ANOTHER HOME RULE GROWL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1153, 14 June 1911, Page 5

ANOTHER HOME RULE GROWL.

Sir,—lf Mr. Milligan would give us more facts and less fiction, ho would bo doing some justice to his cause. But as it is ho is only maligning most of his own countrvmen —some of whose names arc enrolled 011 the brightest pages of history- Such as Owen Roe, Hugh O'-Neil, etc. . So far, Mr. Milligan, with all his erudition, has not advanced one argument against Home Rule. He cannot do it. Ireland has the sympathy of the civilised world with her. It does not follow that because a small section of the population—about' one-sixteenth of the whole—is opposed to Home Rule the great majority should he deprived of tho management of their own affairs, as well as the management of the affairs of tho minority. Mr. Milligan's letters thus far have been nothing more nor less than a series of useless growls. It is so with _ every illogical mind. He will keep to his statistics, although I have shown that statistics arc not the most satisfactory records. T have sliowu that the statements- of his great authority and those of his own are fallacious and not worthy of consideration. But enough. I do not. obtain my knowledge of the Irish in America from the same source as Mr. Milligan, but from my own experience, and that of other influential and intelligent travellers recently arrived from there. Kxperientia docet. Mr. Milligan shows his ignorance of American history when he says that the first Irish emigration to America was after the year 1817! Does he not know that two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Irishmen; and that many of Washington's soldiers, who helped to win that independence, were also Irish? Has lie never heard of General Andrew Jackson. who. with 3000 men. whipped tho British 13.000 strong at New Orleans in 1S12? Is he ignorant of the fact that most of the victories of the Federals over the Confederates during the Civil War were achieved liv Irishmen or the sons of Irishmen? Has he never heard 0? a Sheridan, a Corcoran, or a Meagher? Suvclv lie cannot, be ignorant of tho part taken" by the Irish Brigade in these and other wars. Has he forgotten I lie noble deeds of Hoberts, Kitchener,, Butler, and Iho.-e gallant men who fought under them during tho Boer war? These w.ere a different stamp of men to those isolated cases referred to bv Mr. Milligan. Is he ignorant of the noble deed* of Irishmen under Wellington in tho Peninsula and at Waterloo? I suppose he is equally hoEillr.-s of the deeds of Irishmen in iho Crimea, Hie Indian Mutiny, and oilier places where they have been called to defend the tla? of I-'.mpire._ T am at a loss to know where Mr. Milligan's compatriots performed similar deeds of valour. I am equally at a loss to learn where the loyal camp he alludes to is siiuntrd. Cniainly it cannot lie in Ireland, if we accept that small faclion in Hie north-east "f Ulster: and were it not for the cowardice of .lom.\s II at. tho Boyne. who was afraid of having his dniiehter left a widow, very few of them would be left to tell sham stories and imaginary talcs to-day. With the above exception. I contend, without the fear of contradiction that the whole of Ire-

land is one loyal camp, aiul J' ia4 - loyalty and a combination of »he jhioe other provinces and a larze part ej tlu; fourth, Homo .Rule is nn the ovc ol bsjniff an accamplMuil fact, whatever Mr. muiignn and others of J)is type may ray to the contrary. . It is n pity that a man »t intelligenetl cannot be a little more nrcwtlininded in an asje of yrngrev* and development. I think Mr. Million mi?hi devote his time and talents to otliei more n?pfiil purposes than trying <o asperse the memory of men whose names arc enrolled on the golden pngss of Jn>fory. However, sir, i think I have gnen Mr' Milligan a "Roland for an Oliver, and which nmy be an object les-son to him. , I am now done with Mr. Milligan ana his irrational statement?, and apologising, sir, for trespassing sn far on your valuable space.—l am, etc., x\ u. Wellington. June 5, 1911.