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Show AN IRISH WAR. The story comes from across the sea that the Fenians in Ireland are the . possessors pos-sessors of a large amount of arms, and that -it wculd take very little to start a war. The Irish have become greatly emboldened em-boldened on account of the failure of the Englishln the Soudan, and feel a contempt con-tempt for their military prowess.. It would not be well for any people , who contemplate contem-plate a war with England to under-rate her military strength. To' think -of the Irish going to war with England is idle, for Ireland would stand no chance whatever, what-ever, and the wrongs which now bind the Irish together throughout the entire island would not be sufficient to unite the nation in a war against England. To-day with all their wrongs it is almost impossi- Die tor catholics -and Orangemen to mingle togetherin any considerable numbers num-bers without there being danger of a riot. On the walls of Londonderry to-day are some of Cromwell's trophies, and in and around Londonderry there exists the same hatred for the.Catliolic3 of the south of Ireland that existed in the days of Cromwell. There is no danger of an Irish war, but there is danger of a Fenian insurrection, which, if it were to occur, j would retard for long years the righting of Ireland's wrongs.'" Nor is it at all probable that a man so cool and shrewd as Mr. Parnell is would for a single moment mo-ment dream of going to war with England. O'Connell gained his victories through peace and agitation and the resources of intellect, and not the resources of arms. So it has been with Mr. Parnell. As a politician and a master of parliamentary tactics, Mr. Parnell is probably the greatest great-est leader that Ireland has" ever produced. pro-duced. If the policy of Mr. Parnell is pursued, it would seem that the present parliamentary conflict between England : and Ireland must result in local self-government for Ireland. The self-government of which we speak is the self-govern-; ment on the plan advocated by Matthew Arnold in the Nineteenth Century I some time ago. . This plan was a copy, ! to a very large extent, of the federal plan ! of the United States. To such a Jocal I self-government Ireland is entitled, and ' it should be given her. The agitations of ! the Irish people for a redress of their ! wrongs and the recognition of their rights liave generally been defeated through 1 some overt acton the part of the Irish ' themselves; and now it would seem as though they were abon to destroy the re-salt re-salt of a long and successful agitation by ' an overt act. When the word Fenian is UBed it has a bad appearance, and the ' word Parnellite and iis worth are lost ' eight of. The descendants of the Huguenots have been celebrating the bi-centennary of the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Among those present was Secretary Bayard. Due respect to that famous Edict was given by several, and if Jules Simon's view of it is correct, undue deference has always been paid to it. He says : r "The Edict of Nantes is not, as is generally believed, the proclamation of the liberty of conscience. con-science. First, the liberty of conscience comprehends the liberty of every religion and of every philosophic, doctrine, while the question in' the Edict of Nantes is of according it to the Protestants, and to them alone. , Even for them the liberty is far from baing complete." |