MISS PARNELL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 10, 12 January 1881, Page 4

MISS PARNELL.

(From the « Daily Telegraph.") Even the poets of the cause — many of tbem, I am bound to say, write ringing verse — preacb the gospel , of force. Prominent among these is Miss Fanny Parnell, who has just published a poetical address to the Irish farmers on the text, " Hold the harvest." Her.vocabnlarly of abuse .is a strong one. She cilis' the -'"trembling* emigrant" a "lucre-loving wretch," a "coward/ a ,";cpwar3," a ". sordid, churl,'? ,a *« caitiff," a "recreant," a "deserter/* and the black " parrallel in shame" of traitors and spies. From tfn's digres-, sion the fair poetess returns again 1 , tothe farmer, reminding him of what 'lie probably! did not know— that b;is .fields are fertilised by the ashes of his slaughtered fathers :-~ Three hundred years your crops havesprnno:, by murdered corpses fed — Your butcherM!' sires,: your famished sires, , for ghastly compbst ispttead ; Their bones have fertilised your fields, their blood has fallen like rain.: „ . , . They died that ye might eat and live— God ! have they died in vain ? Miss Parnell now asks the question, " Who shall. have our harvests fair ?" and calling to mind that the " peasant's are tho weak indeed in such unequalstrife," comforts herself thus : — . But "God is on the peasant's side, the God that loves the poor; His angels stand with flaming swords on mount and moor : They guard the poor man's flocks and herds, they guard his ripening grain. The robber sinks beneath their curse beside hie ill got gain . .... The particular providence hero referred to does not seem to protect, the cattle which now, almost day by day, are irautilated by Irish hands in Irish fields ; but this, I suppose, is a matter of detail. Finally, Miss; Parnell ad*, jures the " pallid serfs, whose groans and prayers have wearied Heaven full 5 long :"— . , But your own hands upraised to guard shall draw the answer down, And bold and stern, tbe deeds must be that oath and prayer shall crown ; God only fights for them who fight— now hush the useless moan, And set yonr faces as a flint and swear to Hold Your Own 1