The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-13

I SlTuBSIe TOT dSCbUueIlCy Just Int
 claim of the Orange Protestant minor ity in Ireland to bring the heel the
 Catholic native race. The Orangemen
 who are British by race and interest
 claim the whole power of Britain tc
 back them, that they may dominate
 the native Irish majority, looking
 on themselves as the advance guard of the English conquer
 ors. We all know what this malignant
 claim of 'ascendency' has cost En- gland and has cost Ireland for centu-
 ries In South Africa the same strife | has gone on for a century, under more ] inHamed conditions There the native
 born majority is not only of dierent re- ligion, of different race, but is separa- ted by their own language, their ances- | tral law, different habits of life, but,
 above all, by long traditions of inde-
 pendent nationality. For these reasons
 it is a far more desperate undertaking
 to trample down the Boer race than it l has been to bring into subjection the | Catholic population of Ireland. But
 into this stupendous folly, into this
 abominable crime, the British adven- | turers in South Africa have induced | our government to plunge, They | rigged the political market they gave
 commissions" to leading politicians, they hired the press in Africa and at home, they poured out on the public ear a torrent of calumny and sensa- I tional falsehoods, they organized a foul ] act of piracy, they bullied and black | mailed the department" they made l the representative of the crown their | creature.
 This responsible governor of a self governing colony stopped to play the part which some noble chairman of a l rotten company performs as the figure
 head of a board of guinea-pig directors. He behaved as an Irish viceroy would
 behave, if he made himself the grand 1 master of the Orange faction, bounded them on to insult misrepresent and at tack their Catholic fellow subjects, and personally labored to bring about
 a civil war. He mouthed out hretori-
 cal abuse of the government with
 which he was sent to negotiate; he in-
 suited and defied the constitutional
 ministers he was bound to consult he
 resorted to his old journalistic epi-
 grams to mislead and irritate people at
 home; he concealed from them the feel
 ing of the inhabitapts of the colony he
 governed; he deceived his chiefs at
 home by false accounts of the perils be-
 fore them and of the means of compro-
 mise at hand. nd when he saw the
 possibility of a peaceful issue to the
 imbrogio he had famed, he took care
 to make a settlement impossible and
 war the natural result
 War, indeed, did result; and it is only one of the same eectioneering tricks to pretend that the Boers began It. When they saw the empire armed, and heard the open menaces of the official dis patches, their invasion of Natal was a mere strategic move, as man threat ened by a gang of armed burglars might give the first blow to protect himself. nd now, when a wasting and savage war has gone on for nearly twenty months with no visible result except the slaughter of myriads of men, the waste of one hundred and fif- ty millions, ruin, devastation and fam inc broadcast over the very country we pretend to call part of our empire. and deadly hatred planted in race of men that never forgets, whom we pretend | to call our fellow ctiZens-now we are asked to join in the mock triumph of | the author of all this shame and con- fusion, of this ghastly anarchy and 1 never-dying source of future strife. | This worst enemy of his country, this | contriver of incalculable ruin, is called | away from the chaos into which he has | plunged his colony to receive the hon. ors of victorious soldier. Let us not | join in this squalid electioneering farce, the same kind of advertising trock by t which bold tradesmen try to rouse a | boom in their tea, or their wines, or their miraculous soap.
 Not only are we being ruined, humil- lated and made odious as a nation, but we are being made the laughing stock of the world. This grotesque fooling for party ends Is transforming us into ! race of blackguards The disgusting orgies of Mafficking and carnivals were encouraged and financed by politicians md advert ising tradesmen. They were blessed by the clergy of that church which assures us that God made war" Salders who have violated the law of nations, and have left the field of their ;O-called conquests a scene of chaos md confusion, swept by incessant and limless fighting, are hailed as if they were the saviors of the country. Gen. rals who have suffered humiliating de- eats, over which the civilized world las made merry, vapor about bazar6 Ind garden parties as heroes and heav- n-born commanders No one denies he splendid courage shown by our sol Hers, officers and men alike; nor do we all to honor the patience, cheerfulness md tenacity of all who have borne the eat and burden of this long and cruel ay. But to swagger over the deeds of nen who have done their duty as Eng sh soldiers always have done, to : bout about the world with this inn moderate bluster over a campaign lhich, considering the petty enemy nd their narrow means, has been one 1ng tale of rebuff appointment, tion disaster and perpetual incidents, including more :, British soldiers taken prisoners than f yer happened in our long history be- I I say, is more like the tone f the Hooligans out Mafficl1ing than of he Englishmen who beat Napoleon and c aved Europe.
 It makes me jingle when I witness