The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-07-24
BRITISH RULE IN
THE INDIAN EMPIRE
The Very Eloquent Speech
of Brinsley Sheridan in the
Eighteenth Century is Re-
produced by the Dublin
Freeman in an Editorial on
the Indian Official in Lon
don Recently Killed by the
Parsee Student.

The British have got very nasty re-
rIinder that their rule in India is not |
appreciated by Indians. For a long
time past the English newspapers
have been full of unrest in India,
and there have been many fatalities.
and other unpleasant occurrences in"
Gicating that the Indian Empire is
scethng with discontent; but as long
as these affairs took place thousands of
miles away from the shores Of Eng
land the English people and their rul
els could afford to regard them mere
IL as disagreeable incidents on the hem
Of the Empire. Suddenly the Indian
has transferred his operations to the
ell down an Indian official, not at CAL
cltta, or Bombay, but in London itself,
and now England has begun to realize
that the Indians do not appreciate their
rule, says the Dublin Freeman's Jour-
raj of July 10. The murder at the
Imperial Institute. like all crimes OF
the kind, is pitiable. "A man who ap-
rarently was a decent fellow. With 81
good deal Of what is called sympathy
with India and the Indians, was sent
into Eternity without warning. IT
seems utterly pontless this murder OF
a man. And there was no element of
pathos wanting. His wife had just
SHOT was fired, and, rushing back to
the scene of the tragedy, she saw him
perish. What could be more piercing
ly pathetic! And then he was killed,
not because he was bad man, or be-
cause he had done wrong to anyone,
but because he was an Indian official.
IF the British could possibly consider
this awful fact calmly; if they could
invoke reason to their aid in the face
of the tragedy; if they could contem-
! plate it; and if they could weigh it's
rapport accurately, poor Sir William
Wyllie would not have died in vain.
The morning the newspapers an
ncunced the terrible news of the muir
der at tho Imperial Institute they also
announced the desperately significant
fact that Lord Morley--John Morley
| the great democrat-was being. ana
ha6 been for a long time guarded witt.
! special care lest assassination should
reach him. The murder of Sir Wm
Wyllie is shockingly significant; but
this fact about John Morley is more
significant still. The great democrat
we have called him, and we stand by
that description. He is the eulogist II
Burke, who defended the American
colonists against British aggression;
he is the man who. in a fine moment
made the railway station at Cork ring
with his manly declaraton-"I have
nailed the green flag to the Mast" Yet
of British rule in India without becom-
ing obnoxious to the natives. And
what spectacle of hypocrisy has been
presented by the British Press in the
past week since this pointlessly cruel
crimc We have been told of all that
india owes to England, of all the evils
great land. of the dangers that would
occur if native rule were to be SUD-
stituted for British rule, of all the pro-
gress Of education, and the rest of It.
Let us drag back our readers into the
eighteenth century. will 1t be said
that this was brought about by the in
carnations OF those Begums in their
secluded zenana? or that they could in
spirc this enthusiasm and this despair
into the breasts Of people who felt
no grievance and had suffered no tor
ture? What motive, then could have
such influence in their bosom? What
motive! That which Nature-the com
mon parent-plants in the bosom OF
man: and which, though it may be less
i active in the Indian than in the Eng
1ishman is still congenial with and
makes mart of his being-that feeling
which tells him that man was never
made to be the property Of man; but
that when, through pride and lnsol-
ence of power. one human creature
dares to tyrannisc over another 1t 10
q power usurped and resistance is e.