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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 27th March 1869, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag

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    • TJTB GREAT FIGHT.
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      T H E T O M A H A W K: A Saturday Journa...

      T H E T O M A H A W K : A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . € tottii fcg $ rtfc « t a'ittfeett " IMVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "

      No. 99.] London, March 27, 1869. [Price ...

      No . 99 . ] LONDON , MARCH 27 , 1869 . [ Price Twopence .

      Tjtb Great Fight.

      TJTB GREAT FIGHT .

      The Great Battle Has Begun, With A Vast ...

      The great battle has begun , with a vast flourish of trumpets from the leader of the Forlorn Hope . The battle has begun , but , seeing the result is as certain as if it had already happened , the lookers on take but little interest in the fight . It is to be hoped that the palaver will not last very long , —certainly to

      judge from its beginning it is not likely to prove very interesting . The wily Benjamin has made a very moderate , in more senses than one , exposition of his cause , and he really seems to have no tactics in the mazes of his brain by which he can hope to win ever so small a victory throughout the campaign .

      The spectacle of all churches combined together for the purpose of spoiling the land-owners is one which does more credit to the imagination , than to the perception , of the Caucasian prophet . Nor do we feel those throes of terror which he meant to infuse into all corporate bodies as to the security of their

      possessions . Certainly , we are not a corporate body , which may account for the confidence which we feel that our twopencehalfpenny is as safe as it was before this great confiscation was ever announced . Nor do we quite see why the loyal and enlightened ratepayers of Buckinghamshire , though they have

      enjoyed so often the inestimable advantages of Mr . Disraeli ' s instructions , should expect their pauper lunatic asylums to be paid for out of the funds of the Church of England , because Mr . Gladstone proposes to devote none of the money placed at his disposal by the disendowment of the Irish Church to a

      similar purpose in Ireland . But then , again , we are not Buckinghamshire yeomen . It seems to us that if a man is made trustee of a fund for the purpose of building houses for twenty persons , and that he only finds two , instead of twenty , to build houses for , he would not

      be unfaithful to his trust if , having provided for the two , he were to pay back the rest of the fund to the general estate of the person who created the trust . If Government had pledged itself to endow schools in any part of their dominions , and it was found thatwhen these schools were establishedno parents

      would send their , children to them , two courses wou ld be open to that Government ; either to compel the * children to come to the schools or to withdraw the endowments . This seems to us a very fair parallel case of the Irish Church , though it may not seem so to the defenders of that doomed institution .

      Mr . Disraeli is so very clever that one never knows whether , in attributing motives or opinions to any class , he is not instigating that class to adopt them . We can hardly imagine any worse compliment to the clergy of the

      disestablished and disendowed church , than to suppose that they would band themselves with the Catholic priests , and with the ministers of the other sects , for the purpose of agitating for the confiscation of the land . A more mischievous suggestion could scarcely be made ; nor one more likely to

      injure those on whose behalf it is advanced . If the Irish Protestant clergy are so blindly resentful as their champion would represent them to be , they ought to have been not only disendowed , but unfrocked , long ago . We will not believe that there can be any combination between the members of the different

      priesthoods , except for the purpose of doing everything in their power to soothe the agitated feelings of the people on the subject of Tenant Right , and to aid the government with unanimous good will in the settlement of a question which is far more complicated and difficult than that of the Irish Church .

      We protest strongly against the view of the Maynooth Grant , which would represent it as an ecclesiastical endowment . It is . a grant by Government towards education—of those preparing for the priesthood , it is true—but it is , both in effect and intention , an educational grant , and , as such , should be maintained .

      Let the Protestant Colleges be also endowed , but do not diminish a fund , already small enough , which is devoted to the elevation of that class of men who have most influence for good , or for evil , with the Irish peasantry . All books that have been written on the subject of Ireland by those who know anything

      about the subject , while bearing testimony to the great kindness , and indefatigable industry , of the Catholic priests , yet maintain that the educational , status of many of them is very low , and that their sympathies are far too keen with the most prejudiced , and least educated , portion of their flock . We cannot

      understand how the Protestants , who maintain this , can advocate the diminution of a grant which is devoted to the education of the men from whom these priests are selected . How much has to be done , after the first great battle is decided , maybe gathered from the very inopportune occurrence

      of two horrible murders , close upon one another , of the usual type—committed under the influence of that diabolical system which recognises organised assassination as the legitimate and righteous mode of avenging a personal quarrel . A magnificent opportunity for the reconciliation of all heartburnings and

      jealousies , whether religious or otherwise , among the different sections of the Irish , lies in the desire , which all upright and Christian men must feel , to root out of their unfortunate country that horrid sympathy with murder , when committed under the cloak of self-vindication , which now paralyzes , not only the arm of the law , but the heart of enterprise and industry .

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), March 27, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_27031869/page/1/