The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-03-17

Nor since 1882 have the Irish peo-
pie been able to celebrate st. Patrick's
anniversary so joyously and hopefully
as they will to-day wherever two or
three of them can gather together
Never since the hated act of Union, so
fatal to, the pride and dignity of Ire
land and TO its place in civilization, have
the people of that Niobe of nations
been able to descry even the faint
glimpses of hope. 1t has been so
long, SO often deferred that the hearts
of many generations have sunk in
dependency and COON and have
passed away in sadness and sorrow.
But, as the constant dripping of water
wears away the stone, so continued
agitation for three-quarters of
century, under leaders of
varying influence and power,
has at last eliminated in a promise
by the greatest OF England's Prime
Ministers, past or present. OF
national autonomy, of home rule,
of Legislative independence. All
of Irelands discomfort and two
thirds of her crime has grown
out of her political subordination
and the cruelty vindictive, mali
cious and purposed destruction of
her trade, her mechanical skill
and her manufacturing industries
Never was national jealousy, the seed
and source of all crimes, carried to
such extremes as by successive Eng
fish Parliaments in crushing Ireland,
as Jno. Boyle O'Reilly so plainly showed
lin the address published in last Mon
days APPEAL. And as in the
case of the Jews, the most in
tellectual of races, it was cum
ningly devised with a view to
blot out utterly all love Of tradition,
of literature and of language and
every trait that distinguishes the Irish
as a nation. But, as with the Jews
and Poles, it only served to make the
race feeling clinging memory that
was an incentive to closer communion
and greater tenscity of purpose. As
every blow of the hammer anneals
still more closely and closer the keen
and tensile quality of the steel, so every
sumptBary law intensified the love of
fatherlsnd and knit Irishmen together
in closer bonds of unity of purpose to
free that land and make her worthy
to be named with her sister kingdom
for intelligence, for thrift, and the
people for self-direction and elevation
of purpose. And at last it has come to
pass that English publicists, English
Parliameniarians and an English min
istry comedies the justice of home
rule, and it is presently to become
the great question in Parliament
with an honestly avowed purpose by
Mr. Gladstone never togive up, but TO
urge and press it until it becomes a
law What promise could come to-
day to Irish hearts "the world over"
30 richly laden as this2 What bless
ing enfoIding all.other blessings as this
does could reach out to them to the
ends of The earth a happiness tenn
pered by the pathos of centuries? 1t |
is what Emmett and the Shears
brothers and Lord Edward Fitzgerald |
died for. II is all that O'Connell la !
bored for. 1t is what Mitche |, |
Meagher, 0'BFien and Dillon in AS |
imperiled their lives for. 1t is all |
that the Nationalist under Butt con-
tended for, and the Fenians plotted |
for. II is to Ir shmen as freedom to !
the Russian serf and the Southern
slave; and when accomplished, as
sure it is to be, it will be another
star added to the galaxy
that distinguishes the nineteenth
above all other centuries, not only for
the wonderful advance in material
things but toward the ultimate of the
freedom of the nations. Since st.
Patrick brought TO Ireland the peace
of Christ she has known no such
boon as this which will lift her again
into nationhood and leave her free to
shape her own destiny forever.