Shelley and the Irish Question.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 242, 18 February 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

Shelley and the Irish Question.

Ik 1812 thero was published in Dublin ."An Address to the Irish People," byPercy Bysshe Shelley. The pamphlet was sold' At the then low price of fivepence, bo j as to at once place it within* the reach of all | the reading public. The purpose of the publication was to intensify in the minds of -Irishmen the necessity for the prosecution of the demand for Catholic Emancipationand .'the "Repeat of the*' Union," which wafe • described as '* the most- successful engine that England ever wielded over the misery of fallen Ireland.'' The author was at this ' time .only twenty years of' age,- and was still smarting under the injustice' he had buffered* some twelve months before, from his expulsion from Oxfords * There is so much- in the address ~ applicable to the present deplorable state of affairs in Ireland, and to the strained relations between that country and the Imperial Parliament, that it perhaps deserves greater consideration today than it is at all likely to have received at the time of. its publication. Commencing with the ■ religious • aide of the question, at that, time ltfie^u ppermost, ' Shelley' "showed ' that the fact of a man being a Catholic or a Protestant; ought really to haVo no part- in' the debate. He sayp : "lam not a liar if I affirm in your name that you believe & Protesta'nt.tequally yourself to be worthy of the Kingdom of .Heaven if he be equally virtuous ; tKat you will treat men as brethren wherever you may find them, and the difference of opinion* in religious matters shall not— does not in the least— on your' part obstruct the most perfect harmony on eyery< other subject/ * The advice Sfholley offered seventy-five years ago. is advice that may well be repeated to-day. He reminds the Irish that they are a brave : nation, but , counsels them in no case to em. ploy violence; " the way to -liberty and : happiness is , never to ' transgress the ir,ules oi , virtue and justice;", 'He lekhorts them to ,' 'think and talk and discuss," and to have no, pact in mob, la-vv.jl.He warns ; them against all jsepvet raeetiings; to be open in all their ; doings. jAgfain : 'I* The-> &iriis.ters,' have inow.fn Payliamen.t a very great majority,' and the (Ministers are against you. -They, command th« majority of the! House of Commons, or ra^het the. part of that asjsefnbly who rec«iTO pantiqns jfrpm Qovernimeat,' or whbs« relative* receive But itMfiiik* ojf the country <ii> not against you ; ,thepepple pljßnglend are npt, against you. |The of a' Government consists in the happiiieM of the governed. If the

Government haß failed in its end." Then, as now, the peaceable discussion of the one absorbing topic was prohibited in Ireland ; then, as now, the freedom of the press was denied. "But have not human beings a right to assemble and talk upon what subjects they please? . . . The discussion of any subject is a right that you have brought into the world with your heart and tongue. The liberty of the press is placed as a sentinel to alarm us when any attempt is made on our Hbertic >. Ib is ro»lly vtdiculous to hoar people yefc 'boa.slii.g of this inestimable bh'.-sing, whou [they daily see it successfully muzzled and i outraged by the lawyers of the Crown." All violenc -> he condemns, but he would have them act as men and not as cowards. The right of free speech may be carefully maintained, and if the Government of the day uae violence to support thoir cause the people must not descend to the use of the. same weapons, for in any good causo violence is a sign of weakness, and often of imbecility. — " Manchester Guardian."