THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1893. HISTORY OF HOME RULE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2479, 21 March 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 1893. HISTORY OF HOME RULE.

The Home Eule agitation is becoming violent. Lord Randolph Churchill has issued a manifesto asserting that Home Rule means Rome Rule, just as if this had. not been said often enough before, while on the other hand the leading Catholics are asaapiating with the Orangemen against i*- Mf Sexton also says that thelancT' ,r< * Bare using v iole »t means t 0 compel their ? en^ ts to si f u Potions against it. This, a *? i i j.-u- 1 °t-» If it were a the whole thing plain, ■.,. . o ij cs + 0 covert design on the part of introduce Rome Rule, the leatiii* 0 Catholics would not be against it. That, at any rate, is plain. But it is not, and consequently Catholic landlords are opposed to it. The whole thing is made plain by this : The landlords and their hangers-on, with the Orangemen thrown in are tile opponents of Home Rule. At a synod of the Irish Episcopal Church it was stated that there were only 20 churchmen in favor of it. That means ministers of the church, not laymen, for there are more than 20 churchmen Home Rule members of Parliament. There is besides a Protestant Home Rule Association, which has a membership of many thousands, so that it must be 20 ministers of the Church of Ireland who are referred to. That 20 ministers of the Church of Ireland, without taking into consideration ministers of other denominations who are in its favor, shows that it is merely a political movement-, and has nothing to do with religion. We may, therefore, dismiss the idea that Home Rule means Rome Rule ; but if more evidence is necessary, lot us remember that the movement was originated, not, by Catholics, but by Protestants. This is a fact with which perhaps some people are not acquainted. Home Rule was initiated by the Protestants of Ireland, out of revenge for disestablishing the Irish Church. One of the clauses of the A ct of Union was to the ntlect that the Established Church should always be maintained in Ireland. When the church was disestablished in 1860, the Protestants of Ireland considered, therefore, that the Union had been dissolved. On the 19th of May 1870, the next year after disestablishment, the firat Home Rule meeting was held in Bilton's Hotel, Dublin. Protestants and Catholics, Conservatives and Liberals, were present at it, but the movement originated with the Protestants, and they took the loading part in it. The following extract from their manifesto, which will be found quoted in Sullivan's New Ireland, will give an idea of the trend of Protestant thought in Ireland at the ti m e :—" It will be said we are uttering these sentiments out of spite against England for disestablishing our Church. 3 s to that we freely say that two considerations have hitherto ruled us: Firstly to the covenant with England in reference to our Church we certainly were faithful. Some of us regretted that bargain, and boldly avow now that England has violated it that we feel more free° as Irishmen, and shall be none the worse as Protestants. Secondly, we did entertain no doubt an apprehensions as to how Roman Catholics, who are numerically the bulk of the nation, might exercise their political power under the pressure of ecclesiastical authority. As to the first consideration the Act of Union is now dissolved, tha covenant has been torn up (by disestablishing tho Church). As to the second, reading the signs of the times we believe we may fear-

lessly dismiss the suspicions and ap - I prehensions that have hitherto caused us to'misWt our Catholic fellow countrymen. 1 Ins was the sentiment of Irish Protestants at the meeting held in 1870 They declared they did not desire separation from England, and that all they wanted was a Local Parliament to manage local affairs. This was a private meeting and the following resolution was carried unanimously, on the motion of Mr Isaac Butt—" That it is the opinion of this meeting that the true remedy for the evils of Ireland is the establishment of an Irish Parliament with full control over our domestic ailairs." The Home Rule Association was then formed. The name was borrowed from Hungary. At that time Hungary was agitating to get her own Parliament, or as it was called Home Rule, from Austria. The Irish appropriated the name, and thus it originated. Mr Butt, who was then undoubtedly the ablest man in Ireland, took the lead, but the movement was at once opposed by the Catholic clergy. Sullivan sayß :—" The Catholic bishops and clergy " regarded it as an orange plot to spite the Liberal Government that settled the Church question." Just as now the landlord faction opposed Home Rule, and cried out that it was a Popish plot. On one side it was denounced as "an Orange plot," on the other .as " a Popish plot." The movement went on until Mr Parnell came on the scene, and introduced his obstructive tactics. When Mr Parnell took the lead a large number of the leading Protestants refused to follow him, and when he organised the land agitation he actually appalled them, and they joined the Opposition. It was so until Mr Gladstone took up the movement. Mr Gladstone barely snatched it from the Conservatives who were negotiating with Mr Parnell at the time, but of course when they saw themselves forestalled, they played the other card, and this awakened the religious prejudices which were lying dormant. That is the history of the movement. It was initiated by Protestants, and led by them up to the present time, and it certainly cannot be called, with any show of truth, a Catholic movement. As to the future, it is not easy to say what will happen. A great meeting of 10,000 Unionists was to have been held in London, but as only 700 could have been got together it was abandoned. This denotes weakness, and shows that it will not be easy to get 100,000 men to fight. Our opinion is that this will result in a great deal of cry and very little wool. The Conservatives of England are not mad enough to join in a civil war, and unless they do the Orangemen of Ulster will not undertake that responsibility. Still we do not think that Home Rule will be granted just now. It will have to go to the electors again, and on the result will depend its fate.

THE HEALTH OF THE PREMIER. Professor Holden, an eminent English physician, who is now touring the colony, has seen the Hon. Mr Ballance, and examined him thoroughly. He came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with him, except that he has overworked himself and requires complete rest. There is no arganic disease nothing that is calculated to shorten his life, except that his system has been allowed to run down too low, and it wants recouperating. He wants complete rest, and care, and if he could get it he would be as well as ever again. This however, is what Mr Ballance is not giving himself. He insists on working, he 13 afraid that unless he is lookiug after affairs something will go wrong. Like the late Judge Higginbotham, of Victoria, he is impressed with the belief that his duty must be performed even at the sacrifice of his life. We greatly regret that Mr Ballance does not see his way to take the rest he so much needs. No duty either public or private demands service from one who is ill. In insisting 011 continuing his work, Mr Ballance has misconceived his duty, and is not acting to the advantage of his country. If he incapacitates himself by working when he is not able the loss to the colony will be great —greater perhaps than he or anyone else may think. He has instituted a most snccessf al policy; and as a leader he has succeeded beyond the dreams of his most sanguine admirers. That policy is yet incomplete, and supposing he were to become incapacitated altogether, and his splendid conception of the require- • of the colony miscarried through men-bt, -> f his successor, what would the inability w ~ 1 d be very ser i ous , be the result f It wou-. a t,l\a,b he Supposing, on the other Ti'atmj ~ ■ -»v retired for the time being, the loss couiu not be so great that he could not easily repair it when, restored to health aud vigor, he returned to his duties again. His duty to his country and to his party is to take the proper means to regain his health as soon as possible, and he can render no greater service to his country than to do so. Of course everyone must admire the high sense of responsibility which prompts Mr Ballance; it is heroic, but unwise, and we sincerely trust that some influence will be brought to bear on him which will induce him to take the rest necessary to his recovery.