give the people "all they want," while the Unionist was only paying
them wages for working all the year round. And besides this, Mr.
O'Connor's speeches were probably more full-flavoured, more
soul-satisfying, than those of Mr. Herdman, who, being a practical man
of business, and having a sense of responsibility, would only talk
common-sense, and would promise no more than he could hope to perform.
Mr. O'Connor speaks in the epic style. He reminds you of Bombastes
Furioso, or Ancient Pistol, with a subtle admixture of Falstaff and
Parolles. He belongs to the lime-light and blue fire school of
oratory, and backs up a vivid imagination with a virulent hatred of
England. The raging sea of sedition which surged around us is now
silent enough. It Now hath quite forgot to rave While birds of calm
sit brooding on the charmed wave. The reason why is plain or should be
plain to anything above the level of a Gladstonian intellect. It
cannot be amiss, though, to recall a specimen of Mr. Arthur O'Connor's
style, that so we may judge of his superior acceptability to the
people of East Donegal. Speaking after the Union of Hearts had been
invented and patented (provisionally), Mr. O'Connor said:--
"I know it to be a fact that in whatever war Great Britain may be
involved, whatever Power she may have to struggle with, that Power can
count on a hundred thousand Irish arms to fight under her flag against
Great Britain--(great cheering). Does not the Government of the United
States know perfectly well that at three days' notice it could have a
force, of which one hundred thousand would only be a fraction, a force
willing to serve against Great Britain for the love of the thing,
without any pay?--(renewed applause). And it is not amiss that the
Government of England should know it also"--(continued applause). The
M.P. who made this speech is one of the politicians now dominating the
English Parliament at Westminster. It is in response to the clamour of
him and his sort that the gag is put on men like Balfour, Goschen,
Chamberlain. This little gem set in the silver sea, this isle, this
realm, this England, is becoming a paltry concern, is fast being
Gladstoned into drivelling imbecility. What does O'Connor mean by the
100,000 Irish arms? Does he mean 50,000 Irishmen? The point is
obscure, as will be seen from the oratory of another distinguished
patriot, who said, "Ten millions of Irish hearts are beating with high
anticipation, ten millions of eyes are looking forward to the passing
of the bill." A very large number of one-eyed Irishry.
The _Irish Catholic_ makes a slip. The journal approves of Mr.
Gladstone's closure, but with reference to the refusal of a newspaper
to print a Dr. Laggan's letter about, something delivers itself
thus:--
The application of the gag in polities has always been the resort
of the stupid, incapable, and tyrannical politician. Whether
tried in Russia, in France, or in England of old, it has
invariably failed in its purpose. The stifling of the individual
voice becomes of small advantage when the object-lesson of its
possessor with a bandage across his mouth, and his hands tied
behind his back, is presented to the populace. Just as the gag
has failed elsewhere it is, we are glad to think, destined to
fail in Ireland also, and, indeed, if it were not so destined,
Ireland would be precisely the best country to live out of.
So much for absent-mindedness. It is pleasant to be able to agree with
the _Irish Catholic_ for once.
On the whole, the confusion is deepening. The Grand Juries of Ireland
are passing unanimous resolutions condemning the bill. The Nationalist
party condemns the bill. The Scottish Covenanters, who have not
delivered a political pronouncement for more than two hundred years,
and who never vote either way, have risen in their might and cursed
the bill, smiting the Papists hip and thigh with great slaughter, and
denouncing the movement as purely in the interests of Romanist
ascendency. Be it understood that these religionists live in Ireland
and date their malediction from Coleraine. But nothing will stop the
G.O.M.'s gallop over the precipice. Let him go, but let him not drag
the country after him. And in after years his Administration will be
described in words like those of Burke, who, speaking of the Gladstone
of his day, said, "He made an Administration so checked and speckled,
he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically
dovetailed, a cabinet so variously inlaid, such a piece of diversified
mosaic, such a tesselated pavement without cement, that it was indeed
a curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch and unsure to stand upon.
The colleagues whom he had assorted at the same boards, stared at each
other, and were obliged to ask, 'Sir, your name?' 'Sir, you have the
advantage of me. Mr. Such-a-one, I beg a thousand pardons.' I venture
to say that persons were there who had never spoken to each other in
their lives until they found themselves together they knew not how,
pigging together heads and points in the same truckle bed." This is
prophecy.
