HOME RULE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 75, 3 October 1874, Page 11

HOME RULE.

The following letter was addressed by the able and patriotic member for Meath County to the editor of the London ' Mail :' " Fir, — In a leading article in your paper of yesterday upon the eubje' v of Home Rule ior Ireland, you write :: — ■ •• ' The domination of Roman Catholic sentiment in Ireland would ! be grievously felt by the Protestants in a hundred ways in eeclesias- I tical, educational, and fiscal policy. A feud, dating 'its origin seven ' centuries back, would be re-opened, and the stern purpose of the majority would be to retort upon the minoiiiy, in a hundred disagreeable ways, the evils and ignominies they had so long inflicted. TJnder a Federal Government the Imperial Parliament would not only be compelled to tolerate this provocation to civil wiu\ but in certain conceivcircumstances sustain the oppressive policy of the local Legislature. If there ia anything to urge against this line of objection, it ought to be adduced by some Homo Rue member.' tC I am one of the many Home Rule members who wore prevented from addressing the House, owing to the shortness of the time allowed for the debate and the impatience of the mujority last night. Hud I spoken, it was my intention to offer some remarks upon the passage which I have quoted from your article. "lam aware that the sectarian prejudices and jealousies entertained by the bulk of my Protestant feliow-countrymen against the Oatholics are the cause why but few Irish Protestants have joined in the national movement. 1 should have endeavored to ur^e against your line of objection to Home Rule such considerations as the following :— Neither in the Repeal movement nor in the Fenian movement, nor in the Home liule movement— and these three schemes embraced all the parties of Irish nationalists, extreme and moderate— hug a single ■case occurred (to my knowledge) wherein expression has been given "by a Nationalist to hatred or evil intention towards Protestants. Neither lias any Irish Nationalist ever expressed evil intention towards the Scotch or the English resident in Ireland. The universal sentiment •of Irish Nationalists at all times since the Union lus been of perfect religious liberty and equality, of perfect equality before the law for all races and classes, of equal freedom and right for all Iri«h 'Citizens. "In parts of Ireland where the Catholics form the majority of the population, no Protestmit is ever injured or affronted on account of his religion. In the few parts of Ireland where the Protestauts form the majority— for example, at Belfast, where they are two to one ;at lurgau and Portadown, whore they uro three to one — there ia a shame* jful contrast. In constituencies where the Catholics form the majority, Protestants are frequently elected to corporations, to Boards

of Guardians, to Parliament. In constituencies 'where Protestants are the mujority Citholies are never elected. It is in Protestant England, where the Catholics, who number probably over three millions, hi»,v<» not a single l > arliiunentnry"rcpre.*eutative, though a tolerant spirit is 1 exhibited in electing about a score of Jews to represent their community of perhaps a hundred thousand souls. "Against any 'grievous domination of Catholic sentiment ' tlie Irish Protestants may feel secure' if they use their common sense in considering their numbers, their wealth, the prestiye given them by their past ascendency, their nearness to Protestant England, and the fundamental article in the proposed Home Rule constitution in their favor. Persecution in Inland has always been of Catholics—never-by-them. And now on the Continent it is only Catholics who are being persecuted, and nowhere Protestants. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, John Martin. " House of Commons, July 4."