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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4209, 16 September 1874, Page 2

The intelligence the mail brings from Europe is of some interest. , France would appear to be apprehensive of;the aggressive attitude of Germany in Spanish affairs, and to have made an appeal to'Groat Britain on the subject, while in Spain itself, although the Republicans have been partially Successful, the Carlists are by no means discouraged, and Don Carlos himself looks for,Wai'd'to re-establishing the authority of Ids divinoly-appoiuted ancestors, and building up anew the glory of Old Spniu. Affairs in France remain much as they were—in such a state that an outburst of one party or another at any moment is only suppressed by the military power; Marshal Macmahon controls. Italy appears - to be somewhat distracted between its duty to the King and to the Pope; and if it was not known that all European news passing through an American medium must be taken with a grain of salt, it might be supposed that it is not Russia alone which is likely to find itself at war (on its Asiatic frontier), but that the peace of Europe is in danger. We have hopes that on the arrival of the Suezmail a good deal of the rod coloring will be washed out of the sky Scenery, as the American telegraphic artists have painted it. Looking at the items, it is impossible to repress astonishment at the news which comes to hand from Ireland, “John Mitchell” has landed there, and his return to his native land after long exile has been hailed in - Cork, wliero ho set foot on shore, with torchlight processions, bonfires, music, and other symptoms of popular rejoicing. Now, who . was this hero that was so welcomed, and for whom -the traditional fatted calf was lulled ? .He was one of the small band of mistaken enthusiasts who brought about tho insurrection of 1848,—just half a century after the famous '9B, as, to - which, the Irish ballad asks “who fears to speak?”—and which minated in tho cabbage garden of a little potheen-house kept by a widow; the imprisonment and banishment of Smith O’Brien, and “ Meagher of the Sword ’’—the only two honest and sincere men amongst tho conspirators ; the betrayal of his country by the “ patriot ” who is now Sir Charles Gavan Duffy ; and the skedaddling from the scene of danger of John Mitchell, “ vitriol Mitchell,” whose advice to tho patriots was to encounter tho English troops with sulphuric acid, to be thrown from the tops and. windows of the houses of .tho streets through which they passed ! John Mitchell had not the courage to bo one of tho small band who made their final effort for “Old Ireland,” and wore tho green in the, presence of “England’s hated rod" in tho cabbage-garden at Ballingarry. Like Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, ho .took excellent good care of i (himself ; , and when ho escaped tho main consequences of his treason, by a broach of hie, word of honor, and found his way to America, ho by no means distinguished himself—whether as an Irishman, a patriot, a citizen, of an adopted country, or a man of genius. But ho has been permitted to return Homo—as no longer dangerous ; ho is welcomed os a returned “Fenian” in Cork; and tho inevitable' conclusion is that tho “homo rulers” are as politically mad as tho “ Fenians” wore; that the Fenians were not a whit more sano than tho “Young Ireland” party ; and that they, again, wore still less wise in their day than those who assembled in the Rotunda to listen to tho groat

O’Connell, and contribute pence largely to the support of a cause which was never more than an imaginary one, and never was advocated by Irishmen without being betrayed by Irishmen. John Mitchell feted in Cork, however, is only paralleled by the news of another Orange riot in Armagh, only put down at the point of the bayonet; and by the story of an Irish-Scottish demonstration in favour of “ Home Rule,” by Irishmen and half-breeds, in the commercial metropolis of Scotland. When these things are possible, after so much has been done for Ireland and Irishmen, it is not'hard to understand how difficult English statesmen have found it to deal with “ the Irish difficulty.”