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Show I : : England 'and Ireland-j : : An Answer to 31. J. Rs Letter to the New York Tribune X By V. A. O'Farrell. - i To the Editor of The Tribune: Sir: In a rorent letter to The Tribune Tri-bune I g'ave a resume of Irish history for the purpose of elucidating f ieitil and political condition: in the Ireland of today. My object was to enlighten thos. who have no time for the profound pro-found study of the subject. Since then I pee an appeal from Atlanta to The Tribune, asking for lipht ami information informa-tion on Ireland's srievancep, and I have roal with considerable interest th contribution of M. J. Jt. on this subject in The Tribune of .April 1. I fully appreciate th tone and tomper of M. J. It., but must be pardoned for thinking that hip letter only serves to olwure. to mystify and evtn to distort historical facts and social conditions. ' I do not for one moment insinuate that Fuch w rv ifhe intentions of the w riter; but Fitch is the result. In oracular ptyle be tells us that the Hull of Adrian Ad-rian was n forgery, and that I have Flandered John of Salisbury in accusing accus-ing "mo pod a man'" of .u vile a crime. The penuinenefs of this celebrated . document is of little moment now, but I muft reiterate my former statement that John of Salisbury, and not Pope Adrian, was the author of the so-called so-called Adrian Bull. The trufli is John of Salisbury was a liar, a cheat, a sy cophant, a falsifier of history and a forger, and in contriving: the Bull of Adrian and pawning:" it off as genuine upon a credulous age he was merely living up to his record. It was a clever forgery anl cleverly promulgated. The world first heard f it as being, produced pro-duced in a council of Irish bishops nearly twenty year!" after the Pope, who was said to have, given it. had passed from a busy life to the silence of the tomb. The council of Irish bishops was the coinage of John of Salisbury's Sal-isbury's brain. It never received nor . promulgated! the precious document. Had the Bull existed before 1H6 Henry would have gladly produced it on either eith-er of his visits to Ireland. The Bull was signed, scaled and delivered at Home, according to John of Salisbury, but on the very day and date Pope j Adrian was in exile far from Home. Again, were the Bull genuine a copy would have been religiously preserved like all similar documents in the records rec-ords of the Papacy. No such copy exists ex-ists in the archives of the Vatican, and there ig no evidence that it ever has existed. No sane man w"hr knows the history of Tope Adrian's time can believe in the genuineness of the reputed Adrian , Bull. Nicholas Brakespeare. a scion of the hated and downtrodden Saxon race, had carved his way to the throne of Supreme Pontiff. His rise from serfdom, poverty and obscurity is one of the most dramatic incidents of the Middle Ages, and in the resplendent office which he achieved he was the implacable im-placable foe of the feudal barons and kings that t'hen scourged Europe. He hurled anathemas at the head of every wrongdoer, and the wrongdoer paid him back with hate and scorn. Pope Adrian knew Henry II well. He had Sfen a thousand evidences of the un-bridied un-bridied passion, lust and hate of Henry Plantagenet before that worthy acquired ac-quired the throne of England. Adrian knew that with that same Henry the I Church was fated to a deadly struggle. He saw him in" Normandy appropriating appropriat-ing the revenues of the Church, and thrusting his own unworthy minions and 'tools into Church dignities. He disliked and feared the young- tyrant, and as Pope he was preparing for a fierce struggle with Henry, when, he died. John of Salisbury Adrian knew as he most unscrupulous tool of this tyrant King, and it is preposterous to imagine that this great democratic Pope, whose whole career was a protest pro-test and a struggle against the des- I otism of mediaeval kings, could have ever given fuch a document as Henry II and John of Salisbury fathered, upon him. POINTS THAT ARE IRRELEVANT. Your correspondent also wishes to know Which of the clauses of the Treaty of Limerick is unfulfilled. He might juu ae unreasonably ask which t parts of the mutilated Venus of Milo are unrestored. Again, he wants to know whether William of Orange was i an Englishman, and whether the Jaco bites were nor really a majority of the English people. I cannot see what rel-, rel-, evanee such academic questions have -) with the subject under discussion. ' What matters now whether the blood of the Stuarts, of the Bourbons or of the House of Orange were 'uppermost in the veins of William. He excelled the Stuarts in falsehood and' the Bourbons ; Jn ability. He was the greatest liar and. cheat in Europe, but withal an able j man. He wheedled his English Parliament Parlia-ment for gold to fight the battles of the Dutch with French. If we can believe j his confidential communications to the : Pope, whose ally he was. he strove to curb the scoundrels to whom he had I - given the