The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1886. THE BELFAST RIOTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1346, 20 September 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1886. THE BELFAST RIOTS.

Although Reuter’s Agency inlormed us weeks ago of the occurrence ol riots of a serious nature at Belfast, we had no idea that the disturbances had been of such magnitude and duration or that they had been attended by so great loss of life as now appears from the particulars which have reached us by the San Francisco mail. Making due allowance tor the fact that news never loses in sensationalism, but rather the other way, when forwarded via America, there is a circumstantiality and particularity about the details given which induce the belief that the scenes in and around Belfast during the first three weeks of last month were such as have seldom been paralleled even in unhappy Ireland. Commencing on the 31st July by a collision between Protestants and Catholics and continuing up to the 23rd August, the story of these scenes of disorder, of riot, and of bloodshed reads like a chapter from the history of Paris under the Commune, and it says little for the wisdom of English rulers that after so many years of English rule such developments should be possible. The story is indeed a terrible one. Not only men were engaged in shooting down men of the same blood and nationality, but women, and even children, took an active part in the unnatural conflict, women grinding down powder and loading rifles for the combatants, and boys of tender years—mere children, in fact—melting down lead for bullets for the death-dealing rifles. Expert marksmen took deadly aim at their countrymen from roof-tops, chimney stacks, and street corners, while at Springfield a regular guerilla engagement took place, the Catholics sheltered by trees and the Protestants protected by what is described as an “ embrasuie ” (probably a hastily constructed earth work,) picking one another off just as in an ordinary siege. Houses were riddled with bullets and Belfast is said td have presented a scene of ruin similar to that of Paris in the disastrous time which followed the downfall of Napoleon the Little. The police and the military, among whom weie some 400 infantry and 200 dragoons, seem to have used their arms freely, shooting down numbers of the rioters but appear to have been powerless to put astopto the disturbances, and for more than three weeks, the scenes of violence and carnage continued. No complete or even approximate list of casualties is given, but the loss of life must evidently have been very large, as one day’s tale of losses (Bth August) is given as 11 killed and 200 wounded, while we read that on the morning of the 9th 30 rioters were wounded by the fire of the police, and in the Springfield affair we are told 60 persons were wounded, many of them fatally. It is further stated that all the Hospitals are taxed to their utmost to find space for the care of those who are injured, so that it would appear only too probable that the slain are to be counted by hundreds and thewounded almost by thousands. And the saddest feature of all this sad story is that all this appears to have been the outcome of religious, or rather sectarian animosity, for these, outrages upon religion cannot be committed by those who are really religious, whether Protestant or Catholic, and great darkness and ignorance must

I prevail in the minds of those who | think that in slaying each other they are doing God service. Until we know more of the story it is impossible to say whether or not political feeling has had any part in the matter, though it appears quite possible that it has. It is well that the whole matter is to be enquired into by a Royal Commission, as the sooner all the causes which have led up to this terrible state of affairs are thoroughly known the better, as it may then be possible to provide a remedy and to take steps which will effectually prevent the possibility of the repetition of such disasters. Meantime ! we can no longer afford to point the finger of scorn at other nations whose domestic revolutions we have hitherto been disposed to attribute solely to misgovernment, for if like effects always spring from like causes then we cannot escape from the necessary inference of gross misgovernment in the case of Ireland. We, as Englishmen, have hitherto in our Pharisaism, been only too prone to proffer our services to remove the motes from the eyes of ourbrethren, and it would better beseem us to take steps to cast out the beam which is so manifestly present in our own.