
poor and the ~lowlyf 1 would not, If
could, draw this picture darker than it is
in reality. But if there is anywhere in
Europe country whose people suffer to-
day more from the ulations and
privileges of an aristocracy; if there is
anywhere a more intense arstocracy than
in England; if there is anywhere people
more thoroughly educated not only to bear
but to cringe before their aristOcracy; if
there is any society anywhere more artifi-
cislly divided into castles and clans and
classes, to the destruction of the natural
rights of men, have certainly failed to
discover it. 1 state my Impressions only,
be they wrong or right. But verify be-
lieve that the hold of the English aristo-
cracy is such that even if it were put to a
vote of the middle classes W whether it should
be abolished, those middle classes would
vote to retain it. I use this as an example
and q comparison. There is no doubt that
the middle classes of every other country
in Europe would Immediately abolish all
aristocracy if they only could.
Invidious distinctions, inequality, inj u.s.
tice, unnatural privileges and powers on
the one eide, aud utter disregard of the
natural rights of men on the other, foster
ing care for the few, and Indifference for
the many, a Government for the classes
rather than for the masses, an almost
slavieh senee of submission and servility
to roy atty, q corresponding want of man
hood and self.respect, great wealth but
still greater paupersm-these venture to
call some of my Impressions of Eoglish
life. l wieh that either my time or your
space did not prevent no from enumera-
ting some instances of outrageous ipj uetice
that came to my knowledge, or some of
the cruel and barbarous game and forest
ants must suffer from landlords under the
law, or some of the instances of the diff
Guilty to any ordinary mortal to own land
or some of the evidences of the tendency
of concentration of all the lands in the
hands of the very few who already own
four tifths of all But as the administra
tion of justice is universally believed to
be one of the greatest excellences of the
British Government rather select anoth
or illustration. 1t would scarcely be
that the torture is still in use 10
this century. Yet such is the case. Under
the British flag. under an act of Parlia-
ment, and by off fcers of the Queen in this
very year of our enlig century, pun
ishments are inflicted for trivial offences
W hich the British judges Themselves are
to denounce as torture. While
was abroad this summer two young men
were charged with assault and disorderly
conduct before the Armagh Assizes in Ire
and. The charge was a trivial one.
There was nothing unusual in either the
charges or the testimony. Still the young
men were found guilty, and the Judge had
-n ban Roron in.