Show CAUSE OF TUB BELFAST RIOTS The riots in the city of Belfast Ireland Ire-land which commenced on the 4th instant create new interest in a controversy con-troversy of long standing viz The struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism for supremacy in Ireland The controversy has been a bitter one as well as a long oe and has written some pages in the history of England that cannot fail to bring the blush of shame to the face of the conscientious sons when they read them There have been many instances where both Catholics and Protestants have killed one another for the love of God but the burden of guilt must for ever rest with the Protestants ofIreland made arrogant and opt ressive by the moraL and material supportthey have received from the Protestants of England and tho English government The story properly commences with the Irishmans love for the Catholic Church and the effort of Protesant England to destroy that love A modern writer of Irish history opens one of his chapters by an allusion to MOJres tenderest song entitled The Irish Peasant to his Mistress to illustrate the lave of the Irish neoole l forUm Catholic Church The following follow-ing is the paragraph loIn the song the Irish peasant tells his ndymg fidelity to his mistress Through grief and through danger her smile has cheered his way The darker our fortunes the purer thy bright lov burned it turned shame into glory fear into real Slave as he was with her to guide him he felt free She had a rival and the rival was honored while thou wert mocked and scorned The rival wore a crown of gold the others brows were girt with thorns The rival wooed him to temples while the 10HId one lay hid in caves Hcr friends were all masters while thine also are nil slaves I Yet ho declares cold in the earth at thy feet I rather wonld be tnan wed one I love not or turn one thought from thee The idea hat the writer of the above would convey is that tht Irishmans mistress is the Catholic Church while her rival is the protestant Church of England which wooed him to temples while the Catholic Church his mistress mis-tress was hid in caves but though the brows of the Catholce Church were begirt with thorns while she was mocked ana scornca ana poor itiougti cleaving to her meant for him toil and tears and political serfdom yet through good and ill he chose to remain true to her The Catholic faith seems to be admirably adapted to the Irishmans nature ltd ancient origin the wonders attributed to its early saints and martyrs the plaims to miraculous powers the present mysteries of it the pompous ceremonies the extern symbolisms eeeaas to take hold of tho childlike nature I of the Irishman and bind hm to his church with a love that is stronger thin death The cause of much of the bloodshed and sorrow in Ireland has been occasioned by the attempts at-tempts made by Protestant England to murder the Irishmans mistress the Catholic Church and the rancor arising from those efforts beginning when England Eng-land subjected Ireland to her rule and sought to force upon the peopo the Protestant religion 39 well as her civil and political institutions hs not become be-come the less b tter by the lapse of ages as the Belfast riots witness The efforts of England to establish Protestant colonies In Ireland have never been very successful still during the reign of Elizabeth colonies were foundedJn the Irish province of Ulster which includes the whole north end of Ireland and be Protestant populat on lias increased until over onehalf of the millfon < and B halfof the population of that province arc of the Protestant faith and ia this prpv ncc in the pastas past-as well h j in the prcscntitJe most ousiiots and scenes of cruelty have occarrVd between the Orangemen or Proteftnts and the Catholics The originof the term Orangeman cannot fail to be of interest James II came to the English throne in 1G35 succeeding Charles II James was I a Catholic aid manifested an imprudent zeal in promoting Roman Catholics to positions of power throughout the Kingdom This and an effort to establish liberty conscience by issuing s proclamation declaring that nonconformity to the established Protestant church should no longer be punished gave birth to a rebellion which led to his abdication of the throne No sooner did James abdicate the throne then William Prince of Orange was called to occupy oc-cupy It Previous to this event the Protestant I characters who had engaged ia acts of I violence against the Catholics were known as Peepodayboys owing to the early hour of tho morning at which they usually began their depredations depreda-tions To contend against the aggressions aggres-sions of the Peepo dayboys the Catholics organized and their companies com-panies were called Defenders During the brief reign of the Catholif prince James II the Catholics in Ireland Ire-land especially in Ulster were guilty of some acts of violence against Protestants and on the return to power ola Protestant King William Prince of Orange the Protestants of Ireland prepared to take vengeance on their Catholic neighbors and In their joy at the return of a Protestant king the name of Peep odayboys gave place to Orangeme The strenuous efforts to suppress these acts of violence drove the Orangemen Into cret organizations organiza-tions and they continued to call their members Orangenen In honor of the Prince of Orange who had become their king The society became very numerous num-erous branch organizations being established es-tablished in England and in fact in many of the colonies and some oC the prominent men In English public life bEcame members of it Inconsequence In-consequence however of the ungodly ungod-ly acts of violence and bloodshed ppr petrated the society the organization organiza-tion has of late years sunk into disrepute disre-pute When the Prince of Orange acended the tnrone of England that act tnmin ated what is known in English historj as the Glorious Itevohuicn of ISIS The convention cf men who settled the crown upon Prince William took advantage of the occasion to make a Declaration of Rights fixing definiely the extent