Paddy at Home ("Chez Paddy")Mandat-Grancey, E. (Edmond), baron de
History
Paddy at Home ("Chez Paddy")
Mandat-Grancey, E. (Edmond), baron de
Ireland -- Description and travel
This is one of the great difficulties of the situation. In France the
juries often pronounce strange enough verdicts. But how can this system
produce satisfactory results in a country so profoundly disturbed as
this is, where three-fourths of the jurymen sympathise with the Land
League, and the last fourth join them through fear? The Government is
reduced to having its political opponents judged, for purely political
offences, by people who openly profess the same opinions as the
accused. I will not compare the Irish to our communists of 1871, but
if we had tried the _pétroleuses_ by a jury composed of _pétroleuses_,
we might bet heavily that they would have been acquitted, whilst on
the other hand, if the same jury had been employed to try one of those
rare members of the national guard, who joined the army at Versailles,
he would have been condemned for the smallest peccadillo. As long as
the jury officiates in Ireland, no one will dare to rally round the
Government, and all its enemies are sure of escaping with impunity. The
English Government has shown that it is quite incapable of protecting
property, or even of securing the personal safety of its partisans.
It would be very extraordinary if it had many of them. Of all the
arguments that I have heard brought forward in favour of Home Rule,
this is the one that strikes me as the most forcible.
I took advantage of a free morning to visit the parish priest of
Kenmare, or, rather, to give him the title and name by which he
is known, the “Venerable Archdeacon O’S----.” A letter from Mr.
Harrington, the secretary of the Land League, served as an introduction
to him; though I do not say that I owe the cordial welcome I received
to it, for a foreigner, particularly a Frenchman, is always sure of
being well received by an Irish Catholic priest; but Mr. Harrington’s
letter was not detrimental to me, for Father O’S---- is president of
the Land League Committee which acts in this barony. This I had heard
without surprise, but I now learnt with some astonishment that the
vice-president is no other than the Anglican minister, Mr. X----. For
the town of Kenmare possesses an Anglican minister.
When the State Church was suppressed--was “disestablished,” to use the
common phrase--that is to say, when the tithes that supported it were
abolished, it was decided that all acquired purchased positions should
be respected, and that the holders should continue to be paid out of
a special fund created for the purpose, and called the Ecclesiastical
Fund. The Rev. Mr. X----’s case was one of these, and he will continue
to receive during his life the stipend of 370_l._, on the condition of
providing spiritual food for the Protestant population of the barony,
who numbered twenty families at the outside, and who do not even appear
to me animated with any very exclusive faith, for four out of their
number send their children to the Catholic school at the Convent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account