CROMWELL THE PHILANTHROPIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 193, 8 December 1876, Page 12

CROMWELL THE PHILANTHROPIST.

(To the Editor of the New Zealand Tablet.) Sib, — In reading over the speeches that were delivered in the Temperance Hall on the evening of the 20td inst., at a nieetin<* convened for the purpose of expressing 1 abhorrence of the atrocities which have recently been, committed on the Bulgarians by the Turks, I was astonished at a sentence spoken by Mr. Maca-ndrewy M.H.R., wherein he says, "one cannot help looking back with pride and regret upon the days of the great Cromwell, when England was foremost in vindicating the great rights of humanity and of civil and religious liberty all over the world." What a man Mr. Macandrew selected as a champion of religious liberty, and at a meeting convened for the purpose of expressing abhorrence at atrocities committed ? Does Mr. Macandrew really believe -what he says ? Can it be that he is ignorant of the fact that Cromwell was guilty of cruelties which it is impossible to surpass ? Cromwell, a champion of civil and religious liberty ! A man who neither re spected age nor sex ; who carried fire and sword all over Ireland, slaying, butchering, and banishing a brave people, and for what Because they would not give up their holy religion and their beloved homes, and surrender all that they held dear to one that had deposed a rightful king and stained his hands in his blood. The first act that this great hero of "civil and religious liberty" performed in Ireland, was at the memorable siege of Drogheda. He came there with an army inflamed by religious hatred, panting for the blood of Irish rebels, as they called the heroes who were nobly trying to defend their country against a usurper. After he had made a breach in the walls, the besieged found that they could not hold out any longer, "they asked in the military language of the day, if they would be spared, if quarter would be given them, and quarter was promised if all the men would, cease fighting and lay down their arms. They did so, and the promise was observed until the town was taken." And now, let ua see how this hero kept his pledge, the solemn pledge of England's great Protector. No sooner had he got possession of the town, with hia pledge fresh on his lips, than he commenced to slaughter men, women, and helpless children. For five days did the streets flow with their blood, and those that had escaped, fled for refuge to the great church of St. Peter, there thinking that they would he safe from his bloodthirsty soldiers. But mark what followed. Cromwell drew his soldiers around the sacred edifice like an iron cordon, and

there slaughtered old men, weeping maidens, and helpless infants on the very steps of God's holy altar. Let us follow him to Wexfcrd and see what were his actions there. He took the city, which was given up to him through treachery, and there he again massacred all those whom he could lay hold off. Three hundred of the women of Wexford with their little children gathered round the market cross in the public square of the city. They thought in their hearts, that all terrible as Cromwell was, he would respect the sign of man's redemption, and spare those who were under the arms of the Cross. Oh ! vain the thought. Three hundred poor defenceless women were there slaughtered, so that Cromwell and Jj. ; s troops were ancle deep in their blood. Bloody as those atrocities 'were, his final act was still more gigantic in heo,rtlessness. I might say it has no parallel in modern history. Not content with burning villages, sacking towns, putting to the sword old men, women, and children, he wound up the war by taking 80,000 of the men of Ireland and driving them down to the southern ports of Munster, where he shipped them— Bo,ooo at the lowest calculation— to the sugar plantations of Barbadoes, there to work as slaves ; and in six years time, such was the treatment they received, that out of 80,000 there were only twenty men left. Such, then, are some of the acts performed by this "great Cromwell," this "champion of civil and religious liberty," the Protector of a country who was foremost "in vindicating the rights of humanity all over the world." If Mr. Macandrew would but reflect upon the bloody cruelties that were perpetrated by this "great Cromwell," the innocent blood that he shed, the fertile country that he made a, desolate waste, he would certainly feel ashamed of ever holding him up as a " champion of civil and religious liberty." Was it upholding liberty to drive the native population off their lands because they would not give up their faith ? Was it in accordance with liberty to enact " that no Catholic could lawfully possess one acre of his native land ? Was it so to pass a law " that no Papist or Catholic was to have a horse worth more than five pounds?" Was it consistent with liberty to prohibit a Catholic from teaching a Catholic child? to pass a law that "all popish archbishops, bishops, Vicars-General, deans, Jesuits, monks, friars, and all other regular popish clergy, and all papists exercising any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, shall depart out of this kingdom before the Ist day of May, 1698." This was the sort of liberty that the Irish received from England, the country that Avas " foremost in vindicating the great rights of humanity." Away, then, with such cant about civil and religious liberty, while history records these bloody deeds and coercive laws. Is it not an insult to the intelligence of all unprejudiced men, to assert that a man was a champion of liberty, and that a country was foremost in vindicating the " great rights of humanity all over the -world," when at that very period the country and the man boasted of were engaged in a systematic scheme to destroy, by fire, sword, and banishment, the whole of the native Irish race ? Teviot, November 27, 1876. Celt.