ICELAND AND THE WELLINGTON DESPATCHES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 37, 10 January 1874, Page 12

ICELAND AND THE WELLINGTON DESPATCHES.

The 'Time*,? in reviewing the fifth volume of the " Wellington, Despatches'," says :^ ! ■>«; ""■ • >-'■ i<- r ■ „!• ,' -, . , ' "The most interesting part of ' thi» volume is that which refers to the'lrish'cjuestion.then' in one of its ■ most' important 'phases.-, At this juncture LrConnellbad joined the whole Catholic nation of Ireland in :t league to demand the grant of their claims, and the>Catholic Association, sustained by the force of Liberal opinion in England and Europe, and with an organisation which made it supreme in three at least of the four Jrish provinces, had just struck down, at the Clare election, the authority of the Protestant landlord, and baffled the Executive in its feeble attempts to cope with its enemy and rule the country. The influence of the Government bos been reduced to nothingness throughout the' island south of the Barm ; and though, as has often happened in Irish history, agrarian and social disturbances merged for the more en t in the political movement, and Ireland wore a look of ominous peace, the terror of the Protestants was extreme, and order, in fact, was maintained by demagogues who knew that an outbreak would mar their projects. The Duke hircself, though not an alarmist, wrote i — " No man can answer at present for rebellion or no rebellion. The collision at Ballybay, if not prevented by the officious but fortunate interference of General Thornton, wight hare occasioned the murder of every Protestant in the Province of Munster He tells me that he knows that the Roman Catholics in Clare are so well organised, and the Protestant gentry, as well as the others, are so well watched, as that with the notice of a very few hours the whole of them could be seized and massacred. . . . The state of society in Ireland is daily becoming worse. In the South the worst evils, excepting actual civil war, exist. .• . . Every effort has been mado to bring to benr against the association the existing laws, but in vain." A rising, however, against the Protestants was not the real danger of Ireland, and was never contemplated by the Catholic leader. The aim of O'Connell and the association was to supersede and checkmate Government; and in attaining this they were completely successful. This is acknowledged in a number of passages in the correspondence between Wellington and Peel. We cite the following from the Duke to George IV. : —

" It is quite obvious that those who conduct the affairs of the Roman Catholics of Ireland do not propose to commit any breach of the peace, or other act which can occasion a conflict with your Majesty's troop?. Everything is done by their leaderß to excite hatred and contempt of the Government, and their influence over the people of all ranks of the Roman Catholic persuasion is unbounded. Ido not suggest an impossible hypothesis to your Majesty when I state the possibility — I might state it more strongly — of the Roman Catholic tenantry of the country refusing to uay tithes or rates. . . . The carrying' on of the Government is now a most melancholy task. The execution of our orders and instructions depends upon this self-consti-tuted body, the members of which pay their shillings at the door." The manner in which the people were organised is thus described : —

" This year the priests hare appointed collectors in every townland ; the collector is supplied with a book, in which is a particular form of schedule ; he is to insert the number of the houses in the townland, and the names of every individual in each house — men, women, and children, even to the new-born infants — Protestants as well as •Papists, with -notes and observations as to their means and circumstances ; and he is to make himself acquainted with their individual disposition and feelings towards the cause of ' Civil and Religious Liberty ' (words substituted for Roman Catholic Emancipation '), and which are partly to be judged by the amount and punctuality of the piyment of the rent."

The Catholic Association thus formed a complete imperium in imperio in Ireland, and backed as it was by the huge masses of a people always on the verge of want, imd directed by a man of singular powers, who swayed the old Irisli priesthood, it was the most formidable embodiment of national discontent which modern history has perhaps witnessed. Yitit was not this organi?ation, menaneing as it was, which really alarmed, the Duke and the Cabinet ; what chiefly moved them, and, in the long run, determined the purpose of their resolute chief, was the attitude of Parliament, which made the hope of resistance lor any length of time vain, and the false position in which the Irish gentry had been placed since the Clare election had revealed their weakness and destroyed their influence. This appears abun« <l tntly from such passages as these :—: —

" You are quite mistaken about Parliament ; and the truth is that the mischief is there and not in Ireland. They will not put down the association, they will not even put down the rebellion should it occur, unless concession should be made. You must not compare Ireland •with Manchester, 'ilie Biiijoiity think, or pretend to think, that there is a remedy for Ireland besides the measure of coercion. For Manchester nobody thought there was any other remedy. ... I confess that what has moved me lias been the Monaghan, the Lout h, the Waterford, and the Clure elections. If I oould believe that the Irish nobility and gentry would recover their lost influence, the just influence, of properly, without making these concessions, I would not stir. . . . Have we any resource, but concession in the existing state of men's opinions in as well as out of doors? If we have, I would willingly adopt it."

The state of foreign opinion was also a motive :—: —

" There is an evil still remaining behind which well deserves the consideration of a man in jour position in this country ; and that is the new and growing interest taken by foreigners in the state of tbis ijuemon. In e.erj Court of Europe it is i lie subject of the most anxious solicitudo and ii.quiry. Iho mtere&t is not confined 1o Courts and Cubinets. In Franco, as well as America, there are large subscription to the lent, which, 1 hear, no lavy can reach and no diplomatic a"t ] rcvent." Hi' so considerations made the Cabinet resolve that things in J rein, d could not remain as they were; and that, ue continued resistance w as hopeless, the only alternative was concession.