THE IRISH VICEROYALTY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1301, 27 March 1883, Page 3

THE IRISH VICEROYALTY.

Lady Florence Dixie, in a letter of upward. l of a column, contributed to the Irish “ Times,” gives the so-called “ National Conference *' a piece of her mind. Incidentally she writes :— There is one matter which I should like t< remark up, and that is the proposal to abolisl the viceregal office. lam not particlarh anxious to dwell on the social and economi. reasons usually advanced by Irish advocate for the retention of the viceroyalty, thougi I cannot at the same time under-estiinat< their weight and importance. One hundred years ago Dublin was one of the most brilliant capitals in Europe, and there is no reason why it should not become so again ; at al events it is surely no part of an Irishman’s duty to denude her still more of her attractions, and to impress npon her the character of a provincial city. Take Canada, for instance, as a merely social institution, the Governor-Generalship is prized there, and what Australians would consent that th.tone of colonial society would be improved by the abolition of the Government House at Sydney, Melbourne, or elsewhere in Australia and New Zealand. The economic argument, no doubt, will take the fancy of a few Radical members of Parliament, but even they, upon reflection, should ask themselves if itfis fair that the economies should ever be at Ireland’s expense ? The Castle expenditure, I grant, would be nothing in a well-to-do community, but it is something in a poor one. It is something if it preserves from extinction one Irish industry, and keep one again in the Liberties. Even London itself complains at times of the absence of the Court, and the depression of trade consequent thereon, for it must be remembered that it is not only the Court itself, but what the Court brings which supports trade, and the same remark applies to the Viceroyalty. The withdrawal of the Viceregal Court would mean bankruptcy for not a few traders and shopkeepers in Dublin, whose interests were ©either consulted nor represented in this socalled ** National Conference.'* The evil effects would he felt not only in the capital, but in the country, with the increased absenteeism of its gentry. With sport boycotted and the Court abolished, there would remain scarce a single inducement to families of independent means to remain in Ireland. The law courts would follow the Castle. Centralisation would then have achieved its crowning triumph A sectional party would be satisfied ; but the nation—how would it consent to sec the Ireland of the Charlemouts, the Leinsters, the Moores, the Shiels, and the Whitesides reduced to a dead level of dtilnc-ss and vulgarity ? How, sir, and in what way, would benefit herself by exchanging a nobleman of exalted station and character, large income and princely taste, for eome painstaking and capable official, the deputy of a deputy, and the creature of a party ?