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some sort of relation to justice , after much opposition from lawyers and much , sneering from professed law-reformers .
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THE " NATION" ON THE " LEADER /' The Nation has paid us the high compliment of alone excepting the Leader in its contemptuous reference to " the dishonest and partisan comments of the London press . " We hare gained the distinction by our fairness , by the knowledge we have displayed of Irish politics , and by the absence , in what we have said of the recent quarrels of the Irish party , of all misrepresentations , save those incident to our point of view . Unfortunately , however , our point of view is not that taken by the Nation , and our contemporary only quotes us to attack us—only honies us that we mav become the sweeter morsel . The obvious inference he leaves to his readers is—If the only London journal which does display fairness and knowledge makes these mistakes , what must the ignorance and the bigotry of the rest of the English Press be ? Having always carefully treated " Irish politics" as matters of imperial consideration , and having counted on the Irish party as portion of the general Liberal party , it will be worth while to endeavour to convince Mr . Duffy that lie is not quite right , and that the Leader is at least not so wrong as he supposes . The controversy may be put without difficulty in the proper light .
Mr . Duffy is the leader of that section or his countrymen who have denounced Messrs . Keogh and Sadleir for taking offices in the Aberdeen Government , who have thrown Mr . Sadleir out of his seat , who intend to deal as summarily with Mr . Keogh , and who proclaim as the future policy of the Irish Parliamentary party , " Independence of all English Governments . " In our comments on the schism we avoided the personal Suestion , and spoke only with reference to le future ; and what we said was this . That a Parliamentary party must accept the
House of Commons' conditions of success ; that the Irish party , representing " Tenant Right " and "Religious Equality , " was certainly sufficiently strong in numbers to hold the balance between English parties ; that it had turned out Lord Derby ; that it could put Lord Aberdeen in a minority ; but that if it resolved on opposing every English Government which refused to concede " Tenant Right" and "Religious Equality" to Ireland , then , as Tenant
Right is supposed by English people to mean confiscation , and as Religious Equality undoubtedly does mean the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles ] 3 ill , and as , consequently , the Irish party is , on these points , in advance not only of the English House of Commons , but of the English public , the only result of so factious a parliamentary policy would be—something very much moro afflicting to Ireland than a dead letter insult on the statute-book . That , therefore , isolation in
Parliament was impossible to this party ; that it could only progress by allying itself with the English parties which reach nearest to its own principles ; that distinct " independence " was perfectly possible , in the Parliamentary alliance of parties ; and that into the Government which was formed by Lord Aberdeen , liberal and promising members of the Irish party could have entered without compromising their principles in any greater degree than the principles of the Radical party were compromised by Sir William Moleaworth and Mr . Oaborno coalescing with
Lord John Russell and Sir . Tamos Graham . Result : that if Mr . Duffy and Mr . Mooro had thoroughly appreciated tin ? position of the party , they would , with a view to keeping tho party together , have passed over the " treachery" of their friends with a quiet protest against tho breaking of pledges ; and by not driving tho deserters completely from tlioir body , they would , in the deserters'presence in < ne Ministry , have held tho . guarantee of a generous Irinh policy from the Aberdeen cabinet . To these—to most Englishmen sell-evident—propositions wo will give the Nations reply .
First , we quite admit tho Nations plea , that tho English press is wrong in attaching a- party ¦ which punishes men for a breach of faith . "Mohhi-h . Hadleir and Keogh did doubtless break their pletl ^ o ; and on the ground of morality , no one can fairly censure . Messrs . Mooro and Dully . Tho ground of expediency is quite another thing . At all events , wo have nothing to do with tho personal question j und if further desertion has
been prevented by the denunciation of the ringleaders , why , we are very glad of it ; only , we doubt if just the reverse be not the fact . It appears to us that the Irish party is split up by the ferocity of this denunciation of men who were personally popular : and in passing , we may reply to the sneer at our ignorance in supposing there were " northern M . P . ' s" "belonging to the party , by saying , that we looked forward to a northern Parliamentary contingent to represent the Presbyterians who appear on Tenant-right platforms ; and certainly our fear that these northern M . P . 's would not follow Mr . Moore , and still less willingly Mr . Duffy , is borne out by Mr . Shafman Crawford ' s letter , —the
ex-candidate forLouth ' s letter—defendingthe deserters , and denouncing the denunciation . To come , however , to the argument . The Nation wonders at the vision of Celtic savage isolation we have conjured up . Our answer is , that when people cry " independence , " and decry joining a Government which is made up of liberals and radicals , they suggest an isolated party in Parliament ; and it was to the ^ demonstration of the absurdity of such isolation that we addressed ourselves . Our contemporary ( whom we trust , by this admission , we have in some degree convinced ) now says : "It i 3
sufficient to answer , that what the Irish ^ party was before the recess , that precisely , to all intents and purposes , it means to be after the recess ; that it does not separate itself from English help , but will gladly exchange good offices with any party with which it can honestly sympathize , and with a Government ( or the Government ) more readily than another . " Here clearly is all we want in the way of a promise of policy : it is an admission , that had not the pledge against place-taking been so absurdly swallowed by Messrs . Sadleir and Keogh , those gentlemen would have met with a tolerably good reception in Ireland on arriving with their new titles from England .
The Nation goes on to say that the Irish party ( the denunciatory part of it ) is taking " the only course by which a minority can get itself listened to ; " and our contemporary proceeds to draw a parallel between the Irish party and the Peel party , in the last Parliament . That party , between thirty or forty in number , sat and acted together ; followed tlie lead of neither Cabinet nor Opposition , but judged for themselves of every question that came before the House ; asked no favours from Government ; preserved a strict but friendly neutrality towards all parties , and puniahed deserters from their ranks by all the means at their command .
