The Irish standard., 1888-03-17
A LEAF FROM IRISH HISTORY
What the Issue Of the St. James
Chronicle Of Saturday, June
80, 1898, Contained.
THE EARL OF 0XF0RD's PROTEST

Against the Violation Of THE Crest Char
teri by the ''Putting to Torture Of
Irishmen to Extort Confession"
| Can there be much Of a nations story
written on q single leaf? is a question
that will naturally suggestitself to any
one who reads the title Of the present
article. 1t may seem doubtful that a
| leaf is worth transcrihing says the Dub
lin freeman; and yet the progress of
events may prove SO rapid, or rather the
concurrence Of events may seem so
strange. that one. days summary of
news may contain within it the item
that closes one era and begins another.
Chance has put in QUE way q leafet from
the bi-weekly press Of famous Ninety
Eight. It is not much !n ore than d
leaflet as newspapers go now;
but it was digniied by the name
of the st. James Chronicle in these
days; and WAS even more digni6ed by
selling at the rate of sixpence copy
1t was an evening paper of four pages,
or sixteen columns, of much smaller di-
mansinus than column Of the Evening
Telegraph; but within those meagre
limits the number in Our possession
holds a story as fateful as any written
into the history Of ireland. The issue
|! is dated Saturday, June 80, 1898, and
! contains the despatch forwarded by the
; English Major-Geperal WHO dispersed
the Wexford rebels that had advanced
i.sto Kilkenny and taken ND position at
| Castlecome-a despatch tlat virtually
announced the last impor tan5 event OF
the Rebellion; the Kings speech pro-
roguing Parliament; the advertisement
Of el,000 reward tor the capture Of
Bagnal Harvey the leader of the rebels;
and, more significant, than all, the pro-
| test of an English peer against the in
difference of English Ministers to the
condition Of Ireland, aud against the
brutality exercised in tile name of Law
upon the unfortunate people OF ireland.
The last is particularly important, as it
is contemporary evidence, from All IN
depen dent source. Of the savage prac-
tices that drove the unfortunate peas
antly to revolt. The plotest was en-
tered ON the journals OF the House Of
Lords by the Earl of Oxford. 1t opens
the statement that the writer was
shocked sthat an address to the King
upon so awful q subject as the present
state Of ireland shonld have been re-
jected without a single syllable being
said by the Kings Ministers on the
subject" The Indifference ct latter
day Ministers is probably equal to that
of the Ministry of that day; but they
cannot so freely indulge i'll the luxury
of silence. The limitation of the Brit
ish Constitutionalism to that area OF
the ssUnited'' Kingdom that lies on the
other side Of the Channel was just as
conspicuously within the aims OF the
Ministers Of Ninety-Elght as within
the scope of the Ministerial effort in
the year of grace Eighty Eight. The
Earl Of Oxford found it necessary tore
cord his protest against the violation Of
THE Great Charter by the putting 20
torture of Irishm2n in order TO eXtort
confession.'' He declared it to be the
bounden duty Of every man in his diff
ferent station to use all the legal means
in his power to declare his adherence
of such diabo]ical and tyrannical
measures as occurred "wherever our
brethren and fellow subjects in ireland
or elsewhere are flogged, picketed, half
hanged, and otherwise tortured in
order to extort confession And he
bears note worthy witness to the aim
of the policy when he declares "that to
to fog and torture men into open re-
sistance, for the sake of employing a
power in the hands of those who fog
and torture to crush that resistance,
and thereby to make themselves more
secure, is not only a refinement Of
cruelty against which Law, Reason,
Justice, Humanity, and Nature cry
aloud, but which the experience of all
sides teaches us will never answer. u
The wise statesman who looked upon
this Earl's protest in the name OF Eng
lish liberty much as our present rulers
look upon that of such a man as Mr..
Wilfred Blunt can hardly be cong1atu-
lated on the ultimate results of their
wisdom. They had the power to pro-
woke, but unfortunately they had also
the power to crush. Not, however. till
the bare and unarmed peasantry had
taught he mail. clad arm of authority
how much desperation can drive and
do, The tale of the final act Of the
tragedy, even as told By hostile Eng
lish general, shows sufficiently the
bravery of the men Of Wexford. They
had marched out through scallop Gap,