JUDGE WARD AND THE TABLET.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2448, 22 January 1881, Page 4

JUDGE WARD AND THE TABLET.

The New Zealand Tablet has the following:—ln the address delivered by His Honor Judge Ward the other day in the Tirnaru riot case, and a report of which will be found in an otner column, His Honor spoke as follows :—No country can show a more brilliant roll of warriors and statesmen than Ireland ; no country can boast of a finer race of men, and in no country in Europe are life and property so insecure at the present time. We may well beware of importing among us the intestine broils that have brought Ireland to this pass.” We are very sensible of the high testimony borne here, to the character of Ireland and her people and acknowledge that it does the learned judge much honor, but at the same time we cannot close our eyes to the false view ot matters it also expresses. We beg, then, most distinctly to deny that life and property are more insecure in Ireland even under the present state of disturbance there than they arc in any other country vof Europe. If the judge will, for example, turn his eyes to United Italy, the pattern kingdom towards whose erection in England did so much, he will find a state of things infinitely worse than that which obtains in Ireland. Indeed, we may say that if he will consider the condition of crime in England herself, prosperous and peaceful though she be, lie will necessarily perceive that Ire land presents a more secure situation both for life and propert} 7 than that exhibited by her. This may even be affirmed with truth in the actual condition of agitation, and at ordinary times it is very remarkable. Again, the judge errs in his decision that it is “ intestine broils that have brought Ireland to this pass.” What has brought Ireland to this pass is the misgovernment of a power that is in all its dealings with her alien, and that never ceases to impress her with the remembrance that she lies at the feet of a foreign conqueror. Intestine broils are the consequence of this misgovernment ; the fruits must not be confounded with the roots of the tree that bears them.