FROUDE AND BURKE.

Evening Star, Issue 3101, 27 January 1873, Page 3

FROUDE AND BURKE.

Mr Froude, the well-known historian, has b*n lecturing in America on that sequence of events which forms the subject of his splendid fragment of English history He has many faults as a writer ; but of all his failings, his special craze is hatred of Roman Catholicism and Ire and. Readers of his history cannot but observe this great blot, which prevents Mr Froude recording events, and interpreting motives, with that judicial Impartiality which is so essential in a historian. ■ He is, in fact, a partisan; an enthusiastic zealot, we should rather terra him—who sees no good in that which he dis* Jikeg, and no bad in that which he likes, la tji’e great cities of America, Mr Froude has lectured; as wo have-said, and his lectures have been marked by the same b’emish as bis history. But in such a country, where so much of the Celtic element is to be found, it would be wonderful indeed if Mr Froude passed unchallenged. He has met an antagonist by no means inferior to himself in erudition and eloquence, namely, a • ominican, Father Burke. This priest lectures alternately with Mr Froude; and their contest has been a fruitful theme for the leading journals in the United States. It is, how« ever, conceded that both championg are pre ; indict'd; the one as creatly m favor of the Catholic' Church and its as the ether is against' these. The result is, that the truth not unfrequently suffers through the partisanship of the lecturers. We notice this singular controversy, partly on account of its novelty, partly for the impetus it must give to the study of modern history, and partly also because of its political bearings, The only result, in a fiolitical point of view, that we consider ikely to accrue, is that an intensely antiEnglish feeling will be created among a large section of the people of the United States. The history of British misrule in Ireland v as the subject of several of these lectures ; and the topic lost none of its colouring by the mode in which it was handled. Then, again, Mr Froude, in one of his lectures, touched the Celtic race on its most sensitive ppipt—military fame. He declared, as tpe result of experienc', “that the tmh ’ are no 1 good at handling a ride.” The American newspapers < point to the part the Irish took in the civil war as a ct mSlete reply to this, and inquire whether Mr 'roude thinks the American people are such

a set of arrant fools to believe his statement, inquiring, at the same time, whether the honor of the British arms has not been largely upheld by Irish troops. On the whole, from a perusal of the reports of some of these lectures, we think the Dominican is more than a match for the historian as a lecturer ; hut we are satisfied that they are both equally prejudiced in regard to races and creeds. It will he matter for deep regret, however, if Mr Fronde, by his American lectures, should revive Fenianism in the United States The probability is entirely in favor of his doing this, which would be a greater mischief in itself than he could ever hope to repair. At the banquet recently given to him in New York, Mr J. A, Fronde sad Some eighteen months ago, at a London breakfast table, it was mentioned that one of the most prominent Fenian leaders was making a tour in the United States, dilating upon English tyranny, and the wrongs of Ireland. No doubt the text is a pregnant one, and it probably did not suffer in the commentary. Irish patriotism has many a charge to bring against England, which can be hut too well substantiated. England cannot complain if Ii Liman have a long memory. There are, however, features in the long tragical story which, if they do not palliate, at least explain and make intelligible much that we could wish undone—features which naturally enough the Irish overlook, yet which should be borne in mind, if an impartial judgment is to be formed on the to itroversy, L was aware how great an influence America possesses in Ireland. The judgment of America has more weight in Ireland than twenty batteries of English cannon ; and that judgment ought not to be pronounced afterhearing only the counsel for the plaintiff [ said hastily, I think I will go over and give some lectures on the other side. I spoke without serious intention ; but the idea, having once presented its. lf to me, gathered form and fixty, lam not an Irishman. Ido not own an acre of land in Ireland, but circumstances during the last thirty years have thrown me much among the Irish people. They are a people who either attract strongly or repel strongly. I, myself, had always felt myself specially drawn towards them. When at college, I used to spend my vacations wandering in the Irish mountains. I have lived in peasants’cabins for months together. I was once laid up with severe illness in the wilds of Mayo, and the poor c/eatures treated me with a tenderness which 1 shall never forget. Their history attracted me. Their condition personally interested me. 1 knew Ireland before the famine. 1 knew it in the, famine. I was in Ireland afterwards, in 1848, in the Smith O’Brien insurrection. Since that time I have been an Irish tenant. Indeed, I may say I am an evicted tenant I have been turned out of my hiding, and can sympathise with the special wrong of the country, as I was very unwilling to go. Bat my landlord simply wanted xo live in his own house and attend to his duties. If a 1 evictions were as innocent as mine, there would be little to complain of, and when I go back I hope to find some other place in the same country which will suit me as well.