The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-02-19
REASONS FOR THE REBELLION.

|
tionablo patriotism, besides Cardinal
Moran of New South Wales, who blame
tho Wexford peasantry for rising
against their cruel prosecutors in l79S.
have been wiser for the insurgents to
allow the rulers of Ireland to set the
sC!diery upon them with impunity, and
| to allow the Orange miscreants to burn
their homes and kill and torture de-
| fensClcss people without resistance. The
kind Of Irishmen who entertain such
false notions seem to forget that it
was the prcmeditated policy of Pitt and
| CastlcroAgh to goad the people into
| premature Instruction for me purpose
! CT intimidating the entire population
OF the country by the shedding Of inno-
cent blood, and then destroying the ma
tive parliament obtained by Grattan
and the volunteers some 1G years before.
! There is sufficient historical evidence
| that the aim and object OF the British
| ministry under Pitt was to destroy ahe
! Irish parliament in that reprehensible
manner. A writer in the Dublin Free
mans Journal makes the fact quite
plain to every one. He quotes Mr..
Gladstone as crying out Twas Pitt
did it," when some Unionist orator in
the British parliament tried to use the
instruction OF '9S as an argument
against the concession of Home Rule.
| The writer in the Frecman's Journal
| proceeds as follows: TWAS Pitt did it,
and how it was done let Pitts s,lbord
mates tell. In justifying the action Of
the people who preferred to meet death
In a fair and manly fight for freedom
rather than crouch like timd fawns
| before the wrath of the destroyers, we
call to our aid no witnesses but the
| Instruments Of the Internal policy cal
| lOusy designed for Ireland's ruin by the
| English inventors of the Act Of Union"
| He then quotes from letters addressed
| to the Duke of Portland by Lord Corn
wallis in which that general speaks Of
! the atrocities perpetrated by the Irish
| militia and of their cowardice in battle
| when face to face with the armed in
surgcnts Extracts from letters Of
| CORVALLIS to Major General Ross are
also given. The following is a speci
men: This country is daily becoming
more disturbed. Religious animostios
! increase. and, l am sorry to say, are
encouraged by the foolish violence Of
all tho principal persons who have been
i'll the habit OF governing this island;
and the Irish militia from their re.
pcatcd misbchavor in the field and
other extreme Righteousness, are
fallen into such universal con-
tempt and adherence that when
applications are made for the
protection of troops it is often re-
questcd that Irish militia may not be
sent"
Let it he said to the credit of Lord
| CORVALLIS that he seems to have been
tortured between his own desire to act
humanely and the necessities Of the
great conspiracy against Irelands par
liamcntary Independence, to which he
had lent himself. Just one other cx-
tract from this interesting CORVALLIS
correspondence to show the persistent
malignity with which the English-nur-
tured "loyaists" who were then traf.
ticking with the minister for the life
blood Of their country prosecuted and
oppressed the unhappy people. Writ.
ing to Major Ross in 1899. he says:
The greatest difficulty that expert
cnce IS to control the violence Of orr
loyal friends. who would, If I did not
keep the strictest hand upon them,
convert the system OF martial law
| (Which, God knows, is of itself bad
enough) into a more violent and in
tolcrable tyranny than that Of Robes
pierre. The vilest informers are hunt.
ed out from the prisons to attack by
the most bare-faced perjury the lives
Of all who are suspected of being, o.
of having been disaffected. and, indeed,
every Roman Catholic of influence is in
great danger. You have seen by the
addresses both in the North and South
that my attempt to moderate that yio-
| lence and cruelty that has once driven.