government of Ireland, but I he himself was a sharer in the plunder j they wrung from that unhappy land, f Why wate ppace alluding to the ac- i - cursed race of Stuart or to the vile. ' vulgar, profligate House of Hanover i that England substituted for them? I I think it 5fl Euipides that make Hecuba ! Ray, "Accursl be the whole race of kings and. 7rinces." I do not go so far, but the fetiehism of loyalty to princes does not commend itself to me. But after all we are looking for light on wider qui-etions. and my object is to reproduce an exact picture of the Ireland Ire-land of the past that Americans may clearly understand conditions in the Ireland of today, and that they may also understand the real inspiration of th Irish race throughout the world. Life is too short to waste time on quibbles, quib-bles, cant ami humbug. I believe in calling a ppado a spade up to the very f-rA cf a spade'fi handle, and the man who states !n your columns or elsewhere else-where that It was an Irish Parliament and an Irish executive that indicted all the evil Ireland suffered during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries centur-ies must be a sophist, a fool or a humbug. hum-bug. He may have read history, but he is incapable of sifting fact from fiction, fic-tion, and silence on Irish history were ': more becoming to him than peech. The , Norman knights and warriors that went to Ireland in the twelfth, thir- j teenth and fourteenth centuries were' ptiliSiorfc of fcriune in search of adven- I ture. and having fought with one Irish Ir-ish chief against the other, they usually usu-ally en-dea up by intermarriage with the fa-r daughters of Erin, and settled down and became Irish in heart and sentiment. The assimilation of the Normans Nor-mans 'iih the Celts of Ireland formed a great race. But that race was Prish in every sense of the word. But when Cromwoi! marched through Ireland and "parcelled out the lands of the old chit-fs and leaders among his canting poldicry. he established in Ireland a horde of pirates who Tiad naught in common with the old race or with the Anglo-Irirth families. Forty years after af-ter Cromwell, William of Orange came, and a new confiscation and a new settlement set-tlement of Ireland were made for the English, Dutch and French adventurers adventur-ers that followed William. Ireland wag at last conquered, and Cromwellianite and WilHamite made common cauee together to-gether for the purpose of more effectually effectu-ally plundering and robbing the Irish people. I resent as little short of an insult to my Intelligence' the insinua-; insinua-; I tion that either Williamite or Crom- wellian'i'te were Irish. WHY THERE WAS NO SYMPATHY. , Twelve generations of Ottomans were born in sight of Salamis and Thermopylae Ther-mopylae and in the shadow of the Acropolis. Children of satraps and Pachas gazed upon the blue waves of Ionian fw H, and from, tho oracle to r the grave beheld the sun and the sky, the hills and the dales, the rills and the fountains, the. .flowers., and the foliage that inspired the Greeeks of .old to dcathlesis deeds of glory. But aey caught no inspiration from such scenes and never felt a thrill or glow of Hellenic Hel-lenic fire, and never ceased to be aught but Orientals, or children or the Prophet. Pro-phet. They weref urks and not Greeks and so with the descendants of the Williamitc-s and Cromwellianites. They knew not, heeded not, cared not for glory of ancient Ireland, and they never realized the innate greatness of the race whom they crucified for full 200 years. An impassable gulf parted the oppressor and the oppressed. A nation of martyrs on the one side, clinging with the" heroism of the first Christians to the ideals of their glorious past; and on the other the tyrant and his minions min-ions using the might -of England to crush, to plunder and to degrade. The world's annals present no greater contrast; con-trast; and let us hope that the world shall never present such another. We Irish are a proud race. Somehow In physique and bone and muscle we excel the world. Th dauntless valor of the Irish soldier and the genius of the Irish captain have been proved on a thousand battlefields At Fonte-nov Fonte-nov a brigade of Irish exiles fell upon a. triumphant English army and smote it hip and thigh, and trampled it in the dust. In the American civil war another an-other Irish brigade, led by Meagher, charged the heights of Frederisksburg, and the 'glorious valor of the achievement achieve-ment will be renowned in history forever. for-ever. Cremona, Ranrilies and Magenta saw Irish exiles winning the admiration admira-tion of the world. THE IRELAND OF THE PAST. But the glory of the Irish race is not its achievements in war, but in its wondrous achievements in the darkest days of Europe. Here is a picture of Ireland in the seventeenth and eighteenth eight-eenth centuries on the one Hide, and on the other a picture of ancient Ireland Ire-land prior to the Norman period. lTn-til lTn-til you appreciate ancient Ireland, you cannot understand modern