of be kings urerogalives The first > Parliament convened under King Williams reign incorporated the items contained in the Declaration of Rights iua bill which passed Parliament Parlia-ment and became a law and Is known as the clebrated English Bill of Kigbts CAlled sometimts the second Magna Charta The Bill of Right provided pro-vided The king cannot suspend the laws or their execution he cannot levy money without the consent of Parliament Parlia-ment tho subjects have a right to petition peti-tion the crown standing army cannot can-not be kep in time of peace without tho consent of Parliament elections and Parliamentary debates must be free and Parliaments mut be frequently fre-quently assembled Macaulay in speaking of this Bill of Rights says contained the germ of the law which gave religions freedom to the dissenter of the law which secured se-cured the independence of the judges of the law which limited the duration of Parliaments of the law which placed the liberty of the press under the protection pro-tection of juries of the law which prohibited pro-hibited the slave trade of the law which relieved the Roman Catholics from civil disabilities While we believe Lord Macaulay has formed a just opinion of the scope and power of the English Bill of Rights we cannot help but think that the germ it is said to contain which would relieve the Roman Catholics from civil disabilities has been rather sici of growth and up to this day the Roman Catholic is ineligible to office in Ireland or under the British government govern-ment Every civil or disability that has been removed from the Catholics Catho-lics has met with a protest from the Orangemen who have often resisted removal by intimidation and force of anus This is the immediate cause of the Belfast riots which disgrace Eng lands civilization Gladstones home rule bill proposes to remove all the religious re-ligious disabilities which make Roman Catholics ineligible to office and throw the government of Ireland eo far as the management of Irish affairs is concerned I cerned into the hands of the Irish people A he population of Ireland in round numbers is 6000000 of which 1000000 are Protestants These Protestants Pro-testants fear that should the political disabilities of Catholics be removed and the local government given into the hands of the people of Ireland Protestants Pro-testants in Ireland would be placed under Catholic rolea condition they claim to be intolerable and more pr less talk has been indulged in abut the Protestants of Ulster resisting re-sisting home rule with armed force should it be established by Pirliaaient notwithstanding Mr Glad stones till provides that the Irish parliament par-liament shall not competent to pass lavs for the establishment or cndow sa ntrof any particular religipn Butler all that and other measures that are promised i the home rule bill to protect pro-tect the minority tIe Protestants still protest against home rule and demand that the lour Chs of Irelands population popula-tion shall be deprived of their liberties in the management of tbeir own affairs in order that the onefifth might ilill continue to enjoy a monopoly of government gov-ernment patronage and dwell under tbo protecting wing of Protestant Eng land Irelands history is a grand example of what the denial of local selfgovern mentriieans There is a people forming form-ing a part of the British Empire it is true and contiguous to the seat of government gov-ernment of the great Empire but for all that a people with distinct local interests in-terests with different Jife and thought with different religion And yet Eng land is seeking to make her people think as Englishmen do trying to enforce en-force laws upon her people which to use the language of Mr Gladstone come to them with a foreign aspect and force npOn her a religion alec detests de-tests hirers of tears and blood have flowed cunning and cruelty have exhausted their forces and still England is as far removed from accomplishing bert > bJect as ever Inlands friend areincreas lug Englandd system of coercion is everywhere meeiing with execration Sometime in the future and not far removed tLereis a triumph forlrelahdV in obtaining horne rule forE RUoMJ there ia humiliation aa waat she has HBJoally withheld from Irelandf msy be now compelled to give without grace 1 I The situation of Utah is not unlike that of Ireland In Utah the people have distinct local interests just as Ireland has Ihey have a different religion to that which prevails in other parts of the nation just as the Irish mans religion differs from the Church of England faith They have different methods of thought from the rest ot the nation in which they live just as the Irishmans method of thought differs from the English Home rule is denied Utah just as it is Ireland If a religion which the people of Utah detest de-test is not souubt to be forced upon them by the general government ni has been the case with Ireland then the one they love that is dearer to them than life or liberty is sought to be wrenched from them Laws that have a foreign aspect and that are destructive de-structive of their social instituions that even invade the saucily ol the homo circle are forced upon them ii the face of their protest just as it bus been in the case of Ireland Coercive measured are being tried against Utah to compel her to surrender rights which to her people are dearer than life the awe has been done in Inland Utah hs a small minority upon whom all government patronage is lavished so has Ireland This mfnnntv n In flush cluinorfor the continuation of fern tonal vassalage for Utah and would withhold the privilege of managing her own affairs from her just as the minority of government favorites in Ireland will withhold home rule from Ireland as long as they can The situation situ-ation is very similar Ireland is Utahs mirror where we may see the wrongs reflected that are rapidly being heaped upon our people All that England has sought to compel Ireland to do the United States are seeking to compel com-pel Ulib to do and more Alexander like a robber 1 Let our nation reflect |