Sydney Smith, on the "Tory Organ,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6731, 20 December 1889, Page 4

Sydney Smith, on the "Tory Organ,

♦ ; Tbo following letter appearediin.'.the ItxftteUon Times o£ this-morning? — •' Sib, — A few days ago my attention -was (directed by an Irish friend, cne of my -companions in the Elysian fields, to a paragraph in a Tory newspaper, which had ' been picked up somewhere on the banks of Lethe. The newspaper (whose name was strange -to me) attempted to prove that I was "no supporter of the Home Bule .agitation which, was t>eing^waged-evenin. ! my day.'' i If I rightly tmtitwtihmii a EOmßwtat obscure style, the writer songht to-show : that if I were on earth to-day I would ■have so sympathy with the Irish in their present struggles for national autonomy. Nothing can be further Strom Idie truth. I have no- recollection ' of any " Home Bule agitation waged in my j day," but, trust me, Sir, if there had been ; any,l would have boen— to the«xtent of my j humble endeavour— its staunched; sup- : porter. Prom the have wherein I first ! learned to-use a goose-quill until the day on which goat and chalkstones forced me to lay the pen down, X never ceased to advocate the justice/ of the Irish | cause, nor to warn the^Governmenfc-o? the : evil consequences of its Irish policy.-. j Deeply do I regret:' now to be obliged to look on, and witness from afar the imbecile attempts of the present ; Administration to-exhaust the Irish people* : I may wlrfajjerinyour ear that I owea-com-I iortabfo position in celestial Bociety-ebiefly to- the zeal with, which, daring my earthly { .career I worked,, in season and out of i season, to- obtain justice for Ireland as I Veil as for my Roman Catholic fellow- ; subjects everywhere? and, therefore, I : repel with all the fervour of one who is : tr\} ffT""fe t*"> ppflT PHMwtim jq ; this maWty-mißchievoos little paragraph. Can you wonder if it turns my stomach to ■ be £ressed in this underhanded manner : into tho service of the Tories P Indeed, bit, I protest; that if there '■•wae one being for which I enter- | leaned an honest hatred when in the flesh, that being-was a Scotch Tory. Onexpressi..iog my feelings on the, matter to my bie%hbour flh*dca, O'ConneH, Grrattan,.aad

