Warren sheaf., 1881-06-22
HOW HISTORY REPEATS.
A Trite But True Old Saw Exempliaed by the
Lives and Times of OConhen
AMI Parnel.

The Former VIII Live Forever In tho Hearts Of
His Countrymen, While the Latter's
Fame is More Perishable.
That 'shistory repeats ITSELF is trite but
truthful saying In all the revolutions and up
heavals that have taken place and thatare con-
tinually transpiring, both in the world OF
thought and of action, we find the exempliica-
ton of this aphorlsm. The apparent causes.
conditions and environments of each revolu-
ton or uprising may be entirely different, but
the source is the same. The germ IS that in
ward consciousness of a people that there is q
wrong to be righted, and that the interests Of
the masses and the existing laws are not in
harmony; and this consciousness, evolving into
sentiment and feeling, quickens into life and
action, and by its aggressiveness sweeps the
cobwebs from the legislative halls awakens
thought, renovates the body polite, and ulti-
mately secures the enactment of laws that are
more in consonance with and adapted to the
changed conditions of human affairs: Yes.
history repeats itself, and will continue 80 to
do, for we have no promise or assurance of
political Utopia on this earth. The almost
miraculous development of new conditions and
surroundings which are continually taking
place, aud must in the order Of evolution oc-
cur, necessitates not only change of base by
the people to meet the new require
ments, bu talso legislation to legalize the same;
sanction of law before it's benefits will be ap
preciable. We arc beyond the age when
took century to create an idea and evolve q
principle It is the conflict between existing
legislation and the new order of things that
and, no doubt, always will be, in advance of
legislation 1t is matter of history that no
just and equitable law WAS ever forced on =
nation by its legislators. 1t is ever the old
story of Runnymede, for every Magma Charta
and longing for liberty, and has been wrung
by sheer physical force from the hands of tho
oppressor.
1t is the slowness on the part of the British
government to appreciate the changed economic
conditions of the Irish peasantry, that is the
fertile cause Of nearly all the trouble now ex-
listing in that unhappy country. For centuries
every new law placed on the statute book of the
realm, touching Ireland, was but another link
forged to the long chain of tyrannical and un-
pie are but exercising the Goi-given right Of
agitation until their wrongs shall be righted:
but there is q radical difference between
agitation by constitutional methods, and agita-
ton by assassination and every conceivable
form of agrarian outrage.
A striking exemplifcation of the axiom that
''history repeats itself' is to be found in the
present prosecution by the English govern
ment of the leaders of the Irish land league.
Nearly forty years ago, Daniel OConnell, the
placed on trial for the share they took in the
great repeal agitation of 1S43. The circum-
stances and surroundings of the two periods
afford abundant materials for contrast and for
famine, had crossed the threshold of many
household; and history attests that there is
nothing so conducive to revolution as an empty
stomach. In both cases, also, the passions of
the people were played upon through the me-
dunn eff their wrongs, and in both periods the
government of the day was much perplexed in
the discharge of its first duty, which is to
maintain order with firm hand, and yet. at
the same time, not infringe unnecessarily upon
the liberty of the subject Other conditions
tween the two epochs. but these will suffice
So far there is q parallel, which, however, does
not reappear until we come to the government
prosecutions All between these two points is
contrast. In the first place, take the principal
leaders of the two movements. In the whole
range of history it would be difficult to find
two men, engaged in the same enterprise, among
the same people, with the same elements to
contend with and within the comparatively
short period of forty years, SO utterly unlike
Daniel OConnell, the greatest of 1rishmen,
when he appeared as criminal at the bar of
justice, had already done immense service for
his country. He was the hero of Catholic
emancipation. He had unselfshly thrown up
most honorable and lucrative law practice in
order that he might devote all his time and his
splendid talents for what he conceived to be
his country's good, and we read that he actual
ly Impoverished himself and family in acting
the part of patriot.
AF ! I
nothing for his country. While advising the
tenants of all other landlords to abstain from
the payment Of rent. he, a landlord owning
rich and valuable estate of over q, 600 acres,
has been careful and considerate enough of the
welfare of the Parnells to collect every cent of
his own rents; and when these other landlords,
whom he takes SO much pride in denouncing
and ostracising, had remitted to their poor ten
ants from ten to forty per cent. of the rents, we
learn that Mr. ParnelPs agent absolutely re-
that subject OConnell was o Roman Catholic;
Parnell is Protestant. O'Connell was a
born orator, a massive man physically fitting
dwelling place for so large heart He was
= man OF broad human sympathy. His face,
mis- biographer tells us. ''was capable Of ex
pressing the most rapid alienation of mood,
and voice which, in it's power, its pathos, it's
passion and its music, won reluctant admira-
ton from his bitterest enemies" Mr..
Parne]l is altogether unheroic in appearance
small III stature, bitter and acrid in speech,
and possessed Of squeaky and screechy
voice. The orator of forty years ago was 4
warm-hearted and sympathetic man, whose
very soul beat in sympathy and accord with
the feelings and aspirations of his country for
greater liberty, and whose poverty was
sure and true index of the stern reality and
consclentiousness of the sentiments he uttered
He also excelled as wit; his mot that ssDisraeli
was a lineal descendant of the unrepentant
thief on the cross'' has become celebrated The
agitator of to-day is characterized by hard