The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1887. PAID PATRIOTISM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1660, 15 November 1887, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1887. PAID PATRIOTISM.

The following letter appears ia the Dublin Daily Express “Sib,— ln your leading article to-day you refer to the paper of which I nm editor—United Ireland—as ‘ the organ of the professional politicians,' and to my office as * the headquarters of paid pitiiotism.’ You are in the habit of circulating vile inuendoes of that character against me. Upon one occasion lately, when you ventured to bo more definite in your imputations, you apologised to me on receiving a communication from my solicitor. You perhaps think the present a safe moment to return to a habit unworthy ef decent journalism. Hero are the facts as to my paid patriotism. If you. desire to question their accuracy I shall give you bn opportunity of doing so in a court of law. I was offered a sa'ary of £4OO a year to take charge of Unised Ireland, It was the sum 1 had earned in the preceding year while on the stiff of the Freeman’s Journal, .For (he past six years I have accepted only a salary of £2OO a year. I have no other emoluments whatever from any source. My salary is, therefore, rather less than what your own junior reporter can earn. ■ It is probably not one-fifth of the salary which the editor of the Dai y Express quite legitimately enjoys, according to current professional rates of rouumeration. It is repulsive to me to go into such matters. It is the first time I have ever broken silence upon the subject, and un’eSs you refuse to print this note in full it * ill he the last. And now lot me ask—Are you ashamed of yourself ?—Your obedient servant,

Willi-m O'Brien. _ United Ireland Office, Dublin, Sept. 2. Of course not. Nothing could make an Irish Conservative ashamed. Conservatives are generally rich and respectable, and to lie and libel, and to malign and slander neighbors leas favored by fortune are accomplishments peculiar to that class. From the above letter it will be seen that Mr O’Brien is one of the most unselfish of men, He is highly educated; he was in receipt of £4OO a year as a member of the staff of the Freeman’s Journal; he relinquished his position on that journal to become editor of a new paper started by Mr .Parnell. His salary was to have beep £4OO a year, but finding the paper not able to pay

t, he has consented to take £2OO a year. He has thus thrown away £2OO a year for the sake of the cause in which he is engaged. He went to Canada and was nearly murdered there, and he is now in gaol and in danger of not getting out of it alive. And what ia he in gaol for ? Simply because he made a speech denouncing the Coercion Act—a thing which Mr Gladstone and several members of the English Parliament have done. This is all Mr O’Brien is guilty of — yet the man who is ready to throw away £2OO a year, and suffer the indignities and hardships of prison life is branded as a paid patriot. All we have to say is that we wish we had a few such pure, unselfish politicians in this colony. If we had, we should soon remove depression and have prosperous times again.