Catholic clergy and the alleged poverty of Ireland reminded me that a
year ago at the opening of the Redemptorist Church of Dundalk the
collections of one day realised twelve hundred pounds, and that in the
same town a priest refused to baptise the child of a poor woman for
less than five shillings. She tendered four shillings and sixpence,
but the man of God sent her home for the odd sixpence. She then went
to the Protestant minister, who baptised the child for nothing. In
Warrenpoint the priest decided what subscriptions each and every
person should pay to the funds of the new Catholic Church, and in
Monaghan three well-to-do Papists had their cheques returned, as being
insufficient. The Romanist Cathedral of that poor little town is
currently reported to have cost half a million, but that it cost at
least a hundred thousand pounds, exclusive of the stone, which was
given by the Protestant landowner, Lord Rossmore, is admitted by the
most reliable authorities. The landlord agreed to give the stone on
condition that the quarry should be filled up and the land levelled as
it was found at first. Stone for the cathedral, a convent, and many
other buildings was taken, but the conditions were not fulfilled, and
a hole with forty feet of water was left, so that the field was
dangerous for cattle. The Catholic party refused to level, and a
lawsuit was the result. My Monaghan letter related the total exclusion
of Protestants, including Lord Rossmore's agent, from the Town
Council. So much for Papal tolerance and gratitude.
The English prejudice against Orangemen is ill-founded. Their
sheet-anchor is an open Bible, and their principles, as expressed by
their constitution, are such as ought to ensure the approval and
support of Englishmen. They read as follows:--"The institution is
composed of Protestants resolved to the utmost of their power to
support and defend the rightful Sovereign, the Protestant religion,
the laws of the country, the Legislative Union, and the succession to
the Throne being Protestant, and united further for the defence of
their own persons and properties and the maintenance of the public
peace. It is exclusively an association of those who are attached to
the religion of the Reformation, and _will not admit into the
brotherhood persons whom an intolerant spirit leads to persecute,
injure, or upbraid any man on account of his religious opinions_. They
associate also in honour of King William the Third, Prince of Orange,
whose name they bear, as supporters of his glorious memory." I have
italicised a few words which clear the association from the charge of
organised intolerance, which is made alike by English and Irish Home
Rulers. The Portadown folks are especially well-versed in the history
of the movement, and in the perils which impelled their forefathers to
band themselves together. According to Froude, it was on the 18th
September, 1795, that a peace was formally signed at Portadown between
the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders, and the hatchet was apparently
buried. But the incongruous elements were drawn together only for a
more violent recoil. The very same day Mr. Atkinson, a Protestant, one
of the Defender subscribers, was shot at. The following day a party of
Protestants were waylaid and beaten. On the 21st both parties
collected in force, and at a village in Tyrone, from which the event
took the name by which it is known, was fought the battle of the
Diamond. The Protestants won the day, though outnumbered. Eight and
forty Defenders were left dead on the field, and the same evening was
established the first lodge of an institution which was to gather into
it all that was best and noblest in Ireland. The name of Orangemen had
long existed. It had been used by loyal Protestants to designate those
of themselves who adhered most faithfully to the principles of 1688.
Threatened now with a general Roman Catholic insurrection, with the
Executive authority powerless, and determined at all events not to
offer the throats of themselves and their families to the Roman
Catholic knife, they organised themselves into a volunteer police to
prevent murder, and to awe into submission the roving bands of
assassins who were scaring sleep from the bedside of every Protestant
household. They became the abhorrence of traitors whose crimes they
thwarted. The Government looked askance at a body of men who
interfered with the time-honoured policy of overcoming sedition by
tenderness and softness of speech. But the lodges grew and multiplied.