Ireland. In the ancient world three civilizations shone out resplendent the Jewish, the Greek and the Irish. I omit that of Rome for brevity, and because its art, its literature and its civilization were a reflection of that of Greece. In art, in poetry, in architecture and in literature liter-ature the Greeks surpassed the Irish; but in music, in melody, in oratory, j in jurisprudence and in refining social influences Ireland not only surpassed Greece, but all other nations of the pagan world.' A great Irish warrior in pagan days, in bidding farewell and giving advice to his grandson, used these words: "MacLug-gah. let three-fourths three-fourths of thy gentleness be shown to women and children and to men of art." Such a sentence has no parallel in the literature of the whole pagan world outside of Ireland, and it reveals the existence of social conditions nowhere no-where else existing In the world prior to Christianity-. Then St. Patrick came and took this whole people into the fold of Christ. Ireland became immediately im-mediately the island of saints and scholars. The Frank, the Goth, the Hun and the Vandal had swept the lat. vestige of Roman civilization away, and art, learning and refinement aeemed to have perished utterly on the European continent. But all this time in Ireland the lamp of learning was burning more brilliantly than ever, and the youth of France, of Spain, of Italy, of Germany and of England hastened has-tened to Ireland as to the fountain of all learning, the art and the civilization civiliza-tion then existing in the world. They were received with the open hospitality of the Irish, educated free of all cost and sent back to spread the fame and the glory of Ireland. Armies of Irish schoolmasters, priests and missionaries went forth from.the motherland to rescue res-cue the Saxon, the Frank, the Goth and the" "'Hun from barbarism, ignorance igno-rance and unbelief, i It was Irirfli genius and Irish zeal j and Irish talent that paved the way for the civilization of the modern world. Iona, Lindisfnrno and Melrose were Irish schools, founded by Irish monks, and the schools and the schoolmasters of Anlo-Saxon England were almost exclusively Irish. The jurisprudence which the good King Stephen tried to establish was the inspiration of ancient an-cient Irish laws. Indeed, the Irish race was the prime factor in dispelling the awful night of darkness and ignorance which followed in the wake of the triumphant tri-umphant Goth. Hun and Vandal, and this I consider a more glorious achievement achieve-ment than the conquest of an empire or the world by the sword. ALIENS IN CONTROL. The horde of adventurers that William Wil-liam and Cromwell planted in Ireland to rule the Irish people and to plunder the fruits of their sweat and toil knew nothing of the glorious past of the Irish race. They cared less. The Irish clung to the religion St. Patrick planted plant-ed with a passionate devotion unparalleled unparal-leled in history. That religion was part of their glorious past. It was the consolation of their lives and the hope of their existence. The Williamites stole their churches and their schools, and tried to make the Irish people abandon the religion of St. Patrick for the gosptl of Martin Luthtr, John Knox i and Elizabeth. The preachers of the new creed, the creed of the oppressor, the tyrant and the knave, were housed and fed and clothed and enriched at the expense of the people of a nation that bated them as false prophets and teachers of a false creed. But the tribute money that kept this frightful incubus of an alien church alive was wrung from the Irish people through the might of the tyrant's sword. The Irish priest and the Irish teacher had a price, set upon his head, and the Irish Catholic hnd to worship his God in caves, in woods, and on the mountain moun-tain tops at the peril of his life, while the descendants of Dutch and English boors whom Cromwell and William made the lords of Ireland ranted and preached and ptayed in the grand and a )lemn temples which the piety of the ancient' Irish built to the living God. A parliament of this caste of scoundrels scoun-drels sat in Dublin framing laws and providing ways and means for the plunder and degradation of a nation. An executive, a judiciary and a police system were contrived, which for diabolical dia-bolical infamy never have had a parallel. paral-lel. .The martyrdom of the early Christians by Roman tyrants pales before be-fore the martyrdom which the Irish endured at the hand.s of the scoundrels to whose government England handed over the Irish nation. Call these scoundrels scoun-drels aristocrats, oligarchists, Hessians, Hes-sians, Anglo-Saxons what you will, but do not call them I rash." for they were alien in blood, in creed, in sentiment, senti-ment, in heart, in thought and mind to anything and everything Irish. The ruling caste remained entirely distinct dis-tinct from the Irish people. That ruling rul-ing caste by England's aid still rules Ireland. Its power and opportunity for plunder have been