Have you heard that Mr. Balfour, who went through Ireland without an
escort, is unable to move about England without the protection of a
hundred and fifty mounted police to save him from English Home Rulers
who are burning to avenge the wrongs of Ireland? No? England is badly
served in the matter of news. They manage these things better in
Ireland. A leading Dublin Nationalist print has a number of prominent
headlines referring to the "facts." "The Arch-Coercionist Protected by
Police. Caught in His Own Trap." The writer even goes into particulars
and tells how "effusively" the ex-Secretary thanked the police for
protecting his "frail personality." The Irish moonlight patriots are
gratified. Balfour was their aversion. During his reign it could no
longer be said that the safest place in Ireland, the one spot where no
harm could befall you, was the criminal dock. Balfour stamped out
midnight villainy, and helped the industrious poor. Wherefore he is
honoured by honest Irishmen and hated by all rascalry. Ireland needs
him again with his _suaviter in modo, fortiter in re_; his fairness
and firmness, his hatred of tyranny, his determination to do right
though the heavens should fall. With Balfour in office the Irish
agitators have hard work to keep the broil agoing. They hate him
because of the integrity which won the confidence of the Irish people,
and because of the substantial benefit arising from his rule, a
benefit there was no denying because it was seen and known of all men.
The return of Balfour to power threatens to cut the ground from under
the feet of those who live by agitation. They dread him above
everything. They are horror-stricken at the prospect of a return to
his light railways and heavy sentences. Hence this attempt to damage
his prestige. Unhappy Mr. Balfour! To be protected by one hundred and
fifty mounted police, and not to know of it! And the venal English
press which conceals the fact, what shall be said of it? Where would
England be but for Irish newspaper enterprise?
Strabane, July 22nd.
No. 52.--HOW THE PRIESTS CONTROL THE PEOPLE.
This is a terribly Protestant place. The people are unpatriotic and do
not want Home Rule. They speak of the Nationalist members with
contempt, and say they would rather be represented by gentlemen. They
are very incredulous, and refuse to believe in the honesty of "honest"
John Dillon. They say that Davitt is a humbug and Healy a blackguard.
They speak of O'Brien's breeches without weeping, and opine that
Davitt's imprisonments and Healy's horse-whipping served them both
right. These misguided Irishmen affect to believe that the English
laws are good, that Ireland is a splendid country, and that things
would be far better as they are. Raphoe is on the road to nowhere, and
yet it runs a rattling tweed mill--the proprietor is a Unionist, of
course. Queer it is to see this flourishing affair in the wilds of
Donegal. Blankets, travelling rugs, and tweed for both sexes, of
excellent quality and pretty patterns. Raphoe has a cathedral, but
without features of note. The bishop's palace is in ruins. In 1835 the
bishopric was annexed to Derry. The police of this district are sad at
heart. There are but few of them, very few indeed, and they have no
work to do. These Protestant districts afford no pleasurable
excitement. Work, work, work, without any intervals of moonlighting
and landlord shooting. These Saxon settlers have no imagination. Like
mill horses, they move in one everlasting round, unvaried even by a
modicum of brigandage. An occasional murder, a small suspicion of
arson, might relieve the wearisome monotony of their prosaic
existence, but they lack the poetic instinct. They have not the
sporting tastes of their Keltic countrymen. They are not ashamed of
this, but even glory in it. An Orangeman asked me to quote a case of
shooting from behind a wall by any of his order. He says no such thing
ever took place, and actually boasted of it! He declared that if the
body had in future any shooting to do they would do it in the open.
