THE FENIANS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 332, 14 December 1865, Page 1

THE FENIANS.

(From the Saturday Eaview, September 9.) These is probably not a nation in the world, except the United States, which does not delight in calling itself old. What the special gratification ni!>y be in asserting this claim to antiquity is not always very obvious, but there is no doubt about tho tact. Most Englisiunen would plead guilty to. q> pleasant titulation of tho nerves ou hearing tlio phrase Old England. There is perhaos something intelligible in the complacent feelings* with which a man may recall the history of his country when it has played a respectable part in tiie annals of the worid ; but the boast of a hoary old age is not confined to prosperous and well-to-do communities. Let the whole past existence of a nation be a tissue of wrongs endured and indicted, an unbroken catalogue of miseries and crimes, and still it seems to soothe the minds of patriots to dwell half-unconsciously ou the ugly reminiscence. The strongst example of this dominant passion is* where a people’gradually emerging by honest effort from the gloom and barbarism of a wretched history still has a sort of hankering love for the evil which is slowly disappearing, and prefers looking bacs to a joyless past to looking forward to a hopeful future. After all that has been said or can be said about the condition of Ireland, it. is quite impossible to compare any two epochs, twenty or even ten years apart, without seem? the sgns of ummstakeable progress. Bat it is a rare thing for an Irishman to console himself with so utilitarian a reflection, and the only shout which gives any genuine relief to his feelings is sure to be something connected with “ Owid Ireland." xhere is not a folly, a madness, or a crime that has sullied the records of that unhappy country in times when excuses for folly and crime were not wanting, which is not glorified by a sort of quasi-patriotic halo whan associated with tho senseless cry of “ Old Ireland for everlt is obvious that any rational patriot, however pur© might be his Hibernian descent, would rejoice in nothing so much as to get rid of every trace of the oid Ireland of penal laws and religious hatred and hopeless rebellions, of filth and poverty and assassination, and to make room for the new Ireland of industry and comfort, toleration and decency, which may become a fact whenever it pleases the finest peasantry to accept it At present, how- . 6 sor * poetical reverence for a repulsive pasfeis stronger than the rational.aspiration for a cheerful future, and. the Old-Ireland worshin flourishes m spite of the renovation which cannot bo altogether resisted.

lienee it is that we still see those silly, rather than malignant, imitations of worn-out treasons ffmt crop up at intervals to alarm the old women of the sister isle, and drive the Irish Government fq measures of so-called repression, which it is almost equally impossible to avoid without encouraging absurd delusions, or to adopt without some compromise of official dignity. Just now a small epidemic of diluted cabbage-garden disaffection bag been mildly raging in some of the Southern and Western counties. The particular phase of Owkl Irelaudism which is at this moment in the ascendant is perhaps the least savoury of tV'h In all these recurring attacks of social disorder some flavor of treason is essential to give the true Old-Ireland smack to the proceedings, but it is satisfactory to find that the form of the disease becomes like most epidemics, a shade milder at each repetition of the visit. Ireland can fin<! in her history two distinct types of treason—the treason of deeds and the treason of words. The mitigated action of the virus was first developed in the O'Connell and Smith O’Brien days, Und unless we do a great injustice to the so-called ienians, it is to the spurious treason-felony which consists in cursing and shouting and shamming ftt soldiers, and not to the savage genuine treason qI an earlier date, that they look for their model. There is a controversy going on at present in the Irish press whether the symptoms that have appeared belong to the serious or to the mitigated form of the complaint; but, so far as any facts have yet been made public, there is no evidence that the dreaded army of Fenians is anything more than a band of idiots who think they can benefit their country by vain endeavors to march in fours, and more successful attempts at cursing the Royal Family, and singing “The Fenian Boys for ever.” One of the most formidable stories duly detailed by the Cork Daily Express amounts only to this. About 200 young men walked out of Cork, as nearly as they could manage, four deep, A tew men with green sticks (there is always something very terrible in a green stick or a green cap) kept such order as they could on the inarch, and it seems to have occurred to them that the demonstration would acquire a very military character by their all joining in a chorus; so they sang “ The Green above the Red,” which no doubt is a very fine specimen of musical disaffection. Fifteen policemen started in pursuit, and thereupon the phalanx, without any panic as we are told, went home by another road, and quietly dispersed. A still more daring manifestation at Clonakilty led to the arrest of five of the ringleaders, and very damning evidence came out against them. The whole lot of these national troops were nationally drunk, and, being so, sung v a song about Bobbies,” which was probably disrespectlul to the guardians of the peace. Another chorus ended with “ Fenian Boys, hurrah !” which naturally struck terror into the hearts of the bystanders. The evidence did not stop here, for it was clearly proved that, on the word “ Malt” from one of the prisoners, the whole body came to a Stand. All this no doubt meant a kind of mischief, and it was, we dare say, proper enough to commit these foolish disturbers of the peace for trial; but,sofar,thereisnotrauchtoscaresoberpeoplo out of their senses. But the grand case of all is the Dundalk prosecution, which does acquire a shade of extra importance from the fact that a Corporal of militia is charged with heading the movement. Corporal Quigley is evidently a Fenian of lively imagination. He fancied that the 80 or 100 men whom he had got together represented an army, and kept up the delusion by whistling or singing the bugle-calls used in light infantry drill, iiis musical powers seem to have have been sufficient to perform intelligibly the Call for the “ double,” and he had the satisfaction of seeing bis company trot up with proper alacrity iu answer to the tunc, and, as the principal witness deposed, they had all “ got into a lump” when he came up with them. A “ lump” not being a known military organization, the commander made an attempt to get his men into fours, but he could not give the word quite right, and the men did not make much of the elementary movement; but it was distinctly sworn that they did make an effort to form fours, and gave some point to their little military essay by a more successful shout of •Hurrah for Liberty!—Make way for the Fenians!” When great events like these are disturbing the public tranquility, it is not surprising that they should give rise to some difivrence of opinion. Certain newspapers are loud in their dcnunciaiions of the apathy of the Government in the face of a conspiracy more formidale than any that has been seen since 1848. Others are disposed to ridicule the whole affair, and in one sense it is certainly puerile enough. But, silly and contemptible as these attempts at forming fours may be, they are not the less extremely mischievous; and we, at any rate, do not blame the authorities for prosecutions which, however ludicrous, have become necessary on account of the uneasiness which evidently exists, with or without cause, in many part sof Ireland. N o one probably will be in any particular danger from a number of idle fellows ranging themselves four deep, and the whole proceeding is apparently nothing more than a particularly silly form of the Old-Ireland cult. But Hibernians are imaginative, and while they dream that the silly songs about Bobbies and Fenians, and Green over Bed, threaten the public peace, half the apprehended mischief comes from the yery anticipation of it. The common every-day work of life on which the prosperity of a people depends will not go on smoothly while a real or even jui imaginary, insurrection is brewing under the social edifice. Least of all will money find its way for investment among a race who seem to consist only of two elasses-those who like to walk about four deep, and those who are frightened out of their Senses at tliis very ridiculous performance. Serious rebellion has long since become an impossibility in Ireland- AH that there is of strength, rasp edibility, and intelligence in the country is opposed to it; and we need not fear the demonstrations of a militia corporal who can whistle the hugle-calls or of a score or two of drunken peasants who think they are doing something very braye in marching at his hels. Still, if serious rebellion is finally put down, mock rebellion is not the less a social nuisance ; and if the Government can manage to suppress it without getting themselves kflghed at, we are inclined to agree with jjarlQfJJftmiloß, that the sooner it is done the better.