The Haslingden Gazette. — 1910-09-24 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

IRISH UNIONIST.)  Gratitude has been defined as "a lively sense of favours to come," and DO Doubt it was that lively sense prompted the Directory of the United Irish League, at Dublin on the 15th inst., to pane a glowing resolution in praise and honour of Mr. Patrick Ford and his paper. the '• Irieh World" of New York :—"That this Directory of the National Organisation of Ireland desires to place on record its profound and grateful appreeiation of the immerse, services rendered to the cause of Ireland by Patrick Ford. of New York, and the great journal which he controls, the "Irish World," and so on. It was entirely fitting that Mr. John Dillon, M.P., should propose the resolution, which was a suggestive addendum to a previous resolution, wishing "a. hearty God-speed to Messrs. John Redmond, Joseph Devlin, T. P. O'Connor, and Daniel Boyle, M.P.'s, on their mission to the United States of America." Mr. Dillon, whatever doubts he may have as to the blessing of land purchase, has no doubts as to the blessings that the American dollars bring to Ireland. and he has on many 000asions not only glorified those coins. but also almitted -that without them the Home Rule Government would come to a full stop. But, while fillod with the gratitude that is a sense of favours to come. Mr. Dillon and his friends of the national organisation that is now no widely known as the " Molly Maguires," show by the resolution that they are not unmindful of the favours that Mr. Ford has already bestowed upon Ireland and the Nationali,t party. Mr. Ford's •• immense services rendered to the cause of Ireland "—as the resolution describes them—began 40 years ago. The money that he sends now is applied to the up-keep of the Redmondite Party in Parliament. The money that he rained long ago went for dynamite to blow up public buildings its England. It cannot be said to have been wellspent, money, for, although great alarm was raised, the damage done to life and property in England as not much, thanks to the vigilance of the police, while as many as thirty-four of the miscreants who for ...fecal years came secretly from America on their paid mission of destruction. with bombs of dynamite. were arrested, convicted, and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. As a specimen of Mr. Ford's political morality, the following--in reference to the Phcenix Park murders-is characteristic ("Irish World," 27th October, 18931—" The men who struck down Burke and Cavendish were not ruffii-ane. They were soldiers of Ireland. fighting Ireland's battle. . • The man who sets foot on Irish soil to administer or enforce any other law than the law and the will of the Irish nation must do so prepared to abide the consequences." That Mr. Ford's principles are the same to-day 83 formerly is clear from his note in connection with die execution of the Indian assassin of Sir W. H. Curzon Wyllie, in August, 1909. Mr. Ford quotes words used in the dock by the prisoner:—' It is perfectly justifiable on our part to kill any Englishman who is polluting our sacred land," and gives to that statement the title—" Noble utterance of a Hindu Patriot." The article is headed "Latest Martyr to English Tyranny Executed in London. His death an Inspiration for Indian Nationalists." (" Irish World," 14th August, 1909.) It may be asked. Why is Mr. Patrick Ford— whom the Parnell Commission described in their report as "a known advocate of crime and the use of dynamito"—why is Mr. Ford no longer an active fomenter of crime -and outrage? It is because he has been assured over and over' again by Mr. John Redmond. and other leaders of the Home Rule party from Ireland, that the present "eonsititutional" movement for Home Rule is really making for. and aims at all that Mr. Ford and the Irish-American extremista ever desired— namely, the national independence of Ireland— ' Ireland's complete separation from England. The well-understood motto of all is" methods changed; aims unaltered." The bond that unites the dollar' raining Mr. Ford in New York with the dollarwanting Redmondite party at Westminster is the perfectly clear understanding that Home Rule, such as is asked for by Mr. Redmond and contemplated—not without hesitation—by the present Liberal Government. will pave the way to the complete political independence of Ireland. That it would do so is as clear to Irish Unionists as it is to the Redmondite party at, home and their paymasters in the United States.