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he who runs may read . The colonists have been able to persevere sufficiently in rebellion . Our own history shows that English counties have been able to secure a due share of attention when they had sufficiently made up their minds , to carry out the same process . Statesmen persevere in teaching that lesson to the people all over the world . We do not believe there is the history of a single country , distinguished for its progress in political enfranchisement , which has not gained each great step in its career by rebellion . We perceive that truth clearly enough ; but what
surprises us is , that it appears to be adopted as a rule of conduct by administrators who call them-Belves conservative , to continue enforcing that truth upon the peoples . Our present Government of Ireland is one maintained against the will and against the circumstances of the Irish people by the will and conviction of the strong coercing the weak . If the Irish people fail to carry out a rebellion against us , because they are not strong enough , they attain the same object by evading our force , and betaking themselves to the land where rebellion has been successful . If the rebellion will not
come for them they go to the rebellion ; and by transmigration they convey themselves from the country where it is inchoate , Ireland , to that where it is complete and established , America , British or Republican . We thus , by a double process , force the Irish to feel the value of that practical action which Conservative statesmen ought most of all to abhor . In Ireland we make them feel the deplorable evils under which a people lie , who not being strong enough for rebellion in case of necessity , are not strong enough to
maintain their liberties by enforcing their own voice in self-government ; and we drive them over to America , where they taste with full enjoyment the entire benefits of the action denied to them in Ireland . Is this statesmanship ? Mr . Drummond " wanted to know why Parliament acted differently towards Scotland and Ireland , " allowing the people to be guided by their own convictions in Scotland , but forcing an alien conviction upon the Irish P Conscience , he said ,
ought to operate as strongly upon the other side of the Tweed as on the other side of the Channel . Tho remark tells two ways , for religion is a matter of conscience , and if Protestantism is the true result of conscience , then the safe process would be to set the Irish free , as freo as the Scotch , and to trust in the due evolvement of Protestantism amongst them . Or if conscience compels the Church of England to enforce its own opinion upon the Irish , why not also upon the Scotch P Lot us see how Lord John Russell answers
this question : — " If the lloman Catholic clergy had increased power given to them , and if they , as ecclesiastics , were to exorcise greater control and greater political influence than they do now , that power would not be exercised in accordance with the general freedom that prevails in this country ; and neither in respect to political power nor upon other subjects would they favour that general freedom of discussion , and that activity nnd energy of the human mind that belongs to the spirit of the constitution of this country- 1 do not think that
in that respect they are upon a par with the Presbyterians of Scotland . The Presbyterians of Scotland , the Wesloyans of this country , and the Established Church of thin country and of Scotland , all no doubt exercise a certain influence over their congregations ; but tlmt influence which they thus excrete over thoir congregations must ho compatible with a certain freedom of the mind must bo compatible with a certain spirit of inquiry which tho ministers of these churches do not dare to overstep , and , if they did overstep it , that inllnenco would bo destroyed . I um obliged , then , to conclude
. most unwillingly to conclude , but most decidedly---that tho endowment of tho Roman-Catholic religion in Ireland in tho place of tho endowment of the I ' rofcuHtfint church in that country , in connexion with tho Stato , is not an object which . tlio Purluunont of this country ought , to adopt or to sancl | w » . " In other words , LorcP John will continue to forcoupon tho Trish tho religion of the English , lwli
because ho thinks tho Kng religion moresuited to freedom : bo tho Irish aro , by tho force and strength of England , compelled to receive tho faith of freedom ! Ho will not trust tliom to choose their own faith , lost they should fall under compulsion . It in protostniit faith , alone , ho says , which ia compatible with " a oevtam spirit of mouirv" iind , lliat rt ! nHon « ho ° PP ° Hoa Mr - Doom ' s motion for inquiry . The Irish must not enjoy a freedom of choice in thoir cnurcli , lest
they should not attain " a certain freedom of mind ; " in other words , the Irish people are not to be free in their own way , but they must be free after Lord John Russell ' s fashion . They are bound , that they may be the freer ! This is the most extraordinary doctrine of national freedom that we ever encountered . This , professedly , is why Lord John will not put the same trust in free conscience west of St . George ' s Channel , that he will north of the Tweed . But such is not
the real reason . The real reason is , that , at certain times , these abstract doctrinal questions are put to the rude test of force ; by which , usually , they are determined , where contending parties do not come to a mutual agreement ; and , when they have been put to that " test in Ireland , the native Irishman has been beaten , physically ; whereas , when they
have put that test in Scotland , the Scotchman has shown that he could give as good as was brought to him , and that the blow dealt upon his hard hide would shatter the blade , and jar the hand of him who struck . That , and that alone , is the true reason why Scotland has been able to maintain her religious freedom , notwithstanding the diversity of conviction in England .
But there is something in this course of statesmanship towards Ireland more dangerous even than the chronic inculcation of rebellion . We are providing a traitor within the circle of our own allegiance , not only to act with an enemy , but to convert an ally into an enemy . Mr . Moore described a certain feeling in Ireland : —¦ " There was scarcely a part of the Irish coast , " he said , " where , if a fight were to take place off it , between an English and an American vessel , a verylarge majority of the lookers on would not wish the Americans to win . " He may truly call this state of feeling existing amongst the Irish
population an " Imperial danger : " it is so , and it does not become the less dangerous for emigrating to America . While we kept the Irish in Ireland , we could keep them down . It is not much to boast of , because , after all , we confess that the Irish priests sap the mental independence \> f the people ; we had ourselves circumvented their ceconopnizing , in making the be 3 t of their land ; and we outrun them , in resources , military power , numbers , and every comparison by which a conquering people can be shown to be more than a match for the conquered . When we have won victories over the French—when
we have shown that we can alternate victories with tho Americans , wo did something- to boast of ; but when we have conquered the Irish , we have won the easy victory of the strong over the weak , and have displayed tho grossest fault of the bully who repays in moments of tyrannical peace the service which his weaker countryman has rendered him while they were under a common danger . _ _ _ , „ .,.,. . of
It is not beyond the bounds possibility that they may have an opportunity of repaying us . When an eseapo from unjust treatment tends to great emigrations of a people , whether it is tho protestants who carry from France a manufacture , or neo-catholies who seek in America a freedom denied to them in Prussia , or Irishmen seeking in the same land a freedom denied to them in Britain , tho sin and the danger of retribution are tho same ; only in our cas ( Tit is more apparent , and far more gratuitous . T .
