The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-01-27
THE CAUSE OF IRELAND.

The friends Of Ireland often do her the
greatest harm by championing the cause Of
Irish political liberty in an offensive or impu-
dent manner. This is true not only of the
cowardly dynamiters, who live by keeping up
show of agitation and warfare too dastardly
for any honorable man to countenance, but is
true in no less degree of others of respectable
character. Assassinations and explosions have
been resorted to in vain, for, if anything,
they only served to postpone the day of deliv-
erance. Boycotting and agrarian outrages in
general have done little if any more toward
the accomplishment of the object sought.
These remedies" have come under thehearti-
est condemnation everywhere. They are the
work of imprudent men, such as in America
lose their heads when acrime is committed and
proceed to ''even up" by experimenting
it with another only less brutal. These
things are to be expected; but they are not
corrective because they are not manly and do
not command respect, but rather provoke the
feeling that the first reform work to be done
should be the apprehension and punishment
of such miscreants, more fit for the prison
than for self-government. We will not be
misunderstood in this. The Irish people have
suffered monstrous injustice for years, and
deserve speedy and adequate recognition of
their rights as men and as subjects Of Great
Britain. But, for the comparatively few
brutal and bloodthirsty fellows who have
brought that people into disrepute as irrecon-
cilables and chronic malcontents, there should
be neither sympathy nor mercy. In a cause
as momentous as the one at issue, anybody
who casts discredit upon it is the enemy of the
people, These things, however, are to be ex-
pected, and among enlightened men in no
wise detract from the real merits of the cause
But there are other offenders against Ire
lands Interests from whom better things
might be expected, and the last to be placed
in this category is the Moniteur de Rome, the
official organ Of the Vatican, through which
the opinions of the Pope are spoken. When
the Moniteur takes exception to the Queens
speech to Parliament, and is impolitic enough
to express the hope that the time will come
"when the world shall see Professionalism en-
tirely extirpated from Ireland, and Catholi
cism universally recognized" it renders sorry
service to the cause of Irish political freedom.
Policy, if nothing else, would suggest to any
temperate, though earnest friend of Ireland
to not needlessly stir up additional prejudice
in the heart Of Protestant England, from
whose hands the expected deliverance
must come. The Moniteur may or may
not have done this Intentionally,
as an arrogant proclamation of defiance. 1t
is a fact, though probably not generally rec
ognized that the question of religion very
seriously impedes the progress Of Irish deliv-
erance. Not that England takes the opposite
of the very narrow and bigoted view expressed
by the Moniteur, but because Of the fear of
committing the material and social interests
of the small Protestant minority in Ireland to
the mercy of the disciples of the power be-
hind the Moniteur de Rome. England con-
sents to Ireland remaining under control of
the Church of Rome: But when the question
presents itself, shall the comparatively few
Protestants in the north of Ireland be COM
mitted to a government that promises to
be blindly intolerant9 it is but natural
that Parliament should hesitate. Ev-
cry outrage, every assassination, ev
cry employment of dynamite, (. is but
renewed proof of narrow, bitter, I'M
reasoning, dangerous element that might
work incalculable harm to all who presumed
to hold religious views at variance with those
held by the great mass of the people there
1t is but natural that England should hesitate.
The Pope himself would not grant dispense
ton under such circumstances were the well
fare and happiness of the people thus i'm
periled.
The motto Of Ireland should be one thing
at time, and she might with profit study
the plan upon which the grandest republic on
earth was built. When the American patriots,
smarting under much the same form of CD.
preston now suffered by those of Ireland, the
question Of religion came up, just as it does
now. Popular prejudice was on the side Of
the established church, but the men interested
in securing political liberty were not
the kind to stultify themselves by
prescribing tyranny in religion. They wisely
and periodically decided to make the
conscience as free as they asked to have their
persons made, They stripped themselves of
all irrelevant issues and fought the war for
| L.