Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-04-25
By 4 a GARDNER

! dla uONeAbc@+LS. his Sketcn OF Sir EQ
! ward Carson is taken from his new
I book, pillars of Society" just issued
In London
Just as in the Golden Age we knew
that there were good and bad fairies.
so when We come out Of dreamland
we know that there are good and bad
heroes. There Is bad hero in Para
disc Lost. Brongham was 80 captured
by his courage that he said he was
sorry he did not win. That sympathy
! with reckless adventure, divorced
2 from moral considerations, is a very
human trait There is no shorter cut
to the idolatry of men than by the
path Of courage, let the motives be
: good or bad.
Now whether Sir Edward Carson Is
good or q bad hero I leave for the
moment But that there Is the quality
Of heroism about him is undeniable.
Without him the cause Of Ulster would
DO eohtemptible; with him 1t is al.
most formidable. His figure emerges
from the battle with certain sinister
distinction and loneliness. He is fight.
ing as men fight who count nothing
Of the cost The dawn Is up In Ire.
land, but he will not yield to It. He
4 prefers to 60 down with the dark
ness. ss.-
4 II you would understand. the Irish
| question you must understand Sir Ed
/ ward Carson. Few Englishmen do
understand him. Generally speaking,
he is dismissed under one of two cat.
l egories In this. he is simply an Old
Bailey lawyer with brief: In that.
he Is patriot, ready to die, in the
last ditch for his country. He is
neither. His sincerity Is the sincerity
/. OF the fanatic, but his passion is not
the passion OF patriotism, for he has
no country. He has only caste. He
does not fight for ireland; he does not
/. even fight for Ulster; he fights for
Manchu dynasty. But to doubt his
earnestness Is to make fundamental
miscalculation. It Is true that his re-
cord led even to Mr.. J. NJ. Robertson
!. to doubt whether unionism was not
adopted by him as a policy of expe-
dieney. ~ - 49,. -. -.
How Carson Was Caught. y 4
The charge emerged out of the fa-j
nous "turncoat" incident. There is
nothing" said Sir Edward with his
customary coarseness, apropos of Mr..
Churchilrs visit to Belfast, there is
nothing that the men of the North of
Ireland hate more than turneoat,
whoever 1t be, T. w. Russell or Win
ston Churchill" What about Sir Ed
ward Carson himself?" asked Mr.. Ha-
mar Greenwood in the Times, next
day. HE was once liberal and a
member of the National Liberal Club"
It was palpable hit, but when Sir
Edward retorted, "0n the day that the
first home rule bill was introduced, II
telegraphed to the National Liberal
Club to take my name off the roll OF
members, 1t seemed that the victory
was his. Mr.. Greenwood, however, had
the curiosity to 60 to the records of
the National Liberal Club, with disas-
tFous results for Sir Edward. For the
records showed that he was elected
q member two months after the home
rule bill was introduced, and that he
did not resign until Is months latef,
on October 81, 1887.
In the meantime he had become the
Judge Jeffreys of the great action.
Twenty years of resolute govern
ment" was Salisbury's grim yprescrip-
ton after the defeat Of the home rule |
bill; not freedom, but Jail. He sent
bis nephew to direct the campaign, |
and the sword of vengeance was putt
in the hand of the young Dublin bar
5rister. Ireland has always been a gem
erous land to those lawyers who have |
been willing to serve the Castle IRE !
land may be poor country, but it's a |
rich country to sell,'' said an Irish |
judge, who owed his success to sell
ing" his country. Lecky's pages IL
illuminate the saying, "Twenty-threei
practising barristers," he says, 'voted |
for the Union in the house of com. |
mons, in 1900. In 1903, six of them
were on the bench. while eight others I
had received high honors under the
crown. Thirty-two barristers voted |
for the Union (166 against), at the |
bar debate in 1899 In 1903, not more |
than five of them we're unrewarded."
What a squalid tale it is!
Rewarded for Service at Castle.
But though Mr.. Carson profited, like !
many hungry lawyer, by his loyalty |
to the Castle, though he swept through |
the country as the crown prosecutor
and imprisoned a score or more OF
Irish for daring to address their con. |
stituents. though he was promptly re- |
warded for his services by being ap-
pointed solicitor-gene of Ireland
in spite of all this it is not, l think, |
true that he adopted the cause of UI-
ster as matter of expediency. 1t is
the breath of his nostrils, the fire of |
his blood. 1t makes him shed tears
real tears-on the platform. 1t makes |
him talk treason, set up a provisional
government to defy the crown, and
utter wild threats about marching |
from Belfast to Cork. 1t makes him |
put himself deliberately out of the
running for the highest office in the
state to which he might have aspired.
1t is not expediency which works this
miracle. Good, or bad, it is something
deeper than that
In most men there is an ultimate
passion that is capable of transfigur- !