Year: 1871

Tho Fenian Exiles In New Yortis


ODonovan Rossa and his companions n
exile who have been so warmly received by
their countrymen and by others Of Hibernian
lineage and extraction, deserve credit and
compliment for the good, sound sense and
modest, manly dignity with which they have
turned deaf ears to the voice Of the political
charmer, and have waived extravagant public
demonstrations suggested by over jealous
friends. The ardor and impulsiveness OF the
Irish character, while they give Intensity to
success, also add bitterness to failure. The
enterprise In which Rossa, O'Connell, Dewey,
Mulledy and Mcclure and their companions
were active resulted In disastrous defeat. The
consequence was terrible suffering to these
men and their immediate friends and much
encouragement to all who were enlisted In tho
true cause Of Ireland's regeneration. For
them, after they had been brought face to face
with the stern reality of British power, and
had felt the weight Of British chains In tho
gloom of British prisons, there were no more
illusions. Being men Of intelligence they
recognized the colossal truth thus forced upon
them and ground into their very souls by tho
iron contact Of penal fetters, and they ooms
forth chastened into wise unwillingness to
be made the instruments Of further deceptions,
such as heated fancy fosters amid the fictitious
enthusiasm Of mere political meetings and
banquetlngs. In this attitude they are moro
likely to be of use to their native land, through
prudent counsel and by imparting practical In
formation to their countrymen In Americs,
than In any other way at present open to them.


1t needs no prophet to foretell, from study
Of the political horoscope of the Old World,
that an hour is rapidly approaching when Ire
land will emerge, with the rest, from the
gloom that has so long overhung the popular
life of Europe. All the Western races, tho
people of America included, are evidently In
the midst of a mighty transition, amounting.
antiquated kind rolled into one. The United
States are in the centre of this political
cyclone, and therefore enjoy comparative
calm. But all around us, on whichever side
we may look, are angry skies and tossing bil-
lows. The really most formidable trial for
Europe is to come when Paris shall have sur
rendered and the London Conference shall
have closed its session. The great ship called
''France" will not sink without carrying down
other neighborng systems in the eddy and tho
vortex of her descent. This the statesmen Of
the older Continent know full well, and tho
hour of their most intense anxiety is by ne
means past. 1t is only approaching. The
shadow of the coming year rests on their
council tables, broad, black and heavy. Their
wisdom is everywhere revealed, not in vaunt-
ing, but in preparation. Strange, indeed, if the
people cannot profit by this conspicuous
example. We may well believe that they ara
doing 80 in Great Britain, in Germany, In
Italy, in Spain, and that 1871 may be rom
dered for their cause as decisive as Prussian
foresight made 1870 for the plans of the Berlin
Cabinet.


In this view of the future the patriots OF
Ireland prefer, no doubt, to counsel quiet,
moderation, instruction and watchfulness to
all who desire to stand arrayed under the ban
ner of truth when the bugle shall sound the
grand reveille, and not to waste their forces,
physical, intellectual and financial, in such
tricks of local politics as bear no more relation
to the dignity of an earnest purpose than do
the squibs and firecrackers of schoolboy's
holiday to the guns that cleared the path Of
independence at Yorktown, and In later years
swept back the Stars and Stripes to the bat
tered ramparts of Fort Sumter.