state my views clearly and onmistakeably. It is well known even here that there are men conducting newspapers at the present day in many of the Colonial possessions of England, who are incurably afflicted with a species of mental shortsightedness, which hinders them from seeing clearly anything thatocenrsoutsidethef our wallsof their own offices. The sophistries of these writers axe very evident and very weak, and deceive none unless those who allow others to do their thinking; but the boldness of their mis-Btatementa sometimes misleads the illinformed, and as it is necessary for the happiness and the well-being of society that all men should know historic truth, I will make bold to intrude upon you, sir, frith a few, and only a few, extracts from my published works. Before I begin, however, I may inform you that the fate of nations is watched with no keener interest by those who shape or share their destinies, than by the patriotic ghoßts here who have for ever ascended beyond the reach of policemen's bludgeons and Coercion Acts, and are clothed in brighter though even scantier raiment than the felon's garb. Had Mr Dillon or Sir Thomas Henry Grattan Eamonde spoken half as strongly as I have written, they wonld be either sneered at as visionaries or arrested aerebela. For example, I once dared to observer — "England seems to have treated Ireland much in the same way as Mrs Brownrigg treated her apprentice. * * * Upon the whole, we think the apprentice is better off than the Irishman ; as Mrs Brownrigg merely Btarves and beats her without any attempt to prohibit her from going to any shop or praying at any church her apprentice might select. * * * Not so Old England, who indulges rather in a steady baseness, uniform brutality and unrelenting oppression." Again, in my letters to Abraham Plymley, I wrote — " The moment the very name of Ireland is mentioned the English seem to bid adieu to common feeling, common prudence, and common sense, and to act with the barbarity of tyrants, and the fatuity of idiots." Page 484. " In all other oppressed countries which I have ever heard of, the rapacity of the conqueror was bounded by the territorial limits in which the objects of his avarice were contained; but Ireland has been actually confiscated twice over, as a cat is twice killed by a wicked parish boy." Page 493. " In the name of Heaven, what are we to gain by suffering Ireland to be rode by that faction which now predominates over it ? Why are we to endanger our own Church and State, not for 500,000 Episcopalians, but for ten or twelve great Orange families who have been sucking the blood of that country for these hundred yeare past P And the folly of the Orangemen in playing this game themselves is almost as absurd as ours in playing it for them." Page 49-4. "Our conduct to Ireland haa been that of a man who subscribes to hospitals, weeps at charity sermons, carries out broth and blankets to beggars, and then comes home and beats his wife and children. We have compassion for the victims of all other oppression and injustice except our own. If Switzerland was threatened, away went a Treasury Clerk with a hundred thousand pounds for Switzerland ; large bags of money were kept constantly under sailing orders. * * * In the midst of all this fury of saving and defending (foreigners), this crusade for conscience and Christianity, there was a universal agreement among all descriptions of people to continue every Bpecies of internal persecution; to deny at home every just right that had been denied before, and to treat the unhappy Catholics of Ireland as if their tongues were mute, their heels cloven, their nature brutal, and designedly subjected by Providence to their Orange Masters." Pages 492 and 493. " You parade a great deal upon the vast concessions made by this country to the Irish before the Union. (Letter to Abraham Plymley.) I deny that any voluntary concession was ever made by England to Ireland. What did , Ireland ever ask that was granted? What did aho ever demand that was not refused? How did she get her Mutiny Bill, a limited Parliament, a repeal of Poyning's law, a constitution? Not by the concessions of England, but by her fears. When Ireland asked for all these things upon her knees, her petitions were rejected with Percevalism* and contempt; when she demanded them with the voice of 60,000 armed men, they were granted with every mark of consternation and dismay. Ask of Lord Auckland the fatal consequences of trifling with such a people as the Irish. He himself was the organ of these refusals. As Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant, the insolence and the tyranny of this country passed through his hands." Page 50S. "If we conciliate Ireland wa cau do nothing amiss; if we do not we con do nothing welL" * * * Nothing tan be more erroneous than to suppose that Ireland is not bigger than the Isle of Wight, or of more consequence than Guernsey or Jersey ; and yet lam inclined to believe * * * that such is the rank it holds in our statistical tableß." Pages 516, 517. " The formation of juries is entirely in the hands of the Protestants; the lives, liberties and properties of the Catholics in the hands of the juries; and this is the arrangement for the administration of justice in a country where religious prejudices are inflamed to the greatest degree of animosity i In this country, if a man be a foreigner, if he sells slippers and sealing-wax and artificial flowers, we are so tender of human life that we take care half the number of persons who are to decide upon his fate should be men of similar prejudices and feelings with himeelf; but a poor Catholic in Ireland may be tried by twelve Percevale, and destroyed according to the manner of that gentleman in the name of the Lord, and with all the insulting forms of justice.f * * * I cannot describe to you the contempt I feel for a man who, calling himself a Statesman, defends a system which fills the heart of every Irishman with treason, and makes his allegiance prudence, not choice." Page 522. "I cannot describe to you the horror and disgust which I felt at hearing Mr Perceval call upon the then Ministry for measures of vigour in Ireland. * « * If the Almighty had blessed me with every earthly comfort, how awfully would I pause before I sent forth the flame and the sword over the cabins of the poor, brave, generous, open-hearted peasants of Ireland ! How easy it is to shed human blood — how easy it is to persuade ourselves that it is our duty to do so— and that the decision has cost us a severe struggle * * * how difficult and how noble it is* to- govern in kindness, and to found an empire upon the everlasting basis of justice and affection." " Nothing can be •soigrossly absurd as the argument which eaya, ' I will deny justice to yon now because I suspect future injustice from, you.' At this rate you may lock a man up in your stable and refuse to let him out because you sospecfc that he has the intention, atsome future period, of robbing your hen rooat. You may horsewhip him at Ladyday because you believe he will affront you at ilidßummer." I will now leave you,. Sir^and all persons of common intelligence, to draw your own inferences from these extracts and quotations from my published works, which have been before the world for the last forty-five years. It is true that on one or two occasions I have written hardthings against the Irish people, as I did also in unthinking and intemperate moments against others equally undeserving ; but for all this I sought forgiveness in repentance. Otherwise I , should not now be enjoying the company of tluwe brave men who struggled and fought and suffered in the cause of liberty. — I am, your obedient servant, SYDNEY SMITH. * Mr PnrnnTftl ma at thia tima i*rltn« Mining, of England, and a, bigoted onemy of Ireland. t I have lately- witnessed in Ireland a eceno ■which is not possible la uiy other conetitutionally governed country on earth at tho prosont (Jay. On Thawdfty, Oat 17, 1889, in the fifty-saoond year of the reign of Her Present Majesty Queen. Victoria, at the trial of the political prisoners of Berrybejr, County Donegal, Ireland, forty-two juxora were told to stand aside, who had uo other season alleged against them than that they wore Komjtn Catholic*! - Many of thece men irere hroaghi from long: distances. At tins atrocity