NEWS BYTHE PANAMA MAIL.

Grey River Argus, Volume V, Issue 321, 4 February 1868, Page 3

NEWS BY THE PANAMA MAIL.

THE FENIAN MOVEMENT.

Mr Goldwin a Smith has addressed a letter to the Daily News, in which he says : — There can be no doubt, I apprehend, that the Irish difficulty has entered on a new phase, and that Irish disaffection has, to repeat an expression which I heard used in Ireland, come fairly into line with the other discontented nationalities of Europe. Active Fenianiam probably pervades only the lowest class ; passive sympathy, which the success of the movement would at onco convert into active cooperation, extends, it is, to be feared, a good deal higher. England has now before her, unless she can hit on a remedy, an.d overcome any obstacles of clas3 interest or of national pride which would prevent its application, the part of Russia in Poland or of Austria in Italy— a part cruel, hateful, demoralising, contrary to all our high principles and professions, and fraught with danger to our own freedom. Our position will be worse than that of Russia in this respect, that, while her Poland is only a province, ' our Fenianism is an element pervading every city of the United Kingdom in which Irish abound, and allying itself with kindred misery, discontent, and disorder. We shall, no doubt, abolish the Irish Church Establishment. Ota* moral sense will not allow us to retain it ; nor can we afford to go on exciting tho sympathy of other nations in favor of Irish disaffection by displaying to the world so palpable an impeachment of our justice. But when this and all the other relics, if any there be, of Protestant ascendancy have been swept away, the pay of the English garrison of Ireland will have been withdrawn, and the garrison will probably disband. The Protestants will then become Irishmen, and, perhaps, from the independt nee of character belonging to their creed and race, the most seditious Irishmen of all. They were so, at least, in the time of Swift, and again in the time of the Volunteers. I wish it were not extravagant io hope j that for tho consideration of the great Irish questions a short parliament might for once be held in Ireland. In no other way, I fear, will the bulk of our legislators thoroughly get rid of the notions fixed in the minds of so many of them by their favourite journals and their favourite authors about 'the incorrigible vice 3of the Irish,' and 'the Irish bog fed from the perennial springs of Iris.h character,' which, though they lead them to no intentional tyranny, do cloud their vision, and prevent their seeing the true cure. Let them be placed while they deliberate in the midst of that people, so graceful, intelligent, and attractive in spite, of its misery and squalor, so capable of great virtues, as well as, unhappily, of great crimes — with the speaking monuments of Irish history, the torturing places of former tyranny, and the palaces of former jobbery around them — and perhaps their hearts, and with their hearts their eyes, might be opened, and, by an effort of the wisdom of which right sympathy is so large a part, they might avert from us the dark omen of the blood which is shed this day.

I An article appears in the Morning Star, from which the following extracts aro taken : — Wo have returned, then, for good or evil, rightly or wrongly, to the policy which prevails and is avowed in France and Austriaand Russia. Fenianisni of course, is strengthened and not weakened by the awful scene of Saturday. We can imagine what Chartism would have become if we had visited with death the much more serious offence of Mr Frost and his companions in 1839. Fenianism has now been furnished with its martyr roll, and we may be sure the leaders of the movement will not fail to make full use of the stimulus we have put into their power. Now the people of England must really begin at last to make up their minds on this Fenian question. Two courses are open to us, and,we fully believe, no third. We may go in distinctly and emphatically for keeping Ireland down. We may frankly acknowledge that she is our Poland or our Venctia, and take the fitting measures accordingly ; and as of her own strength she can never offer any serious resistance, so we shall go on until somebody makes war upon us, and then our Lombardy helps to our Solferino — our Venetia brings on us a Sadowa. 'Accidents,'as Mr Bright once observed on this very subject, ' are always happening,' and no power likely to be ever engaged in war is strong enough to afford having rehels. That is one course we may take. The other is to recognise boldly and promptly the fact that there is a part of our imperial system which has not hitherto been fairly governed, which has had its bitter wrongs to complain of, which even still complains of serious wrongs, and to essay at once the removal of every grievance, the healing of every sore place. Let us not blind ourselves to the fact that the question at issue between England and Ireland is fast becoming merely one of races. Statesmen of the showy and shallow character of Lord Derby think they have said rather a clever and conclusive thing when they insist that Fenianism aims at the removal of no particular grievance, but is only a vague hatred of English government. Now, we beg to say, that if this be the real strength of Fenianism, and if as such it is popular in Ireland, then its spirit is simply inextinguishable and its mischief past all remedy. If the Irish people hate English government simply because it is English government, then we are to them simply as Russia or Poland, or as Austria was to Venice. Instead of this being an excuse for our severely punishing Fenianism, it would deprive us of all moral justification for its repression, and degrade us into the condition of the merest and vulgarest despots. We hope and believe that the case of Ireland is not so ; that there are certain specific grievances which directly create a spirit of natural discontent, and that in that general but remediable discontent Fenianism finds the sympathy which alone makes it formidable. We are engaged, then, in a struggle wifh Fenianism which is likely to be long, weary, and, we may now assume, bloody also. We must, at the same time, enter into a rivalry with it, and bid against it for the confidence and sympathy of the mass of the Irish people. Yet a little, and we shall assuredly be too late. A blind, indomitable hatred will take the place of the feeling with whick Ireland now re-

gards us. Once «that feeling becomes general the matter is hopeless. The ' question of the nationalities,' as it is called, is one of the greatest curses with which any country could be afflicted, and if we do not take some prompt and efficient measures to redress the serious practical grievances of Ireland and to win bank 'lie confidence of the Irish people, we shall have our question of the nationalities to distract and onfeeblo us. Most assuredly Fenianism won a great point hist Saturday when it provoked us into baptising it in blood. We must be prompt, earnest; and generous if we would not be driven by Fenianism to the choice of reconquering Ireland r>r renouncing her.