Honest men of all ranks sought admission into them as into spontaneous
Vigilance Committees to supply the place of the constabulary which
ought to have been, but was not, established; and if they did their
work with some roughness and irregularity, the work nevertheless was
done. By the spring of 1797 they could place twenty thousand men at
the disposition of the authorities. In 1798 they filled the ranks of
the Yeomanry, and beyond all other influences the Orange organisation
counteracted and thwarted the progress of the United Irishmen in
Ulster, and when the moment of danger arrived, had broken the right
arm of the insurrection. After this brief sketch of the origin of the
movement it would not be surprising if the constitutions of the body
inculcated intolerance, or even revenge. On the contrary, both these
things are sternly prohibited, and their contraries expressly insisted
on. A pious Brother of Portadown said:--"As Protestants we endeavour
to make the Bible our rule and guide. We endeavour to love our
neighbour as ourselves, we obey the constituted authorities, we
maintain and uphold the law, we fear God and honour the Queen. We are
firmly resolved to maintain our present position to the British Crown,
and we deny the right of Mr. Gladstone to give us away, or to barter
us for power. By the confession of his own followers, all his previous
legislation for Ireland has been a failure, for if it be not so, why
the present measure? We claim no ascendency, and we will submit to
none. It was from our ancestors that ascendency received its
death-blow. Ever since 1681 our leading doctrine has been equality for
all, without distinction of class or creed. By thrift and industry we
have created a state of commercial prosperity which is a credit and an
honour to the empire, while the Nationalist party under precisely
similar conditions have discredited the empire, and by perpetual
agitation, and not sticking to business, have brought every part of
the country under their influence to degradation and poverty; besides
which they have, by their repudiation of contracts, undermined the
morality of their supporters all over Ireland. The Nationalist farmers
prefer to have twenty-five per cent. off their rent by agitation or
intimidation rather than to double or treble the productiveness of
their land by hard work and the application of modern principles of
farming. We have seen from the first that the whole movement was
originated in roguery and sustained by roguery, and we see that it is
carried on by roguery. We not only know the men who keep up the
agitation, but we know the influences at work behind them. All their
talk is of Protestant ascendency. Can they point out a single instance
in which we have the upper hand, or state anything in which we as
Protestants have any advantage whatever? Mr. Gladstone himself cannot
do it. He has said so in as plain terms as he can be got to use. But
the time for talking is over. We have said our say, and we are
prepared to do our do. The Papists round here are very confident that
before long they will have a marked ascendency. They expect no less.
Let them attempt it. We shall be ready to stand our ground. As the
poet says, Now the field is not far off When we must give the world a
proof Of deeds, not words, and such as suit Another manner of
dispute."
A Home Ruler encountered casually showed some temper. He said:--"All
the prosperity of which the Protestants boast is due to the fact that
for centuries they have been the favoured party. England has petted
them, and helped them, and encouraged them in every way. We were a
conquered people, and these settlements of Methodists, and
Presbyterians, and Quakers, and all the tag-rag-and-bob-tail of
dissent, were thrown into the country to hold it for England, and to
act as spies on the real possessors of the land, in the interests of
England. They were, and are, the English garrison. They have no part
with the natives, the original sons of the soil. What right, moral or
legal, have these Colquhouns, these Galbraiths, these Andersons, to
Irish soil? None but the right of the sword, the right of superior
force. Other nations have succumbed to the yoke of England, the
greatest tyrant with which the earth was ever cursed. The Scots and
Welsh lick the boots of the English because it pays them to do so. The
Irish have never given in, and they never will. For seven hundred
years we have rebelled, and as an Irishman I am proud of it. It shows
a spirit that no tyranny can break. What tyranny do we now undergo?
The tyranny of a master we do not like, and in whom we have no
confidence. We never agreed to accept the yoke of England. Now all we
ask is to be allowed to govern Ireland according to Irish ideas, and
after promising that we shall do so a bill is brought in which is a
perfect farce, and which puts us in a far worse condition than ever.
Some say that when once we get an Irish Parliament we can arrange
these small details. And mind this, we shall exact considerably more
because of English distrust and English meanness."
I note in Saturday's issue of the party sheets a quotation from an
Irish-American paper, the _Saint Louis Republic_, which thus opines as
to the policy of the Irish leaders:--
"They would better hold off until they have the bill out of the woods
before they start a scrimmage over small details. Ireland and America
will think any bill which establishes local government a progressive
step of glory enough for one year. If Ireland cannot improve the law
after it gets a Legislature it needs a few American politicians, more
than an extra fund." How does this promise for the peace that is to
follow this great measure of "Justice" to Ireland? With the improved
methods of the Irish-American politicians, who, on the establishment
of an Irish Parliament, would inundate the country, finding in its
chaotic and helpless state a fit subject for plunder, the
meek-and-mild Radicals of the bread-and-butter type, who trollop
through the lobbies after the Grand Old Bell-wether, would be highly
delighted. How did the Items get into Parliament at all? Why did they
desert the mothers' meetings, the Band-of-Hope committees, the five
o'clock tea parties at which they made their reputations? There,
indeed, they found congenial society, there they were listened to with
rapt attention, there they could coruscate like Tritons among minnows.
Among the blind a one-eyed man is King. The English Home Rule members
are a collection of intellectual Cyclops. They can vote, though. They
can walk about, and that suffices their leader. If weak in the head,
they are strong in the legs. Legislation must in future be pronounced
with a hard g, or to avoid confusion of terms, and to preserve a pure
etymology, a new term is needed to describe the law-making of the Home
Rule members. Pedislation might serve at a pinch. I humbly commend the
term to the attention of my countrymen.