The Nationalist patriots are more advanced. They know a trick worth
two of that. The Protestant party have no experience in premeditated
murder, and must take a back seat as authorities in the matter. They
have not yet discovered that shooting from behind a wall is
comparatively safe, and safety is a paramount consideration. Landlords
and agents carry rifles, and should they be missed unpleasant results
might ensue. The case of Smith, quoted in a Mayo letter, shows the
danger of missing. It is not well to place the lives of experienced
and valuable murderers at the mercy of a worthless agent. The
Nationalist party cannot afford to expose to danger the priceless
ruffians whose efforts have converted Mr. Gladstone and his Tail. The
patriots need every man who can shoot, and the stone walls of Ireland
are a clear dispensation of Providence. To shoot in the open is a
flying in the face of natural laws. The patriots are wedded to the
walls, or, as they call them in Ireland, ditches. The "back iv a
ditch" is a proverbial expression for the coign of vantage assumed for
the slaying of your enemy. Like General Jackson, the Irish are
Stone-wallers, but in another sense. They have brought the Art of
Murder with Safety to its highest pitch of perfection. They are the
leading exponents of mural musketry.
A moderate Unionist said:--"To speak of tolerance in the same breath
with Irish Roman Catholicism is simply nonsense. You will not find any
believers in this theory among the Protestants of this district,
although being more numerous they are not so much alarmed as the
unfortunate residents in Romanist centres. We cannot believe anything
so entirely opposed to the evidence of our senses. A Protestant farmer
of my acquaintance, the only Protestant on a certain estate, has
confided to me his intention of leaving the district should the bill
pass, because he thinks he could not afterwards live comfortably among
his old neighbours. A woman who had occupied the position of servant
in a Protestant family for forty years, recently went to her mistress
with tears in her eyes, and said her clergy had ordered her to leave,
as further continuance in the situation would be dangerous to her
eternal interests. A girl who had been four years in another situation
has also left on the same plea. The progress of Romanism is distinctly
towards intolerance. It becomes narrower and narrower as time goes on.
This is proved by the fact that formerly dispensations were granted
for mixed marriages--that is, Catholic and Protestant--on the
understanding that the children should be brought up, the boys in the
father's faith, the girls in the mother's. All that is now changed,
and dispensations are only granted on condition that all the children
shall be Roman Catholics. The absolute despotism of the Catholic
clergy is every year becoming more marked. They rule with a rod of
iron. A bailiff of my acquaintance who had paid all his clerical dues,
was very badly treated because he was a bailiff and for no other
earthly reason. No priest in Ireland would perform the marriage
ceremony for his daughter, who actually went to America to be married.
She was compelled to this, the bridegroom going out in another boat.
The ceremony being performed, they returned to Ireland, and the girl's
father assures me that the affair cost him fifty pounds. The case of
Mrs. Taylor, of Ballinamore, was a very cruel one, which a word from
the priest of the district would have altogether prevented. But that
word was not spoken, for she was a Protestant. Her brother had
discharged a cotter, I do not know whether justly or unjustly, but
although Mrs. Taylor had nothing whatever to do with the affair--and
it was not asserted that she had--she was severely boycotted. The
brother, who was the guilty party, if anybody was guilty, was rather
out of the way, and being a substantial farmer, quite able to hold his
own, could not be got at. But Mrs. Taylor was a widow, and lived by
running a corn mill. Nobody went near it, nobody would have anything
to do with the widow, who, however, struggled on, until the mill was
burnt to the ground. She was compensated by the County, and rebuilt
the mill. This spring it was again burnt down, and she is ruined. Her
property is now in the Receiver's hands, and she is going through the
Bankruptcy Court.
"The Home Rule Bill has produced, with much that is tragic, some
comical effects. Since the passing of the Second Reading our servant
has become unmanageable. She is evidently affected in the same way as
many of the most ignorant Papists, believing that the time will soon
come when, by the operation of the new Act, she will so far rise in
the social scale as to be quite independent of her situation. This
kind of thing is visible all around. There is work for everyone about
here, but the farmers cannot get labourers. In many parts of Ireland
the cry is 'There is no employment,' but here it is not so. There is
plenty of work at good wages, waiting to be done, but men cannot be
got to do it. The Sion Mills, which employ twelve hundred people,
eight hundred Catholics and four hundred Protestants, would employ
many more if they could be had. The labourers of this district are
Catholic, and they prefer to stand loafing about to the performance of
regular work. They believe that a perpetual holiday is coming, and
that they may as well have a foretaste of the ease which is to come.
Up to the times of the Home Rule Bill they were industrious enough.
The Catholics of Tyrone and Donegal are not like those of the South
and West. They are very superior, both in cleanliness and industry.
