MR BRADLAUGH ON IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 59, 13 June 1874, Page 9

MR BRADLAUGH ON IRELAND.

Fbom Mr Charles Bradlaugh's admirable statement of the relation between England and Ireland, we take the following striking extract It is entitled to the greater weight being the conscientious opinions of an Englishman :— " When England was in a shameful war, to winch I need not further allude in this place; when England was weak ; when there was no one to overawe the Irish in Ireland, two men sent a cry from Ireland in terms of fiery eloquence which Ireland s advocates from time to time used. One was Henry Flood the other was Henry Grattan (applause). Their voices, like the touch of the magician s wand, sprang from part to part of Ireland, and these men organized in armed bands— at least fiO.OOO volunteers. Did ihev embrace that moment when we were weak to strike m, to repay- us for all the wrong we had done to them ? Did they use that moment to give us the nieed of vengeance, which we could ha"rdly have resisted ? No! They only asked some rights for themselves, some freedom, some liberty Then they only spoke the words of hope, the words of power ; and it was to these 60,000 volunteer* that George 111 conceded the repeal of these statutes, which the Irish took as a boon rather than a right The words of eloquent Grattan speaking out for Ireland a eternal freedom were uttered in Steven's Greon, where I hope that Irishmen may have the opportunity again of legislating for then- own wrongs and grievances (gr< at applause). With the words of Henry Grattuu they were content. Thoro was no sort of threat no sort ct menace, no sort of violence. When w e were weak they were loyal, and when we left our side exposed, instead of taking advantage of the weak place to stnke a blow, the very Irishmen who had been tr.wnpled upon, guarded and shielded us with their arms When we were again strong men we repaid them by breaking the bayonets which we had entrusted to them, and tried to take back from them the liberties which we had given and had always begrudged them (his^ea). Ireland being an agricultural country, naturally the land question is the question meets one most especially ; nnd Mr Mill, in a peech made by him in the House of Commons, on Mr Chichester jTortesque's Laud Bill, said : "'People often ask, and it has been asked this evening, Why should that whicU works well in England not work well in Ir»'and ♦ or why should anything be needed in Ireland that is not needed in England? whether Ireland was an exception to all the re 9 t of mankind, that they cannot, bear the institutions which reason and experience have taught are the best calculated to promote national nroepemy. bir, we were eloquently reminded the other night of that douole ignorance against which a great philosopher warned his con-temporaries-ignorant of our being ignorant-and when we iasist on

applying the same rule Trith respect to Ireland and to England, we •how another kind of double ignorance, and at the same time disregard the precept which was inscribed on the front of the temple at Delphi ; not only we do not know what we undertake to govern, but we do not know ourselves. Irish circumstances and Irish ideas as to •ocial and agricultural economy are the general ideas and the general circumstances of the human race. It is English circumstances and English ideas that are peculiar. Ireland is the main stream of human existence, and hnman feeling, and human opinion ; it is England that ••one of the lateral channels. If any honorable gentleman doubts this, I ask, is there any other country on the face of the earth in which, not merely as a national fact, but as a general rule, the land is owned in great estates by one class, and farmed by another class ef capitalist farmers, and actually cultivated by laborers only detached from the soil, and receiving only day wages P Ireland is like the rest of the world ; England is the exceptional country.' ',