Judged by classification of its friends and enemies, Home Rule comes
out badly indeed. The capitalists, manufacturers, merchants,
industrial community, professional men are against it. Six hundred
thousand Irish Churchmen are against it. Five hundred thousand
Methodists and Presbyterians are against it. Sixty thousand members of
smaller denominations are against it. A hundred and seventy-four
thousand Protestants in Leinster, and a hundred and six thousand in
Munster and Connaught are against it. The educated and loyal Roman
Catholic laity are against it. All who care for England and are
willing to join in singing "God save the Queen" are against it. On the
other hand amongst those who are for it, and allied with them, we find
the dynamiters of America, the Fenians and Invincibles, the illiterate
voters of Ireland, the idlers, the disloyal, the mutilators of cattle,
the boycotters, the moonlighters and outragemongers, the murderers,
the village ruffians, the city corner boys, and all the rest of the
blackguards who have flourished and been secure under the Land
League's fostering wing. Are we to stand quietly aside and see the
destinies of decent people entrusted to the leaders of a movement
which owes its success to such supporters? Are Englishmen willing to
be longer fooled by a Government of nincompoops?
Those who have studied the thing on the spot will excuse a little
warmth. And then, I am subject to a kind of Dillonism. I am
exasperated at the recollection of what may possibly take place next
year.
Portadown, July 18th.
No. 50.--THE HOLLOWNESS OF HOME RULE.
This beautiful watering place cannot be compared with the celebrated
holiday resorts of England, Wales, Scotland, or France without doing
it injustice. It is unique in its characteristics, and globe-trotters
aver that earth does not show a spot with an outlook more beautiful.
From the beach the view of the mountain-bordered Lough extends for
many miles seaward. On the opposite slopes to the right are the fresh
green pastures and woods of Omeath, backed by the Carlingford
mountains. On the left are wooded hills a thousand feet high which
lead the eye to the Mourne Mountains at Rostrevor, where is the famous
Cloughmore (Big stone), a granite block nine feet high by fifteen feet
long, poised on the very apex of the mountain in the most remarkable
way. How it got there is indeed a puzzle, as it stands on a bed of
limestone nine hundred and fifty-seven feet above sea level. You can
see it from the square of Warrenpoint, four miles away, and no doubt
good eyes would make it out at a much greater distance. Geologists
talk about the glacial age, and say that the boulder was left there by
an iceberg from the north; but the mountain peasants know better. They
know that Fin McCoul heaved it at Brian Boru, jerking it across the
Lough from the opposite mountain five or six miles away, as an
indication that he didn't care a button for his rival. These modern
mountaineers are almost as easily gulled as their ancestors. They
believe in Home Rule because they will, under an Irish Legislature,
"get all they want." They have votes, and they use them under clerical
advice. "I don't know anything about Home Rule except that we are to
get all we want." Those are the very words of an enlightened and
independent elector resident near Cloughmore. Never was there more
simple faith, or more concise _credenda_. The Newcastle programme is
comparatively unpromising. The wildest Radical, the most advanced
Socialist, never came up to this. The Grand Old Man himself in his
most desperate struggles for place and power, never exactly promised
everything that everybody wished. To get all you want is, indeed, the
_summum bonum_, the Ultima Thule, the _ne plus ultra_ of political
management. After this the old cries of peace, retrenchment, and
reform sound beggarly indeed. Never was there such a succinct and
complete compendium of political belief. Nobody can outbid the man who
offers "all you want." For compactness and simplicity and general
satisfactoriness this phase of Home Rule diplomacy takes the cake.
Failure to fulfil the promise is of course to be charged to the brutal
Saxon. Meanwhile the promise costs nothing, and like sheep's-head
broth is very filling at the price.
Not long ago the point in the Lough was a rabbit warren, whence the
name. Before that the situation was too exposed to the incursions of
rovers to tempt settlers, and Narrow-water Castle, built to defend the
pass, was (and is) between the town and Newry. But times have
changed. Settlers flocked across from Ayr, from Troon, from Ardrossan,
and other Scots ports lying handy. A smart, attractive town has sprung
up, starting with a square a hundred yards across. Big ships which
cannot get up to Newry discharge in the Lough by means of lighters. An
eight-hundred-ton barque from Italy is unloading before my window.
There is a first-rate quay, with moorings for many vessels. The
harbour is connected by rail with all parts of Ireland, and in it
seven hundred to eight hundred ships yearly discharge cargoes. The
grassy beach-promenade is half-a-mile long, and an open tramcar runs
along the shore for three miles. The residents are alive to the
importance of catering for visitors, and the Town Commissioners, a
mixed body, have provided bathing accommodation for both sexes.
Galway, with thrice the population, a fine promenade, good sands, and
a grand bay, has no such arrangements; and Westport has very little
accommodation for tourists. The contrast between the North of Ireland
and the South and West comes out in everything.
