New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-09-11
PROFESSOR MAHAFFY'S PARTING SHOT

! Professor Mahaffy has, we fear, returned to
Dublin University with somewhat acidulated
temper With one foot on the shore of the
country which had welcomed him as if he be-
longed to the great ones of the age, and the
other on the gang plank Of the steamship about
TO bear him away he fired at us Parting
Shot on the Irish Question:" utilizing that
Krupp gun, "The Independent" for the pur-
pose. The disparity between the calibre of
the cannon and its missile might have provoked
word of comment were the reflection not so
grievous that the child of a nation proverbially
generous and good natured should have be-
come mentally bilious in this liberal and hos
pitabe country.
( In the lecture which he reads us through
the columns of Our esteemed contemporary he
discloseS without loss of time the cause of his
disappointment and annoyance. His first words
are an expression of surprise at the slavery
to which the American public is subjected by
tyrannOus daily press" Now what had the
newspapers done to arouse so much ire? Sim
ply set the Irish profeSso" right on few ques-
tons of American p = IS on which he had
showed egcgious ignorance. Doubtless this
was ill-advised. but Professor Mahaffy might
have reflected that it was a natural and venial
idiOsyncraSy in newspapers not accustomed to
imbibing knowledge of their own national in
stitutisls from the inspired instructors Of Dub
lin University. This reprehensible conduct
may have sprung from the gentlest motives
in the world. hut our visitor tells us it WAS
bcgotten of rage at his presumption in med
ding with the monopoly in teaching which
the tyrannouS newspaper press claims.
We hope that we are becomingly modest
when we deny this impeachment in behalf OF
our colleagues. We are not at all averse to as
much instruction as the gentleman from Dublin
can give the American people. We are entire
" willing that he shall discuss the Irish ques-
ton in any manner that seems to him good !;
vet we do not see how this binds us to silence
when he utters doctrines touching American
institutions and American history which would
discredit an American schOOlbOy. The IRIB-
rNE. several weeks ago. confronting the great
man with much timidity, declined to concede
that the refusal Of Congress to grant to Utah
the rights of Statehood and the suppression OF
rebellion in the South by the Federal power
were in any manner or degree analogous to the
refusal of Great Britain to give Home Rule to
Ireland. Professor Alahaffy thinks that the
analogy is remarkably close and reasonable.
and. further that he convinced his hearers at
! Chautauqua of that fact. 1t grieves and vexes
his proud soul now that these same listeners
/ so open to conviction, so eager to accept IN
stIuction in their own political institutions from
Dublin Professor of Greek, should yet be
content to remain enslaved by a tyranrous daily
press. This is deplorable, but has We pro
/ lessor pondered on the fact that almost his
every utteIance on the subject of Home Rule
was calculated to increase the respect OF in
telIigent Americans for their organs of public
! opinon that the widest outbursts of dema-
gogy on the subject in an American news
paper have been freer from Misrepresentation
than his ill-tempered and indiscriminate ar
raignment of the American press? Is 1T pos
sible that he cannot realize that he c0nVlcts
himself when the proofs that he adduces IN
s,1ppoft of his charge that the Americans are
IGNORANT slaves consists in the statement that
e" so far as he can hear the majority of the
Irish NJ. P's have newspaper connections on
this side of the ocean, and "have got complete
control of the public' by means of garbled re-
ports, and that lately he saw one passing al
luson'' which admitted of such an interpreta-
ton? What pleposterOus rubbish is this Tor
q foreigner to present to a people who know
that their newspapers cannot tyrannze over
them and will not be the slaves of any foreign
faction The people of America know better
the origin and character of the intelligence
which is supplied to them concerning the po-
litcal affairs of Great Britain.
1t is in keeping with the spirit Of free speech,
the cardinal principle of the American press
that Professor NIahalfy should be permitted to
give his reasons for not believing in Home
Rule for his native land. But there can be nc
harm in saying that in his lecture $50 far as
we can judge and in his farewell illumination
he has begged the Kernel of the question as il
presents itself to liberty-loying Americans. lie
has labored hard TO show that the Irish people
both from moral and religious point Of view
are unfit to govern themselves. His last words
eypress the conviction that the cause - Home
Rule is the cause of revolution, lawlesSneSs and
crime. He says that the defendants in the
Cronin murder trial at Chicago and the inquiry
making by the Parnell Commission in London
are the Irish people. He takes pains to say
that he does not maintain that, in the abstract
Home Rule might not be good for Ireland, bu
he denies its expediency until, in his opinion
the Irish people deserve it as a reward for gooC
behavior The Professor has read the glorious
annals of English liberty to little purpose. Iii,
contention brings 20 mind the utterance o.
Alacaulay in reply to the proposition that nj
people ought to be free until they are fit t.
use their freedom: "The MAXIM" said Ma
caulay, 5" is worthy of the fool in the old story
who resolved not to go into the water till hi
had learned 20 swim. If men await for lbert,