Having for so long mingled with the Saxon settlers of the North, they
have imbibed some of their industrial spirit, and until lately there
was no reasonable ground of complaint. Their morale is unhappily now
sadly shaken, and whether the bill passes or not it will be long, very
long, before they resume their industrial pursuits with the energy and
regularity of men who have nothing on which to depend but their own
exertions. And whatever happens to the bill, the country will be the
poorer for its introduction. Ireland is now an excellent country to
live out of, and those who can leave it have the most enviable lot."
A man of few words said:--"Under Home Rule the landlords may take
their hook at once. Their property will disappear instanter. The
tenant has already more lien on the land than the fee-simple _in toto_
is worth, and with a Nationalist Parliament he would pay no rent at
all. The judges would not grant processes, and if they did their
warrants could not be enforced. The destruction of the landlord class
means the destruction of English influence in Ireland. A short time
ago two men were talking together. One was doubtful, and said,
'Michael Davitt says we must have only five acres of land. Now you
have twenty-five acres, you'll lose twenty.' 'Ye didn't read it
right,' said the other. ''Tis the landlords and them that holds a
thousand and two thousand acres that'll be dispossessed, and their
land divided among the people. In six years we'll have the counthry
independent, and then we'll do as we like. Every Saxon will be
cleared out of the counthry. Only keep yer tongue between yer teeth.
Be quiet and wait a bit till ye see what happens.'
"'But,' said the objector, 'them Ulster fellows'll give us no peace.
They have arms, and I'm towld they have a lot of sojers among them,
and that they're drilled, and have officers, regular military
officers. Sure, how would we do as we liked, wid an army of them
fellows agin us? And they're devils to fight, they say.'
"'Arrah now, sure, ye're mighty ignorant, thin. Sure, they say they'll
not pay taxes. Thin the sojers comes in and shoots them down, and you
and I stands by wid our tongues in our cheeks. 'Tis no consarn of
ours. We have nothin' to say to it, one way or another. The Orangemen
can shoot the troops, and the troops can shoot the Orangemen, and they
can murdher each other to their heart's contint, and fight like
Kilkenny cats, till there's nothin' left but the tail. And good enough
for the likes of them. Sure, twill be great divarshun for them that
looks on. And that's the way of it, d'ye mind me?'"
This worthy politician must have been a perfect Machiavelli. His
favourite saying was doubtless 'A plague on both your houses,' and
with equal certainty his favourite quotation the bardic 'Whether
Roderigo kill Cassio, or Cassio kill Roderigo, or each kill the other,
every way makes my gain.' His theory of Nationalist progress was
four-square and complete, and showed a neat dovetailing of means with
the end. There is some justification for his simple faith. He has seen
Mr. Gladstone and his supporters, converted _en bloc_, including the
great Sir William Harcourt, styled by the Parnellite sheet "the
new-born, emancipator of Ireland," the unambitious and retiring
Labouchere, the potent Cunninghame Graham, the profound Conybeare, and
the pertinacious Cobb--he has seen these great luminaries throwing in
their lot with the sworn enemies of England, and doing all that in
them lies to disintegrate and destroy the Empire, and the rude peasant
may be pardoned for expecting that the British army will, at his call,
complete what these worthies have so well begun. To narrow loyalist
liberties, to tax loyalist industry, to create a loyalist rebellion,
and to have the loyalists shot by other loyalists is an excellent
all-round scheme. This is indeed a high-souled patriotism.