The Methodists and Presbyterians are strong in the town, to say
nothing of the two Protestant Churches, one in Warrenpoint and another
in the Clonallon suburb. The Catholic Chapel is counterbalanced by the
Masonic Hall. Wherefore it is not surprising to learn that the bulk of
the townsmen are staunch Unionists. The Nationalist papers have little
sale hereabouts, the _Belfast News Letter_ and the _Irish Times_
having the pull. A business man, who has lived here for forty years,
said:--
"We are fairly matched in numbers but the Conservatives have the
wealth and respectability. The fishermen and labourers are nearly all
Home Rulers, simply because they are Catholics. They are quite
incapable of saying _why_ they are Home Rulers, and some of them even
profess to regard the proposed change with alarm, and say they prefer
that things should remain as they are. But although they speak so
fairly, yet when the time comes to vote, they vote as the priest tells
them. They have no option, with their belief. I don't blame the poor
fellows one bit. I followed the report of the South Meath election
petition very closely, and I know that the same kind of pressure was
exerted here. At Castlejordan Chapel Father O'Connell commanded the
people, in a sermon, to go to a Nationalist meeting, and said he would
be there, and that their parish priest expected them to go. He said
that if any were absent he would expect them to give a good and
sufficient reason for their absence. On another occasion a priest met
a number of men who were going to an opposition meeting, and turned
them back with threats. These priests not only threatened to refuse
extreme unction to persons who voted against the clerical party, but
they also threatened personal violence, and then said, 'Don't hit
back, for I have the holy sacrament on me.' Father John Fay, parish
priest of Summerhill, County Meath, told his people that they must not
look on him as a mere man; if they did they might have some prejudice
against him, for all had their shortcomings. 'The priest is the
ambassador of Jesus Christ, and not like other ambassadors. He carries
his Lord and Master about with him, and when the priest is with the
people Almighty God is with them.' That is what Father Fay reckoned
himself. Almighty God, no less. He alluded to the consecrated wafers
he had in his pocket. The doctrine of transubstantiation is here
invoked to assist in carrying a Home Rule candidate of the right
clerical shade. And all the awful language used from the altar, in the
confessional, all the threats of eternal damnation, and burning in the
fires of hell, all the refusals of mass, and to hear dying
confessions, were directed against another section of the Home Rule
party, and not against a Unionist at all. How does this promise for
the working of an Irish Parliament?
"I note that the English Home Rule papers say nothing good of the
bill. They are always praising the management of the Old Parliamentary
Hand. They beslaver him with fulsome adoration. They cannot point out
anything good in the provisions of the bill, nor in the central idea
of the bill, but they must fill up somehow, and they praise his
artfulness, how he dodged this, and dexterously managed that. They
have nothing but admiration for his jugglery and House-of-Commons
tricks. They bring him down to the level of a practised conjuror or a
thimblerigger. But, with all his wonderful cleverness, he is not
admired or supported by any intelligent body of public men. The
gag-trick ought to settle him. We in Ulster feel sure that a general
election to-morrow would for ever deprive him of power. Of course the
Old Hand knows that, and will not give the country an opportunity of
pronouncing judgment. He and his flock of baa-lambs will put off the
day of reckoning as long as ever they can. Either on the present or
next year's register he is bound to be badly beaten. His course is
clear. He used to have three courses open to him, but now he has only
one. He must try to weather the storm until he has a chance of faking
the voters' lists so as to improve his own chances. It is said that
Mr. Henry Fowler is already preparing such a scheme. Like enough. If
tricks will win, I back the G.O.M. There are more tricks in him than
in a waggon-load of monkeys. The strangest thing I ever saw or ever
heard of is the calmness with which the English people take the
proposition that Ireland shall manage English affairs, while Ireland
is to manage her own without any interference. I should have expected
the British workman to processionise about this. I should have thought
the British middle-classes would have been up in arms at the bare
thought of so monstrous a proposition. And so they would if they
thought it would become law. But, like us, they know there will never
be any Home Rule. Then, they are not so nervous as we in Ireland are,
because they don't know as we do what Home Rule really means.
"No earthly power can assist the Irish peasantry so long as they
remain under the dominion of the priests. Popery is the vampire that
is sucking the life-blood of the country. It is fashionable nowadays
to abstain from denouncing other religious systems, on the plea of
toleration. I agree with perfect toleration, and I am not desirous of
making reference to Romanism. But they force it upon us. The Papist
clergy say that the poverty of the country is due to English rule. We
who live here know that it is due to Romish rule. How is it that all
Protestants are well off, and make no complaint? How is it that their
children never run barefoot? How is it that their families are well
educated, that their dwellings are clean, and that they pay their way?
Home Rule may impoverish those whom the teachings and habits of
Protestantism have enriched, but neither Home Rule nor anything else
will enrich those whom Popery has impoverished. England should turn a
deaf ear to the cry for Home Rule, which means the ruin of her only
friends in Ireland, and unknown damage to herself. To give her enemies
the means wherewithal to damage her is very midsummer madness."