Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-06-25
FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE. IS, 1886.
APPEALING TO THE BRITISH
PEOPLE,

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the eyes of civilization are more intensely
Gxed than Ireland. She is in the crisis of
an experiment, the result of which will
affect the methods of government far into
the future. She is a small spot on this
globe, not over thirty-two thousand square
miles, and with population not larger
than the State of New York, and yet she
has had such tragic history in the past
and such pitiable life in the present that
sill the world is touched by her cause. She
has been a patient on the hospital table be-
fore, sometimes struggling 6ercely against
the cruel operations undertaken to reduce
her to quiet, and sometimes enduring them
with a patience that must have touch
ed even the hearts of the operators. This
time, and for the first time in her history,
is to be tried building her up by reasona-
Bile and gentle treatment of her own Sc :
lection, instead of bIood-letting and dras-
tic drugs. The operator who now leads
her into the amphitheatre, broken and de-
jected, and refuses to put her again on the
operating table, is bold one. He is as
od1lCu 1AOAA OIL u uAA tOlOs NuN LILO AoAAuAO
has been prophesied with cruel glee,
which shows the true desire of the
prophets. But Mr.. Gladstone will not be
moved by this clamor. He seems. more than
any other man of his time, to be animated
by that philosophy of christianity that
moved the world eighteen hundred years
ago, and that is now progressing in wild
ening circles. The outer edge of the broad
circle has touched the cause of ireland
and her future is fixed. Mr.. Gladstone
may die but Ireland will be free and equal
with any other British province. and be
governed by the same laws, for her rights
would only be delayed. not lost by his
death. Parnell might die but he could be
replaced, for he has not come until Ireland
was ready for him. and when that is the
case men are easily replaced. When the
mass of people has self command
enough to operate through its intelligence
men are not hard to find. 1t is only when
the people operate through their ignor-
ance and rely on violence for success, that
their efforts end in brief violence and their
leaders disappear.
Mr.. Gladstone, to whom age seems only
to add courage, has turned after tie de-
feat of his home rule bill, promptly to the
people. and the cause of Ireland is now In
their hands. The opponents of liberty
have not failed to add, as far as in them
lies, to his burdens in the campaign now
,,rorrnoo;nrr for th q oIootion of q rou no rlic
ment. One. and not the least of them, is
the capital being made of the riots in Bel
fast, and it is that which is expected to
arouse the Protestant sentiment in Eng
land and Scotland. These riots seem as
timely, if not as purposely timed. as the
riots in the Southern States used to be-. to
operate in the interest of the Republicans
in Presidential elections, by exciting and
solidfying public sentiment against the
South. Ulster is not a new rioter nor
does it take much to start her. 1t is
OF too soon to 49, tie passage OF
the Irish Church Disestablishment bill
seventeen years ago, another piece of Mr..
Gladstone's work, and the way it was re
provide that people should not be forced
to support church they did not worship
in and abolishing the law making Irish
Catholics pay for churches they never
entered and support ministers they neve,
heard, and yet Ulster raised storm that
stirred half of the Protestant world. They
held meetings throughout the province,
and resolved to s'resist'' and pledged them
selves to educate their children to remem-
Der this outrage, and finally wound up by
a little 6ghting-the usual remedy of an
Irishman, whether Protestant or Catho
lie for anything that he don't like
Nevertheless the bill became 8 law, the
church was disestablished, and though
keenly on the watch the people of Ulster
havn't yet seen the Pope move his court
from Rome to Ulster and roast score of
the Protestant county gentry after the
manner of that we'll beloved son of the
Church, Philip of Spain in his day. Their
fears to-day are as groundless now as they
were seventeen years ago, though of diff
ferent character. The new government
of Ireland is not to be machine by
which one set of Irishmen may Cypress
those they happen to outnumber. If that
were SO, there would be little gained by
setting her free save perhaps in changing
the number of people to be trodden down;
but nothing of the kind is to be apprehen-
ded. the life, religion, freedom-every
right of citizen of Ulster will be as safe
as if he lived in Connaught The people of
Ulster-to make their situation in the first
place more clear to our readers, have
borne the same 'Ioyal" relation to the
British government that the Republicans
of the South did during Reconstruction
times to the National government. Like
those Republicans, they have raised pro-
test at every step made by the National
government towards rehabilitating the
home government of the people, and have
always been active in furnishing evidence
against the safety and expediency of SO
doing. When Home Rule is established
in Ireland, these people Of Ulster will
find that they are protected by the I'm
perial government just as any other
Irishmen, and could appeal for that pro-
lection were the Irish parliament to pass
any laws depressing them. as we have no
idea they would do. A people just out Of
the CALLING chains of generations of bond
age would think twice before attempt
ing to fix those chains on others.
An American. especially an American
of Democratic cast of faith as parties 90
in this country, and still more especially
If he were resident of the Southern
States during the stirring times of recon
struction can follow the canvass now pro-
crossing in Great Britain with apprecia-