Continuing, my friend said:--"A Romanist neighbour of mine had
promised to vote for Lord Frederick Hamilton, for, as he said, he had
no confidence in any Irish Parliament. Just before the battle he
called and said he must vote the other way, for Father Somebody had
called on him and said, 'I hear you are going to vote for Lord
Frederick Hamilton.' Admitted. 'Then you may call in Lord Frederick
Hamilton to visit you on your death-bed. You can get him to administer
the Sacraments of the Church.' 'What could I do?' said the farmer. 'I
couldn't go against the priest. I could not incur the anger of my
clergy without imperilling my immortal soul. Besides that, I'd be made
a mark and a mock of. Perhaps I'd be refused admission to Mass, like
the men in South Meath who voted contrary to the orders of the
priest. So to save my soul I'll have to vote against my conscience. No
use in telling me we will vote by ballot. Them priests knows
everything. They fix themselves in the polling booths, and they can
read what way ye went in your face. Sure, they know us all inside and
out, since we were So high. We couldn't desave them.' Then they always
act as personation agents, and they order people who can read and
write to say they can't do either. So they have to declare aloud whom
they will vote for, and the priest hears for himself. This is the true
explanation of the fearful illiteracy of Donegal, as revealed by the
voting papers. Is it likely that in one quarter of Donegal--that is,
in one-fourth part of one county--there should be more illiterates
than in the whole of Scotland? Yet according to the election returns,
it was even so. The fact that the people declared themselves
illiterate at the orders of the priest, when they were not illiterate,
shows how degraded are the people, and how completely they are under
the thumb of the priests."
A Protestant clergyman on his holidays, and not belonging to these
parts, was very eloquent on the subject of political popery. In all my
journeyings I have never interviewed a Protestant parson, save and
except Dr. Kane, whom I met in the Royal Avenue, Belfast, along with
the Marquess of Londonderry and Colonel Saunderson, as recorded in an
early letter. I was disposed to believe that the English public might
regard their evidence as being prejudiced, and therefore of little
value. But my Raphoe acquaintance was a singularly modest and moderate
man, upon whose opinion you at once felt you could rely. He said:--"My
Catholic neighbours were friends until lately. Nobody could have been
more kind and obliging. There was no sensible difference between us,
except that they did not come to church. They would do anything for me
and my family; we would do anything for them. Lately they have changed
their manner. They have grown cold. Their children playing with mine
have let out the secret. Through them we learn that the days of the
Protestants are numbered. Father says this, and mother says that. My
land is disposed of among my Papist neighbours. All my congregation
have similar experiences. This makes things very unpleasant, and
nothing can ever bring back the kind, neighbourly feeling of old. The
Papist clergy are the cause of it all. Their church is nothing if not
absolute, and dominancy is their aim. The Protestant party will get no
quarter. I do not say we shall be murdered, or even personally
maltreated. But when the large majority of a district want to see the
back of you, with the idea of dividing your farm or your Church lands,
they have many ways of making things so unpleasant that you would soon
be glad to go. For my own part, I should endeavour to leave the
country at the earliest possible moment. And that is what 999
Protestants out of 1,000 would tell you. The clergy are inimical to
England. Here and there you find a Conservative, and, strange to say,
the scholarly men, what you might call the gentlemanly party, are
against Home Rule. These, unhappily, are very few. The Maynooth men
are violently against England." This cleric called attention to the
opinion of Dr. Wylie, of Edinburgh, who has made a special study of
the matter. The learned professor says the more palpable decadence of
Ireland dates from the erection of Maynooth. Before the institution of
this school the Irish priests were educated in France, then the least
ultramontane country in popish Europe. They could not be there without
imbibing a certain portion of the spirit of "Gallican liberties." It
was argued that by educating them at home, we should have a class of
priests more national and more attached to British rule; at least we
would have gentlemen and scholars, who would humanise their flocks.
These have since been shown to be miserable sophisms. "Maynooth is a
thoroughly ultramontane school. We have exchanged the French-bred
priest, illread in Dens, with low notions of the supremacy, and
proportionally high notions of the British Crown, for a race of
crafty, Jesuitical, intriguing, thorough-trained priests of the
ultramontane school, who recognise but one power in the world--the
Pontifical--and who are incurably alienated from British interests and
rule. The loud and fearful curses fulminated from the altar, which
come rolling across the Channel, mingled with the wrathful howls of a
priest-ridden and maddened people, proclaim the result. These are your
Maynooth scholars and gentlemen! These are your pious flocks, tended
and fed by the lettered priests of Maynooth! Better had we flung our
money into the sea, than sent it across the Channel, to be a curse in
the first place to Ireland, and a curse in the second place to
ourselves, by the demoralising and anti-national sentiments it has
been employed to propagate. The better a priest, the worse a citizen.
And whom have Government found their bitterest enemies? Who are the
parties who have invariably withstood all their plans for civilising
Ireland? Why, those very priests whom they have clothed, and educated,
and fed."