The San Francisco call., 1898-07-03

repentant rebel to British rule that he was in his youth, though he has not been in agreement with all the methods Of the Nationalist party during the last twenty years. Lord Edwar1 Fitzgerald, it need hardl.- be said, Is one of the favorite heroes of the Irish people. "Of the first family in Ireland, with easy fortune, beautiful wife and family, two lovely children, the certainty of splendid appointment under the govern ment if he would condescend to sup port their measure" the proposal for the Union), to quote the words of Wolfe Tone, "I ord Edward, instead of taking the side of the English, took the side of Ireland and, as the event happened, gave up his life for it. Surprised on May 19 in the house just mentioned by a party of soldiers headed by the mo- torious Major Sirr, he desperately re- sisted arrest and in the encounter with his captors received a wound which a few days afterward proved fatal in prison. It was no doubt better for him to have died thus. for otherwise he would have been hanged. The English executive in Ireland at that time had mercy on no one, and hesitated at no means of bagging his game, and the son of the Duke of Leinster would have been treated, if he were even only sus- pected of being what was called a rebel, in precisely the same way as any com moner."
 It may be interesting to note here an incident which has occurred within the last few days, and which illustrates in a rather striking way the fate of the descendants of one, at least, of the chief Irish figures on the English side in the great tragedy of 1798. Some of the ablest, if not the very ablest, of the agents of English rule in Ireland at all times have been Irishmen, and among the very ablest of those men at the period of the insurrection and of the union which followed was John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare. He was lawyer who, by sheer force of talent, went to the head of his profession, and, then enlisting in the government ser
 vice. obtained the highest offices in the land by the interruptions sacrifice of every principle of honor. He was more merciless toward his own countrymen who fell into the meshes of the Govern ment than stranger would have been under the same circumstances, and, in addition to all this, he was one of the prime agents in accomplishing the Union which eXtinguished the Irish Parliament and entailed a century of suffering for Ireland and of trouble for England. He destroyed his own coun- try for the time, but he apparently es- tablfshed the fortunes of his family for ever. Not so, however, for in 1884 the title of Earl of Clare became extinct, and a few days ago there died in the person of Lady Louisa Isabella Georg- ina, Marchese Della Rocella, the great granddaughter and last lineal descend ant of the naughty Irish Chancellor of a hundred years ago, while the family mansion and estate of Mount Shannon, near Limerick, passed some years ago into the hands of strangers. Sic tran sit gloria mundi. The deceased lady, :: From having married General Carmelo Ascenso Spadafora Marchese Della .Rncella, a distinguished Italian.
 The movement for obtaining relief from: the burden of over taxation to which Ireland Is at present and for plany years has been subject was marked a few days ago by a rather notable meeting held in London under the. auspices of the London branch of the Irish Financial Reform Association The:e chairman on the occasion was Lort: CastietQwn. and among the other prin- cipal persons at the gathering were Lord Mayo and Horace Plunkett, M. P l mention these names because they are the .nameS of Irishmen who are not Na- tfonaltsts, but, on the contrary. are de- 'termined Unionists, as the opponents of the Irish national demand for legisla- tive independence call themselves. and because their language was particular ly :outspcken in support of the Irish claim for redress for financial wronA. Lord CastletoWn, who is a member of an ancient Anglo-Irish family and the son of a. former representative of the small borough of Portarlington in Par liament, is rapidly coming to the front as leader of public opinion in Ireland He. created somewhat of a sensation a couple of years ago, at the commence ment of the. financial grievance agita- tion, reminding the English Govern ment and the. English people of what had happened in Boston in the last century when question of taxation led to. the throwing of certain tea into Bos- ton harber.
 '''FThe. Boston. speech" of Lord Castle town, as it has been called. has nat urally excited a good deal of comment In England since it's delivery, and it was thought by some that the speaker would by this time have been intimi- dated by the society in which he moves both in England and in Ireland into repudiating 1t. But he has done noth- ing of the kind, and in his speech at the meeting with which I am dealing he not only said that he had never re- tracted and would never retract a word of what he had uttered at Cork, but he urged the formation of "a Pan Celtic League" to fight out the finan- cial question. It is not too much to say that if the Irish aristocracy In gen. eral only took the line of Lords Castle town and Mayo they would soon re- gain considerable share of the iniu- ence they have unquestionably lost As it is, I should not be surprised if both these gentlemen obtained prominent positions in the County Councils under the new local government scheme in their respective counties.
 - One of the most galling of Irish grievances Is about to be remedied. Up to the present, if an Irish-bor person found it necessary to call for relief in a. workhouse in Scotland he was i'm mediately sent over to his native place in Ireland, to be there burden on the local rates for his life, although he might have spent all the rest of his ex- lstence In Scotland. On the other hand a Scotch pauper in Ireland could not, under the same circumstances, be sent back to Scotland from Ireland For years and years efforts have been made to remedy this state of things, but 1t is only now that they have resulted in success. The present government has just carried a bill through the House of Commons by which; for the future
 Scotland will be obliged tO s11pnort