HOME RULE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1942, 12 September 1889, Page 2

HOME RULE.

There was a crowded attendance at last Monday evening's meeting of the Teuauka Literary and Debating Society, when the question of Home Buie was discussed. In the absence of the president, Mr K, F. Gray was voted to the chair. Mr J. M. Tworaey, in opening the debate, said it had been forced upon him, and ha only undertook it with great reluctance. He objected to it on the ground that it involved the question of religion, which, however, had.nothing to do with it. Me then traced the religious aspect of the question from the siege of v Limerick, pointing out that it only, meant T all along the land question, and it was to-day the cry of the landlords, who pre-. fecred leaving the making of the laws to ‘ the landlord Parliament of England. ( They kept it alive in order to keep the-, people fighting amongst themselves, on ' the principle of the motto “Divide and govern." Foe 400 years England and Ireland were both Catholic, and still the same cruelties went on. In the reign of Queen Mary, when she was burning her Protestant subjects in England her minions were plundering the Irish. It was then the King's and Queen’s Counties were- taken—and there they stood as monuments that it did not matter to 1 Ireland whether the Government of England was Catholic or . not. In all; the rebellions the majority of-the leaders were' always Protestants ;[ . and, as a further proof that it was altogether a landlord dry, Catholic landlords and Orangemen >. were now banded together against Home Rule. The really honest Catholics and Protestants, of Ireland .had always befriended, each other. In the reign of Queen Mary T 4 homes were established in Dublin in which the Catholics of Ireland sheltered and supported.at their own , expense English Protestants who came / over from England as refugees from their Queen’s persecutions. Thus Catholic Ireland sheltered Protestant Englishmen from the persecutions of their Catholic Queen. The first Act passed by a Catholic Parliament, .in, Dublin in the time of Jjames 11. was one giving equal liberty of conscience to all. He quoted from . Leckie, who says that “ the Irish Romani Cathol’es are the only sect in the world who resumed power without exercising vengeance’. In spite of the ■ fearful calamities that followed tbs Reformation, not a single Protestant suffered for his religion in Ireland during all Queen'' Mary’s persecutions hi England.” Leckia was neither a Catholic nor a Home Ruler.' Ireland was the only country in Europe that never ' spilled one drop - of Jewish blood, and. the conduct > of., honest , Irish Protestants was more noble still. They in many instances bought and held in their own name the estates of Oatholies, for Catholics in these days could not hold one inch of land. They kept these estates in their own name, while the Catholics enjoyed the fruits of them, and when the storm blew over made them over -to their rightful owners. It was in this way, by the’help of Protestant friends, any Catholic was able to keep bit estate. In all the movements Catholics aud Protestants, fought shoulder to shoulder ; their blood commingled on the same battlefield, and their souls winged their flight to heaven ; and if Ireland ever reached a position in 1 which she could honor her dead, the first to whom she would raise monuments were her Protestant patriot martyrs. Mr Twomey next reviewed the history of Ireland, and showed that she was a nation 1600 years before the birth of Christ; that she had then a Parliament, which she kept until she was robbed of it 89 years ago. Besides the land question there was another reason why Ireland was refused Home Buie; It was trade jealousy. England’s policy all along had been to destroy Irish trade. In the r.eign of Charles 11. the Irish woollen trade was destroyed, and Ireland took to cattle. The Cattle' Act was next passed to destroy this also, and Ireland went back to sheep and woollen goods again. In the reign of William a,nd Mary this was destroyed—and all this was done in compliance with the request of English manufacturers, who complained of the competition of the Irish, What led to tha destruction of Grattan’s Parliament was the same thing. England proposed what was called the “ Twenty Propositions,” by which Ireland was not allowed to trade * beyond the Cape of Good Hope or tha Straits of Magellan, and was bound to abide by English navigation laws. The Irish Parliament refused to comply, aud Pitt destroyed it. It was the same in our day, in proof of which he pointed out that all the Unionist loaders were manufacturers. He also quoted from Mr Chamberlain’s anti-Horne Buie speeches to show that what bo objected to was that Ireland would adopt Protection. The two objection's were ; Religion, the cry of the landlords ; trade 1 jealousy, the ciy of the Unionists. He next reviewed Grattan’s Parliament, showing that of 300 members 172 represented pocket boroughs, which were often sold at auction to the highest bidder. It was this rejected Mr Pitt’s twenty propositions, and then Pitt determined to destroy it. He adopted two plans : one was to corrupt the Irish Parliament, the other to drive the country into rebellion. He showed hew William Orr—a Presbyterian gentleman—was convicted by a jury made drunk and compelled .to bring , in a verdict, and how the chief witness afterwards took an oath that the oath he took on which Orr was convicted was false. William Orr was hanged, and so was a Protestant minister named Jackson and several others, while the most lawless scoundrels that ever disgraced GodYearth n ere let loose upon the people; He quoted from two Protestant noblemen—one, Lord Qesford, speaking in the North of Ireland to a meeting of magistrates j the other, Lord Moira, speaking in the British House of Lords. The latter said : “ Whipping, half-hanging, picketing. The hair was cut in the ferm of a cross on the crown of the head, and the hollow thus formed filled with gunpowder and set fire to. A cap smeared with hot pilch was placed on the shorn head, and dragged off forcibly when the pitch had hardened, The flesh was thus torn from the victim’s head, and blinding was added, for the hot pitch scream ran down and burned the eyes out. The cabins of the peasantry were burned, their sons murdered, their daughters brutally violated by the armed demons whom the English Government had poured into the country.” Besides this Pitt employed hirelings, who went amongst the people aud incited them to rebellion. The people rebelled, and they were mown down by an English army.