curtailed, but it is still in the saddle and will be till Home Rule is won. The magic eloquence elo-quence of O'Connell electrified the world and won emancipation from a brutal king and a corrupt English aristocracy. The same wondrous O'Con-ntell O'Con-ntell roused the masaes of the English people from the lethargy in which they had long slumbered, and made them the masters of the empire. O'Connell was the real organizer of free trade and extended English franchises. He did wonders for England, but he died before he could tear down the upas tree of Church ascendancy or before he could root out of place -and power the descendants of the horde -vt brigands whom Cromwell and William fastened I on his native land. Gladstone swept ! away Church ascendancy, and Parnell 1 ended most of their opportunities for. pluder. But they are still, intrenched In the judiciary, in the executive, in the police and in the magistracy, and they Cling to their intrenchmemts. with the tenacity, of pirates clinging to a captured cap-tured prize ship. The queen and the parliament of England are now the sole support of this ruling caste. Is there a free born ' man alive who would not scorn the i Irishman who, by word or act or deed, would indicate love or loyalty to the government that still upholds the ruling rul-ing caste in Ireland? Gladstone tried to end its power forever and give the Irish autonomy, but royalty and English Eng-lish aristocracy were too much for him. and he died with his greatest work undone. Now we are told that England and its queen are feeling a change of heart. THE IRELAND OF TODAY. Events in South Africa have revealed the weakness of the empire, and the valor and genius of Irish soldiers and generals have made it patent as the noonday sun that Ireland, content and happy and self-governed, means the safety of the British empire and an alliance al-liance of the English speaking world against the. growing might and power of the Slav. Till Ireland is happy, content con-tent and free, wherever on God's footstool foot-stool there stands a true Irishman, there also is a deadly enemy of England; Eng-land; and it is just that it should be so. The dawn of justice and truth may be at hand in England. No one doubts the capacity of the Irish race for great affairs; af-fairs; none so ignorant as not have been witnesses to its extraordinary achievements in America, in Australia, in Canada and in India in this century of ours. The race that could have endured en-dured the awful ordeal of centuries of slavery and enforced ignorance and bonds and chains and death and martyrdom, and come forth from that ordeal uneonquered. resolute and aggressive, ag-gressive, is a mighty race and indestructible inde-structible as the polar star. Ex-Gov- I em or O'Ferral! of Virginia once re-j marked to me: "I would not give a j drop of my Celtic Irish blood for all the gold mines of California." And we Irish who walk with head erect and fearless eye and dauntless heart, know that we are children of the truest, the bravest and most constant people that God has yet created. We are heirs to glories that no other race can boast of, and we believe that in the councils of destiny we are fated for a resplen-dant resplen-dant morrow." Standing on the verge of ete.nity. with the light reflected from the infinite already al-ready shadowing her.- it may perhaps have been permitted to England's queen to siee the true inwardness of Ireland's strange and tragic story. She may be granted to realize that a mighty destiny des-tiny awaits this race, which boasts the bravest men and the fairest and most virtuous maidens the world has ever seen. The full significance of the awful martyrdom of this Irish race may now , be grasped by her for the first time, and her pilgrimage to Ireland may be akin to that of the Plantagenet to the tomb of Becket. Over the old age of Gladstone there stole a feeling of love, of pity and of veneration for Ireland and the Irish that was little short of worship. The real facts of Irish history his-tory filled him with unutterable admiration admi-ration for the Irish people and with an insatiable longing to do justice to Ireland. Ire-land. Does it not seem that a similar feeling is creeping over the aged queen, and that as the mi:ts of passion, prejudice pre-judice and ignorance are torn aside and the real facts of history are laid bare to her she is hungry to repair the evils which her government has inflicted, in-flicted, and thirsting to do justice to this heroic race? It is significant if it should prove so, but in my philosophy the reign of truth and justice is as inevitable in-evitable in the evolution of nations as the waxing or the warning of the moon or the changes of the seasons. I do I not desire to peer into the councils of the Fates, but I believe as firmly as I believe in tomorrow's rising sun that the Irish race has been marked out to play as glorious a part in the future of the world as ever before it has been given to a people or nation to play. l A. O'FARRELL. New York, April 9, 1900. |