IRISH AFFAIRS IN PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 207, 23 March 1877, Page 15

IRISH AFFAIRS IN PARLIAMENT.

Mr. Mitchel Henet, the well-known Home Ruler, has written an able letter on the cause of Ireland in the coming British parliament. It is a document deserving of careful consideration by every Irishman to whom the cause of his country is dear. In adverting to the Eastern question, on which he expresses his hatred to the Turkish tyranny and apprehension of Russian sympathy, the writer makes a full lounge at England by saying "that the Turkish is not the only government whose conduct in its dealings with insurrection Ireland knows to be ruthless and cruel." The shades of Tone and Emmet will vouch for the truth of this assertion. In the discussion of the Eastern question he sees with delight the " approaching end of secret diplomacy." We hope so, but he will give us leave to doubt his opinion in this respect. The grit of his letter is, howf!™ r * tk* P««k»s ° f Home Rule, education, and the land laws, and tins, he declares, will depend very much on the earnestness of the people. As a set off to the defection of Mr. P. J. Smyth, he quotes the latest utterances of the venerable John of Tuam that " The measure of Home Rule which Mr. Butt is seeking will be a °reat panacea for the ills of Ireland : we should all, then, priests, people, and bishops, be Home Rulers, if we are in earnest in helping the poor— no other kind of help will do." To carry a land bill, Mr. Jlenry declares that declamatory speeches wont doj they must have facts, with names, dates, and authentic particulars. There is much truth in this. That the recent Land Bill has effected many amendments is indisputable ; that landlords, and law, and ready money, have rendered many of its clauses nugatory there is no rea. son to doubt. The various "Tenants' Defence Associations" are, as he very quietly says, the proper bodies to estimate critically the action of the recent Land Act. There remains the question of education— a vexed question, which Mr. Henry barely alludes to as a supporter of Mr. Butt's bill. Evidently he is diffident of the clergy. How, indeed, could it be otherwise ? However patriotic, however talented, Mr. Butt is not the proper exponent of the Cathode education claims, and an Education Bill, to merit the support of the Irish clergy should emanate from, or have the entire concurrence of that body. Mr. Henry fairly weighs the difficulties of procuring better terms than Mr. Butt's bill provides. We may not endorse all his opinions, but he evidently deserves well of the Irish people, and is entitled to the merits of sincerity ana patriotism, and this is much in an Irish Protestant.— ' Pilot/ v '