The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-01-19

ments but that which controls the Irish
people, encourage, and not impede,
the sacred missions of charity ALI
races on earth but one deem woman
most worthy of reverence when, in re-
spouse to. the cry of need, she passes
the threshold of her house and brings
comfort and assistance to these who
suffer and those who are in need. It
has been reserved for the present gov
eminent of England, led on by the as
sailant of foreign despotisms, the cham-
pion of the women of Bulgaria, to stig-
Matte public spirit as lawlessness, to
strike at charity as crime, and to
threaten the ladies of Ireland-the
pride of their ccuntry-with the pen
allies of the common jail. The men
who act thus are conscious Of the
enormity of their crime against de-
cency, justice and law. They fear ale
ready the consequences that may flow
from their last exploit. They did not
enter upon it with light hearts. i4i
Though they fill the press with re-
ports of their arrangements to imprison
Irish ladies, yet we see they have eau
ton enough still left to refrain from
any proposal to arrest these ladies on
reasonable suspicion" They shrink,
and well they may, from the issue of
such course, and they evade imme-
date responsibility by lnstructing their
subordinates to call upon the magis-
trates to send members of the ladies'
league to prison. 1t is yet to be seen
how the magistrates will respond to a
call of so novel and perplexing char
acter. They may come to the con-
clusion that the men who prepare the
prison ought to be the men to fill it.
But, undoubtedly, whatever the magis-
trates may do, the fate of this govern
ment is sealed. In opening declar-
alton of war against women they have
taken the final step on the road to
ruin. Our advice to you, fellow coun-
trywomen, is that you. will not allow
them to escape the doom which their
acts are about to draw upon them. Do
not abandon for a moment the noble,
the sacred work in which youa are en-
gagged. Treat with scorn the, threaten
ed attempts to intimidate you. Bear
in mind that a proclamation from Dub
lin castle does not stand in the place
of law, that law is neither made nor
unmade by such productions, and that
that there never can be any, to attach
a criminal character to benevolence.
We counsel you to do as much as
may be needful to shelter, and feed,
and clothe and save from all privation
your poor neighbors, whom coercion
may have deprived of tfieir breadwin-
ners, or whom landlords may have
driven from their homes. If police
men would intrude upon you without
due authority oblige them to resort to
force. Pursue your mission calmly and
with prudence, affording no advantage
to the instruments of lawless power. If
you are brought before magistrates for
assisting your fellow-creatures do not
give any bail to be "of the peace" or
to be "of good behavior" Against
peace you do not offend, and your be-
havior needs no improvement at the
hands of British reformers. Upon the
government, who in many ways facili-
tate eviction, who helped to ruin honest
men, who put out the fire upon the
hearth, and condemn the toiler's FAM
lily to the highway, upon them cast the
crushing responsibility of their action
if they dare to interpose between the
messengers of charity and the victims
of oppressive law. The women of Ire
land now are as resolute in her cause
as ever they were at any former time,
and your fellow-countrywomen win so
encounter unmanly artifice that the Ire
land of our time will be happier for
your heroism, and your. children who
are yet to come will bless you.
We are, with deep regard, your faith
full servants, Joseph G. Biggar, Thos.
Sexton, Richard Lalor, Arthur O'Con-
nor, F. H. O'Dornell.
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