While this was going on outside Pitt was buying the votes of the Irish members of Parliament openly. The Marquis of Downshiregot £52,000, the Marquis of Ely £46,000, the Earl of Shannon £45,000, Lord Clanmorria £23,000, Lord Belvidere £15,000. The Mouse passed a vote of £1,500,000 to buyout the Irish members, but it would take too long to read the black list. In spite of this bribery 115 of the Irish members remained true and refused the bribes, amongst whom was Sir John Parnell, the grand uncle of the present leader of the Irish people. (Applause.) It was no wondor Ireland bad confidence in Mr Parnell. \Thus Ireland’s Parliament was bought ifand solo, and all Ireland demanded now Was restitution. While she had her own Parliament no nation on earth made such progress. Since the union she had had a succession of abortive rebellions, Coercion Acts, woo, misery and ruin, and famine. At the time of the union 4938 hands were employed m the woollen industry alone in the city of Dublin ; 30 years afterwards only 682 hands were employed. The cotton induslr), which had been in a flourishing condition, was almost entirely extinguished, and it was so with everything else. Her trade, her commerce, was thus destroyed, and the people had nothing left but the land, which was held by the landlords. Owing to there being no o f her scope, the competition for land became intense, and this enabled the landlords to exact enormous rente. Tery often they evicted their tenants for the sake of getting a bonus from the incoming tenant. The speaker quoted from Parliamentary reports to show that three-fourths of the produce of the land want to the landlords, and from the London Times, 1839 and 1847,; to show that “more J misery was crowded into one province in , Ireland than in the rest ,of Europe put 1 i together in order to benefit a small knot 1 (>f haughty, unfeeling, rapacious land- ( lords.” Besides this Ireland was robbed i of her taxes, At the time of the union 1 tha debt of England was £450,504,984, 1 and the debt of Ireland £28,543,134. I They stood in the ratio of £1 to £lO 10s, * and both nations were to contribute to Imperial taxation in proportion to their 1 respective debts by the seventh article of the Act of Union, This article was 1 broken, and now “ for every Irish pound J assessed ; to income, tax the Imperial 1 taxation of Ireland amounts is 6s 3jd, i whilst for every British pound so assessed ( the Imperial taxation of Great Britain is ' only 4v o|d-” (Par. rep., 1863.) Ha * quoted; from Sir Stafford Norctto to show that while Ireland was the highest | taxed England was. the lowest 1 taxed country in Europe. Thus Ire- 1 land was robbed, aod O’Neill Daunt ( hold she had lost by this, by absenteeism, end destruction of her trade I £405,000,000 from the time of union up ] 1886. She also lost 3,000,000 of her ] population. The speaker quoted from the ' anti-Horne Buie speeches of the Right Hon, 6 J. Chamberlain to show that it was not * the people’s own fault that they were in a 1 state of misery, and that there was an c extraordinary absence of erime in Ireland, * except as regards the land disputes. He * wound op with an appeal on behalf of ' Ireland. She had been robbed of her Parliament, robbed of her trade, robbed 1

