Home Rule

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 28 March 1907, Page 10

Home Rule

Even Bismarck — ' the man of . blood and iron '—declared in the German Imperial Parliament in" 1879 that 'no real statesman' desires to make combat a permanent institution -' ever since the Union, which (says Le'cky) has left to the hapless western isle ' a legacy of ' enduring bitterness \ John Bright' said shortly after the Great Famine :—: — ' You have toiled at this Irish difficulty sessionafter session, and some of you have grown almost from boyhood "to grey-headed old men since it first met you in your legislative career.- And, yet there *is not in ancient or modern history ' a picture so humiliating as that which Irelamd presents to the world at this moment '.

The picture is .as true to-day as it was in the days of the coffin-ships, when the great tribune of- the

British people spoke. Now at length an effort is about to be made to govern Ireland somewhat in accordian>ce with Irish' ideas, and', to abandon the politay of combat and repression "that has "been - pursued towards the Cinderella nation ever since the day when the Act .of Union was carried 'by force and fraud '. 4No patty', says last Saturday 's. Dunedin 'Evening Star', can hope to block a reform the failure to remedy which has ceased to be a duty, and is fast becoming a scandal. Men of all parties and creeds are agreed upon the necessity of 1 change. Ireland to-day is" a reflection alilce upon the wisdom and - common" sense of the nation of which she forms a part. - It has ever been so. England has* never, whether under Catholic or Protestant, domination, . ruled her near neighbor successfully . ' The rollicking humor and defiance of the people was happily expressed in that famous ballad which in 1688 was roared forth at every camp fire and barrack the country over.:' " Dare was an old prophecy found in a bog-, Lillibulero, bullen a-la, . . a . , *"Jreland shall be ruled- by an ass and' a dog,-' . : „ J'.f' ', Lillibulero,' bullen. a-la, ' ''"''■[ * ' . And how dis prophecy is come topass/ Lillibulero, bullen a-la, . , -' "'" . % For Talbo.t's de dog and James "is de^ ass, . Lillibulero, bullen a-la." '' '" „ : ' And ', adds our local evening contemporary, • the dog > and the ass are not yet expelled '. • " .