National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-02-10
The Rights of the Irish People.

The Rights of the Irish People.
Some weeks ago the cable brought ex-
tracts Of a speech delivered by the Duke OF
Westminster at the annual banquet given
by the mayor OF Chester. To-day we repro
duce from the Liverpool Mercury all that
portion Of the speech which relates to the
Irish question. Our object In printing this
harangue is not, as the reader will readily
perceive, to cultivate taste for elegant die
tion, nor do we expect by this publication
to foster the love Of truth-unless that
result should be attained by exhibiting the
odousness of falsehood. What we propose
Is simply to show the views and feelings Of
the opponents of home rule and to'exhibit
their customary manner of dealing with
that great question.
The Duke of Westminster Is the richest
man in England. When VIM. II. Wander
bilt died this nobleman was mentioned as
the richest man in the world. lie is able to
afford to say what he thinks, and we make
no doubt that he talked Just as he felt
when he spoke at the mayor of Chester's
banquet. lie who will carefully read the
dukes little address and then reflect that,
fguratiyely speaking, most Of the property
IN England talks that way, that the landed
aristocracy and the church talk that way,
that most Of the influences which mold
public sentiment are working in that dlrec-
tion, will get something like fair concep-
tion Of the work which the Irish national.
lists undertook when they struck out for
home rule.
The duke is right when he says that ga
body OF men called Parnelitesn have "ob.
tanned most powerful hold over the people"
of Ireland, and that is about all the truth
there is in his TRADE. When he charges
that they have 'obtained their position
by the most intense cruelty and the most
extreme eXtortion; by money raised out of
the pockets of those who could Ill afford IL,
and by the aid of assassination and murder,r
he says what the average English laborer
| knows to be false, although English dukes
may be ingnorant, bigoted, and preludced
enough to believe it. The story of the last
parliamentary campaign in Irelandisknown
of all men who have cared to know IT,.
Never In the history Of any people was
tilnra- a----ss.r--.. ,.s7uu,U Ufie
nationalists. The money contributed was
voluntarily and gladly giyen-glven as
cheeiully as ever patriots gave--for Il
cause dear to the hearts Of the glvers. To
talk of ''cruelty'' and ''extortlon" Is to
utter self.evident falsehoods. As for 'as-
sasstnation and MURDER IN the interest of
home rule the Duke Of Westminster must be
even more stupid than dukeis expected TO
be II lie did not know that lie was romano
ing.
There were murders committed in Ireland
during the campaign, and there will be
other murders committed there in future
campaigns, rs well as In times when there
is no special cause for political excitement.
In fifteen counties Of Ireland the people are
suffering for food. One magistrate has
been issuing writs Of eviction at the rate of
two hundred day. Each writ turns a
family out of doors. Think of thousand
persons, including aged men and women
ana little children, turned out Of their
homes in utter destitution in winter
In single day! Gaunt corpses
clothed in rags are picked up daily by
the wayside, Hunger is doing Its work
In thousands of homes. Is 1t strange that
men are made desperate by such oppresslonP
is 1t strange that when these wr0tched
creatures hear or read Of such noblemen as
the Duke of Westminster they have murder
in their hearts? One such man as he is
enough to make thousand communists
and hundred assassins. He represents the
crimes OF ages, the centuries of oppression
by which the few in Great Britain have DOS
sessed themselves of all that the millions
have earned. God never gave to any man
on earth the right to hold what he and his
associate aristocrats possess. Abhorrent AS
dynamiting is, who can wonder that It is
threatened who can wonder that II Is some
times employed, when millions OF human
beings are trodden down in order that a
few hundred men, with no more natural
rights than themselves, may roll in luxury
and look down upon them as beasts?
Christianity, civilization, and humanity
may cry out against dynamite-as they are
bound to do, because TO indorso that weapon
would he TO cut all restraints and confess
that social order is impossible; but the
time Is coming when remOnstrance viii be
useless in England, or in any other land on
earth, where such men US the Duke of
Westminster look down from the top Of the
social scale into the gaunt faces and hungry
eyes Of the toiling millions at the bottom,
1t is probably true-we hope and believe
IL is-that some of the priests in Ireland
helped Panell in the campaign, but II is
not charged that any Of them uttered pro.
family and blasphemy from their pulplts, as
the cable reported two or three English
clergymen to have done in their Sunday
campaigning for the tories. The NATIONAL
REPUBLICAN earnestly hopes that the time
is not far distant when, by disestablishment,
the Church Of England, mother of so much !
that Is good, will be regenerated and placed
on higher plane Than she has ever yet |
occupied, Then it will be impossible for
the sympathies of that church TO be with
'he oppIessor as against the oppressed.
"Ihcy profess" says the Duke of West
"that they wish to separate the
island of Ireland from the kingdom of
England" They do not "professr any,
thing Of the sort. On the contrary. thew
disclaim any such wish. They
ask only what otherp portions of her Britannia
naiesty's realm enjoy-what Australia and
Canada have-home rule. Ireland was n
part OF the kingdom for COO years before the
Ict Of union.
But time and space would fail II we were
o attempt TO take up In detail and expose