, In order to force protestantism upon tho Irish , we drive tliem over to tho United States , and thus post immense numbers of exasperated enemies of England into tho midst , of tho people of our best ally . In America , by the spirit of porfoct freedom , it is remarked , those very Irish become protestants . Flying from protestant coorcors at homo , they are volunteer protestants i ' a tho republic . The ' end of tho persecution is attained without its evils . Mr . Bright remarked , tlmt tlio Roman-catholics aro attached to the institutions of tho United States ; and ( . hoyhave
reaHon to l > o so ; for tho ttoman-catholic anti-British , anti-monarchist , finds much sympathy in tho extreme democrats of the Union . The more violent of the Irish do not hesitate to do tlioir best ; to uso thnt sympathy in inciting tho Americans against England . Wo hayo recently luul some curious ovidonees of thin endeavour , 'in their desiro ^ to persuade America that an allianoo with absolutist . Itussiu , or tyrannical France , would be good , beeiuiso in tho feeling of . its advocates it would be detrimental to England . It in true that tho great body of tho American
people know better ; but there is no knowing what chances might occur in a time of general discord . How much better it would be to keep these Irish at home , give them here the freedom that they find there , and make them our friends as well as the Americans ! If we were to grant Ireland the choice of her own faith , and estabish that , we should only give to her what we
have recently conceded to Canada . Why oblige the Irish to seek that same justice in British North America P While statesmanship is busy about peddling reforms , which scarcely reach tho body of society to influence it , it has thus exasperated its own friends and blood relations , and arrayed against us a double set of enemies , those who are friends to freedom as well as those who are its foes .
Untitled Article
PROSPERITY , PRICES , AND WAGES . Every day we receive fresh proofs of the growing prosperity of the country , and not tho least remarkable of these are to be found in some statistics which appeared last week in the Economist . We learn that there has been an unusual rise in the price of butter , cheese , and bacon . Thus , butter , which in 1852 , sold at 70 s . per cwt ., has risen in 1853 to 102 s . Cheshire cheese exhibits an increase of 36 per cent . —and so forth . Now , as butter , cheese , and bacon are principally consumed by the multitude , and if there is no falling off in the supply—which is not the
caseit is pretty clear that the- multitude is considerably more prosperous now than it was at this time last year . The higher classes have always had a sufficiency of these homely articles . It is our mechanics , artisans , and labourers who have sometimes found reason to complain ; and it is their increased consumption which has produced the advance in price . . But we may say the samo of almost every other ail via of agricultural produce . Two things follow from this : — I . That the farmer has no reason to complain . II . There is a greater abundance of the circulating medium among all classes .
But the signs of this prosperity are not confined to home . " Young England" in the Eastern Ocean is advancing with , rapid strides . Tho yield of gold in the Australian fields is in no danger of diminishing . The lust mail brings us news of the largest nugget ever yet found , and no sooner was the news conveyed to Melbourne than , some hundreds of persons left the town , their departure being accompanied by an immediate advance in the labour-market . In short ,
notwithstanding the numberless disappointments which have occurred , the gold is as attractive as on the first day when the discovery took place . In addition to this , the decision of Government on the transportation question has been hailed with great satisfaction , and now that there is some chance of Van Piemen's Land ceasing to be a " den of thieves , " a door is opened fov the arrival of emigrants of a higher class . At present , no doubt , the effect of this draught of gold is to derange the ; general labour market , to unsettle the habits of the people , nnd to retanUho introduction of comforts and luxuries . But ,
whatever may be the ultimate result , it is manifest that the gold discoveries have had no small share- in producing , and will tend to continue , the existing prosperity . Experience has proved that every addition to the gold produco causes more immigration—therefore more settlement ot lands , more trade , more consumption of English produce ; and , at the same time , more emigration from England , more work to do here , more
to pay it , with , and fewer hands to pcrlorm it ; . To apply these facts . The operative cabinetmakers of Neweastle-on-Tyne have addressed a circular to their employers , demanding an increase of wages . Nothing enii bo calmer or more moderate than the spirit in which the demand is made—nothing more reasonable than tho ground on which tho claim is rested . Wo shall let tho cabinot-mnkers s » enk for themselves : —
( 3 « ntlcnifln ,--Tn conformity wilh n resolution unanimously adopted lit , u . special meeting of tho trade , wo vontmo oni'o morn to address . >«•» on a subject previously intimated- viz ., im advance of two shillings per wcok on our existing wages and prices . Taking into account our increased expenditure on art icli-s of duily consumption , together wilh tho many honoimiMe <> xim » pl « n of other employers having dono that vvh ' mli you have , refused , wo , on our first application , did think , that in generosity you , would have made a concession to what wo consider a . Just unii equitable proposal : juht- because not vaado on our aide lo toko any undue advantage of un artificial ptiiaulus
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June 4 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 541
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 4, 1853, page 541, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1989/page/13/
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