Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-12-27
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Inent, was effected in 1923, or little
over fifty years ago. The State of
Great Britain for a generation after
that is thing profoundly import
ant for Americans of the present
generation to study. We see the
fatal blunders that were made by
both England and Ireland in those
days, and, il we look, we may see
i'm this day the bitter end which
those mistakes have brought about, 7
and if we are wise we may so guide /
our conduct so as to avoid like +,
bitter end for the coming generation
of this nation.
1t soOn-became apparent that the /
emancipation bill was to answer /
the purpose of its English supporters /
in driving the Tories from their
long tenure Of power and seating
their Wing antagonists on their
vacated chairs. The Wing vote in
the House of Commons was rein
forced by a large Irish contingent,
which did not, however, bring it-up
To a majority at once. Parliament
airy reform was the question which
engaged the United efforts of the
English Wings and the Irish Cath
oiics-to carry; the rotten bOroughs
constituted the last stronghold of
the Tory party, giving them the
power 10 virtually appoint some
thirty or forty members to the
House Of Commons, and so keep up
their waning majority. Hence there
was desperate fight for four years,
which eliminated in the spring Of
1892, when the reform bill was car
ried ami no one could any longer sit
in the House OF Commons unless
elected. The new Parliament which
was elected Immediately after this
contained a large majority against
the Tories, made up OF English
Wings and Radicals and Irish Cath
Olics.
Ii soon became manifest that the
Catholic emancipation bill had been
supported in England not for relig-
iOus but for political purposes, and
that, except for the purpose of sup
porting the Wings in Office, Lord
Grey and his colleagues in the new
Wing Cabinet had very little use
for the Irish contingent. Indeed
for the Protestant feeling was still
very strong in lEngland), it was
necessary for the Wings to make
repeated protestations that they
were allied with their Irish sup
porters only to a limited extent and
for limited purposes. Meanwhile
the Tories now in opposition worked
the Protestant feeling of the English
with immense force against their tri-
umphant antagOnists. They charged
them with what was then looked
upon as the reasonable purpose of
destroying the Protestant estab-
lished church for the satisfaction of
their Irish allies. Could the Wings
have controlled these allies il would
have been an easy time with them,
but the Irish members were led by
two men of great ability and COM
manding elOquence, Daniel OCOn-
mel and Richard Labor Shiel; and
under their guidance they soon
made it plain that they did not in
tend To act as a mere make-weight
in the Wing majority. They pro-
claimed a policy of their own and
eagerly worked for two measures,
for one openly, the repeal of the
union, and for the other covertly,
the abolition OF the Protestant
Church establishment in Ireland.
They thus became a thorn in the
side of their Wing friends, who
could not if they would have carried
such measures in the British Parlia-
ment, and most of them would not
IL they could. 1t was the policy OF
the Tory opposition to charge the
Wings with secretly intending to
aid their Irish supporters in for
warding these measures, a charge
which the Wings Indignantly de-
MED.
The Wing majority, however,
was at first large enough to make
the Cabinet independent of the
Irish party, but this did not last
long. 1t was soon found that the
Wings We're not entirely united
even among themselves; Lord
Melbourne, for instance, and Lord
John Russell, with others, were in
favor of further concessions to the
Irish Catholics. They did not go
the length Of abOlishing the Irish
Church establishment, but proposed
cutting down her revenues, abolish
ing some preferments where the
clergy had literally nothing to do,
and after providing literally for the
really working clergy to apply the
surplus to secular purposes. Against
this other members Of the Cabinet,
such as Lord Grey, the Prime Min
lister and Lord Stanley, afterward
Earl Of Derby, angriIy protested
and refused their cooperation.
O'COnnel aud the Irish members
did not let this quarrel heal for
want Of aggravatiOn; he denounced
Lords Grey and Stanley a. fiercely
as he had denounced the Tory lead
rs and heaPed praises on Mel
bourne aud Russell. The Tory
leaders were Of course delighted.
''See these men," they would say,
these acconIplices Of the spoilers
Of the Church and the dividers Of
the kingdom, English statesmen
doing the bidding Of Irish Papists
and traitors'-charges which the
Wings could not admit for fear of
their English supporters, nor deny
too Peremptorily fer fear Of the Irish