The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1885-12-19
a Err END OF / Ella I! ND.
Brave Words From an EngIshman Joseph
Oowen, NJ. P, at New Oastle-on-
Protestant Minority Under an Irish Par
lament Whisperings Of Politicians
Repudiated.

49, ss N
generates the herdsman is to blame,'
is a maxim, said Mr.. Cowen. as old as
Socrates. Ireland has degenerated I'M
der English rule, and England is to
blame; and those who cite Scotland as
an instance Of what England has done
for a country in a similar situation to
Ireland, forget, or do not know that as
regards Scotland, it is a Union, while
as regards Ireland it was a Conquest.
Before England planted her foot in
that country. Mr.. CoWen told his hear
ers, ireland, after the SIX centuries
which followed the introduction Of
Christianity, was the seat of the indus
trial arts and the Schoolof the West.
:. Residence was considered essential
to establish a literary reputation, and
| they were Irish missionaries who first
presented to the illiterate Saxon the
rudiments of literature, science, archl-
! lecture, music, and even the means OF
shaping the letters used IN writing
the English language. Old St.sPaul's"
he added, ''in London, and the magni-
fcent group that stands at Westmin-
| ster Hall, were of Irish design. At
that time ireland was the Christian
Greece the centre Of scholastic en-
! lightment and enterprise. " Mr. CoWen
then traced in his own picturesque
language the result Of the various Brit
| ish enterprises in the country from the
| Anglo-N ornans down to the present
day, and he told his English listeners
that when they detained against Irish
| ignorance they should remember the
penal laws that left over four millions
of people unable to read when
they reproached the Irish with
want of manufactures, they should re-
call the Williamite Statutes; and when
they rail against Irish ingratitude,"
! they should not forget that every Eng
lish concession mas been shorn Of grace
and merit By long delay and by being
Welded to pressure rather than convic-
ton and sympathy. Without claiming
any confidence in his own powers of adj
yocacy Mr.. Cowen asked for any twelve
of his countrymen, of any class, or
creed, or party, in jury box, and it al
lowed, like Dean Swift, to plead the
case under another name, he felt salts
| fed they would pronounce the Irish
grievances proven, and decide4that the
| Irish scheme for self-gnucrnme 1it- was
/ lll1lsprinciple sougld and would, in prac-
tice, be workable. Ireland had nearly
twenty years Of that scheme, and Lord
Glare, in 1898, sid There is not q ma
ton on the globe that has advanced in
cultivation and commerce, in agricul-
| ture and manufactures, with the same
rapidity in the same period" This
was the recreant Irishman who helped
Castlereigh in destroying the constitu-
Jion and parliamentary independence
of Ireland, and who boosted he would
make the Irish ssas tame as cats. =
When he died of a broken heart a few
years after the passage of the Union
act the Irish populace threw heaps Of
dead cats upon his cofin.] We regret
| that space does does not permit our
quoting at length what Mr.. Cowen had
to say on the religious question. We
can only observe that he repudiated
| the wnisperings of nervous politicians
who predicted danger for the Protestant
minority under an Irish parliament.
Belgium, he added, is a Catholic coun-
try, and the religious liberty of Pro-
testants is as secure there as it is in
England. There are keener clerical
controversies in Switzerland than in
| Ireland, yet the freedom Of all is recog-
nized and respected. And it is a fact
| to be cited to the honor Of Irish Cath
olics that on two occasions during the
reigns of Queen Mary and James they
had the opportunity of retaliating upon
the prosecuting practices of previous
epochs, and refrained from doing it.
They inflicted no penalties for religious
opinions. They ordered the tithes paid
by Protestant farmers to be paid to
lProtestants; and they did not deprive
the Protestants Of arms, or the fran
chise, or impose upon them the penal
/ laws which had been relentlessly levied
against them, their religion, their prop
ty, their family peace, their political
and civil rights as subjects. All this
| and much more Mr.. Co9en dWelt upon
| with forcible and convincing eloqnence,
proving up to the hilt the reality OF the
Irish complaints, and the irresistible
| Justice Of the Irish demand.