To raise the Irish members from being the lacqueys of Government into a similar position of independence , was the fundamental policy of the Irish party—it was their bond of 11111 * 011 ; it was , and is , their sole means of accomplishing any Irish object in Parliament ; and tho proceedings at Carlow , which have alarmed the Leader with visions of Irish isolation , were merely the ordinary practice of " whipping a deserter to prevent further desertion . "
The parallel seems to us peculiarly unfortunato . In tho first place , because the Peel party is engulphed in the Ministry , for junction with which , Messrs . Sadleir and Keogh arc to be ruined . But tho parallel is chiefly infelicitous because the Peel party was simply a clover clique , which had no tangible principles distinctly separating it from other parties , and which , therefore , had no " points" in advance of the country to force on the House , and on concession to which alone it would consent k > leave tho Whigs in power . Tho
Peelitos , in point of fact , after Sir liobert ' s death , mivcr counted twenty men , and never had numerical power in divisions in their hands . But such of tho Peelitos as did keep together , acted just as we advised Mr . Duffy to induce his party to act . For instance , when Sir liobort Peel ( the present one ) went over to tho Tories , and Mr . Frederic Pool wont over to the Whign , theyheld their tongues .
Tho Nation deals harshly with our suggestion , that tho isolated policy would lead to the disfranchisoment of . Roman Catholic Ireland . But these matters are only to be put strongly . An Irish party refusing to amalgamate itself among imperial parties would do the very work the enemies of the ( Ionian Catholics want done ; and tho Nation , in . Haying , " If England will take the grave course of ' making outlaws of the Catholics of Ireland , they , too , may nccept it without hesitation , It is tho shortest anddircotest method of
settling all national differences — an immediate dissolution of partnership" —only supports our hint that Mr . Duffy cannot expect to he accepted as the Parliamentary leader of gentlemen who mean very much less , and would risk verf much less , than he means or would risk . We are not saying that the Irish party would not he justified , on abstract reason , in holding aloof from and
any English party not going as far as itself , * if an Irish disfranchisement were threatened , we will not venture to argue that a rebellion would not be a proper alternative , particularly if successful . We limit ourselves to pointing but that a Parliamentary party accepting Parliamentary verdicts must conform itself to the best practicable Parliamentary combinations . In conclusion , our contemporary says ,- **
" We are assured that ' There is no longer an Irish Party—it is nothing , if not representing Utmriiiaity among the people . A singular dogma this . Suppose we were to say , ' There is no longer an ABERDEEN Cabinet—it is nothing , if not representing unanimity in Parliament' —or , ' There is no longer a Protestatit Church—it is nothing , if not representing unanimity among the English , people / Even in the aiioinatic
form nonsense is nonsense . There is an Irish party , counting more votes-than the party of Pebx or the party of Cobden ; including capable and cultivated men ; and able , if they see good reason , to turn the scale against the new Government any day in the week . This is not a spectre , but a very substantial entity in Parliamentary forces , and one of which our contemporary , or his friends , will not soon see the end / 1
We have only to comment on this ^ that our contemporary again is mistaken in his parallels . If the members are broken up , one half following Sadleir and Keogh , the other Moore and Duffy , then there is no longer the " Irish party , " which was so numerically strong that it could change British Governments . Is not that clear P And that Messrs . Moore and Duffy do not control the Irish party , we see indications in each successive days Irish news . We repeat , " the Irish party is nothing , if not unanimous , " for this reason , that a national support only could
sustain a party which asked Tenant Right and the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles' Bill from the British Propertied and Protestant Parliament . These concessions might one day be granted to an unanimous people : they will never be granted to a Parliamentary " body "—declined from a " party . " As , however , our notion is that a parliamentary alliance betweenIrishLiberal and English [ Radical membersis quite possible and very proper ; and as ,
obviously , the influence of the Liberal element in the Government , as against itB Conservative tendencies , will be dependent upon the amount of discipline and determination in the Liberals " below the gangway , " we shall be glad to find Mr . Duffy ' s anticipations of success verified ; and , undoubtedly , if the Aberdeen Government is not to be a progressive Government , then wo cannot have , among Liberals , too much personal " independence . "
Let us hope , indeed , that Messrs . Keogh and Sadleir , and Sir William Moles worth , and Mr . Osborne , would return to Opposition , if an Op-Sosition should become necessary . 80 far , wo ccline to consider these men aB among those statesmen whoso patriotism has been only the coquetry of political prostitution . It may still be cheaper for a Premier to buy them to breed , and easier to import defenders from an Opposition , than to rear them in . a Ministry : but , in the present instance , such tactics are supererogatory in a strong administration , and , at any rate , let us not mako impossible tho oscapo of the victims of such tactics .
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HOW TO MEET THE PEACE PAItTY . Tiibue is 0110 way in which tho latest declaration of Mr . Cobden , that ho is not an advocate of peace at any price , may be easily put to the test . The second of tho infamous " Six Acts , " passed in IHli ) , to enable tho Lancashire magistrates to repress their poor neighbours , and generally
to stifle popular agitation , was intended " to prevent tho training of persons to tho use of arms , and to tho practice of military evolutions and exercise . " Drill , as is well known , is a luxury forbidden to Englishmen . That discipline which enables large bodioa of men to act together with order and certainty ia not ono of the birthrights of your very modern freo-born Briton . . Now , among the cheapest of defences is an armed and disciplined people j and the test
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134 THE LEADER . [ SAfpftCAV ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 5, 1853, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1972/page/14/
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