Year: 1872

Irelands


The eloquent Dominican who undertook
the defence of Ireland from the charges made
by Mr. Froude against her people and their
claim to the common rights of humanity
brought his argument to close last night.
We have already spoken of the vigor and ability
displayed in the defence, and the signal
manner in which the position of the English
historian was oyerthrown. The fact
is, it did not require one-tenth the
ability or learning brought to bear
on the question by the Irish priest to
refute the pleadings of the English advocate.
During the seven hundred years which have
passed since the struggle between the Celtic or
Irish civilization and the Anglo-Norman was
inaugurated the story of the treacheries, the
prosecutions and the massacres by which
England has maintained her hold on the
''Sister Isle is too horrible and too repellant
to our sense Of justice not to enlist all
our sympathies on the side of the oppressed
people. There is something sublime in
the picture Of people rising superior to
fate, and in spite OF defeats, which only stopped
short OF determination, accepting again and
again the issue of battle, succumbing to force,
but never abandoning their cause which must
command respect even from their bitterest
foes. Such people and such cause would
be sure of favorable verdict with less
eloquent advocate than Father Burke from
a freedom and justice loving nation like
America.


Having said so much we can the more
freely examine the deductions which the elo-
quent Dominican drew from the terrible story
of Ireland's wrongs, as related by himself.
Although he has been singularly free from
prejudice in his treatment of delicate and
difficult subject he has unquestionably been
hampered by the fact that he is priest, or,
as he himself proudly states, monk. This
fact has naturally led him to dwell with most
detail on what may be the religious
aspects Of the struggle between England
and Ireland. While Mr.. Froude, on one side
labored to show that the struggle was re-
igious one, and to enlist the Protestant
sympathies Of Americans in behalf Of England,
Father Burke has treated the question as if it
were wholly Catholic one on the Irish side.
He has never once risen to the height of
national conception although he more than
once expressed rather vague hope that oil
Irishmen should learn the advantage of reli-
gious tolerance in the cause of Ireland. If we
were dependent only on the views of the two
gentlemen who have debated the Anglo Irish
question for our comprehension of it we
should be puzzled to adopt logical solution
of the difficulty; for neither one has done full
justice to the theme. Each had in view the
furtherance Of favorite scheme rather than
the fearless expounding of the lessons of
history. While in his facts and in his argu-
ment the Dominican has been powerful and i'm
pressive. in his conclusions he has been lame
and impotent. After raking up the horrors
Of English rule, and reminding the Irish race
of all the deeds that could excite in their
minds thirst for vengeance, Father Burke
concludes that the only remedy for present
and past grievances is to wait patiently until
the British Empire goes to pieces and
Macaulay's New Zealander has completed his
sketch from the broken arch Of London
Bridge. The programme is certainly not
heroic, and the course is a very safe one to
advise. No one can doubt the prudence
of such advice and it is proper enough, COM
ing from q priest whose business it is to
preach peace; but the nation that adopted it
would be beneath contempt. If Ireland has
no nobler programme than this the sooner her
sons adopt Mr. Froude's views the better. We
have no sympathy to spare for nation that
goes about the world hawking its sores to
excite the pity and commiseraion of mankind
Such people were made to be slaves, and if
they had only common decency they would
accept in silence the fate they have neither
the courage nor the manhood to redress. It
appears to us that eloquent Irishmen like
Father Burke are guilty of great crime in
keeping alive the bitter animosities Of the
past by appealing to history and reminding
the Irish people that they had ancestors who
were not afraid to unsheath sword in the
defence of right whatever the result, when
the only lesson they have got to
preach is one of abject and cowardly
submission. If Father Burke's opinions
are shared by any considerable section of the
Irish people then MIR. Froude is right; such a
people are unworthy to be free. The bait
which he holds out to cowardice is, however


likely to prove delusive. Unwilling to accept
the logical conclusions of his own arguments,
he pictured Ireland in the unknown future
rising to greatness and attaching herself
to the American Union, when the Brit
ish Empire, like the Roman, had crumbled
from the decay that follows the corruptions
of empires. In order to make this picture
pleasing to his audience he boldly misrepre-
sented history, and showed us England rising
to greatness on the ruins of the Roman En-
pire, when it is notorious that so feeble and
corrupt was the island that the people were
unable to defend themselves until they begged
for the aid of the warlike Saxons. So