* of her wealth—and all she asked for was /restitution. He gave the names of about British colonies which had Home Rule, aiid he asked why was it that a nation like Ireland, which had shed renown on British arms and lustre on British letters, should not be allowed to govern herself ? Irishmen in almost every civilised country in the world filled distinguished positions, and leading positions, but in Ireland—- “ Unprized are her sons till they learn to betray; Undistinguished they live if they shame not their sires; And the torch that would lead them through dignity’s way Mast be caught from the pile where their eountry expires.” Mr Twomey spoke for an hour and seventeen minutes. The Rev. Mr White, in opening for the negative aide of the question, expressed his surprise that bis opponent bad not told bis hearers what Home Rule was. He bud, with much eloquence and erudition, told them of Ireland's wrongs, and had gone as far back to do so as 2500 years, but of the actual question he bad said little or nothing, lie (the speaker) should not enlarge upon the subject, but should briefly consider why Home Rule should not be granted ta Ireland. Many of Mr Twom«y’s statements about the land question were quite incontrovertible. It was true that three-fourths of the produce went to pay the landlord, and it was equally tree that many evictions took placa in order that the landlord might secure the bonus upon tbs reletting of the farm, and it was doubtless true that the inequalities of the land laws were the beginning of the trouble. He (the speaker) however maintained, and spoke authoraiivqly from his own observatioa, . _ that many of these agitators fer alterar tious of existing laws were notoriously grasping landlords themselves, and he instanced Mr J. G. Biggar as of one of the worst of the lot. It was the action of ( suoh men that made the public question the genuinensaa of the agitation. He admitted the right of a nation to govern itself, but ha (the speaker) denied that Ireland bad any claims to be called a nation. It was a mere conglomeration of people mads op of all nationalities, and his opponent, though he had tried to show her claims to rank as a nation, had failed to do so, and his argument on that score most fall to the ground. Something had been said to the effect of the adverse influence of English laws upon Ireland. He would refer them to the superior condition of Belfast as compared with Cork. He would not say that thera was more energy in Belfast than in Cork, nor would he say that it was became there were more Protestants in Belfast than in Cork, but the people of the former would simply have nothing to do with political agitation, although admitting many grievances. They ignored agitation and looked after thair business, and if Cork had done the same it would occupy as good a position as Down, Antrim, or Derry. It was not a religious question. All over the world there were good Roman • Catholics and good Protestants. The cause of non-success was that in the South and West of Ireland the people were devoted to agitation. He asked why Home Rule should be granted 1 Did not the country enjoy all the, laws of Great Britain 1 Omitting certain laud laws, they were just the same. Tt grandeur of British laws was admitted, aud he (the speaker) failed

s to see the logic of allowing th f people of Ireland to withdraw from them if Thanks to Mr Gladstone, there was jus f new a cry for Horae Buie, but there wer a many great statdameo who had sacrifice! i thsir prospects politically because the; a were thoroughly persuaded of the evil o 'i granting Home Rule, aad people migh a with equal, justice follow their lead a b that of Mr Gladstone. Then oppositioi i was, at all events, an argument in favoi t of delaying the grant. It was unwisi I also to yield to numbers, because it wai i not known how they were influenced r Parnell’s definition of Home Buie was— That no form of Home Rule that could be ; given would be acceptable unless it gayc power to tax. How would his friend fee! if Government gave to Ulster the power to tax Catholic* 1 He ventured to think he would not like it f Again a number ol people were opposad to Horne Rule, and were prepared to fight against it. This was another argument for delay. He claimed that they ought to let the question of Home Rule remain at rest until the the people had grown to a nation. Coming nearer, he objected to Horae Buie because certain gentlemen were asking for it. Ware they justified in handing over the government of the country to such men ? Charges had been brought against these men, and although not proven it was still well to stop. Mr Twomey had said that the Parliament of Ireland had consisted of nominees of England. Would his friend be prepared to have such a let back. He thought not. He admitted that poverty prevailed in the West of Ireland, but claimed that it was not the effect of the laws, instancing the prosperity of Ulster, which was under the same laws. He claimed that Ireland possessed at present great political freedom. Had there been tbs same amount of political agitation in France or Spain the punishment of death would have bean promptly meted out. it had been said that there was a great bitterness of feeling towards England. The same existed even to a greater extent in Scotland 100 years ago, but it had died out, and that would also be the case with Ireland. i Mr White spoke for twenty-five minutes. , Mr Cross disputed the accuracy of the Rev. Mr White’s statement that because there was mere than one race of people in Ireland she was not a nation. He supported Home Rule on the Federal principle. The Empire should be Federated, and Ireland, like other colonies, given local autonomy. Mr J. Sim spoke at some length, and argued that all other attempts at governing Ireland had proved a gigantic failure. He insisted that on this ground she was entitled to make her own laws. Mr Twemey proved by statistics prepared from Parliamentary papers by Mr Gallaway Rigg, a Scotchman, that Ulster was not the wealthiest,province in Ireland, but that, on the contrary, she stood third on tbe list, Leinster being first, Munstsr second, Ulster third, and Connaught feurth. If Ulster had been robbed of the linen trade, as the rest of Ireland had been robbed of other industries, and had not the Ulster tenant right, she would have been nowhere. The Rev. W. White said it was always understood Ulster was the wealthiest province jn Ireland. Mr Sim’s argument that previous Governments had failed in Ireland was net sufficient reason for granting Home Rule. Mr Twomey wished to express his entice satisfaction with the pleasant manner in which Mr White had conducted the debale. The Rev. W. White desired to say that he was equally well satisfied with the way the other side had conducted tbe debate. A vote of thanks to Messrs Twomey and White for their addresses was then carried, and the meeting terminated.