InI8111tE1e IN AktHICA.
.Dublin, 20th March 1884.
Sin—Will you allow me to correct some errors into which you have fal- len in the bitter and I believe Very unjust article entitled ' Ireland in America," which appeared in Saturday's Spectator? I do not like to see even rebels, whose conduct I condemn, unjustly assailed ; and therefore I wish to deny the accuracy of your statement, that in escaping from Van Diemen's Land, Messrs. Mitchel and Meagher violated their parole of honour. When placed in that penal settlement, they were furnished with "tickets of leave,', such 1113 those granted to ordinary Oonviets—forgers, robbers, pick- pockets, and the like—of whom their gaolers had given a favourable report ; but, unlike the latter, these gentlemen. were subjected to a series of petty, harassing, and unnecessary restrictions, of Which it would be easy to adduce numerous examples ; and, finding their lives intolerable, they resolved to at- tempt their escape. Accordingly, they formally withdrew their parole; gave full notice of their intention to the Governor and the district Magis- trates; and finally, at the expiration of the titne to which their promise was limited, succeeded in effecting their escape at the risk of their lives. Surely there is no breach of honour here ? There are obvious reasons why a den- im course should not have been adopted by Mr. Smith O'Brien and Messrs. Martin and O'Doherty. Mr. O'Brien, a man of rank and fortune, utterly sick and disgusted with politics, in which he failed so signally, cherished but one hope—that of restoration to his country and his family, with whom he desired to live hereafter in retirement and peace. He would have for- feited all chance of such a consummation by escaping. The other prisoners have only four years of banishment to endure, and may then return, un- fettered, to their native land ; where one of them, Mr. Martin, possesses landed property to the amount of 500/. a year. For them escape would be the most egregious folly. With respect to Mitchel's conduct in America, it is not true that he " ful- somely" praised the institution of slavery, to the disgust even of the Anti- Abolitionists in that country. The subject was forced upon him, and he then merely gave ieterance to the opinions which he always entertained. He, a hunted fugitive seeking shelter and a home in the United States, writ called upon by well-meaning but misjudging persons here, to commence a fierce crusade against one of the institutions of America the moment he set foot upon her hospitable shores. He very properly declined to do to. He sneered at those whose sympathies are so active and tender on behalf of the Negroes in the New World, but whose hearts are so callous to the sufferings, the misery, the hideous vice, and the appalling infidelity, which encompass them on all sides at home. Carefully abstaining from expressing any ap- proval of the system itself, he refused to stigmatize as vile criminals a great proportion of the American people, including their most illustrious warriors and-statesmen, their Washingtons and Jeffersons. He declared that he did not think it a crime or a sin to accept the work of Negroee, giving them only in return food and clothing, and supporting them m sickness and old age when no longer capable of labour. Perhaps he thought the slaveholder who did this was not a worse man than the rich English manufacturer who pays his workmen wages which are barely sufficient to feed and clothe their families, and who what they are past their work not unfrequently allows them to starve in loathsome garrets or drag out a weary existenoe within the walls of a hated poor-house. As for the other charges against Mr. Mitchel —surely he cannot be held accountable for "Irish Popery" America, for he is an Unitarian, which you will probably think much worse than a Pa- pist; and, so far from approving of or stimulating Irish factions or Irish agi- tations, he most emphatically condemned them in a recent lecture at Boston, and earnestly exhorted his countrymen to abandon and discountenande all such factions, to become American citizens in heart and soul, to obey the laws, respect the constitution, and strain every nerve to promote the honour and glory of their adopted country. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, AN IRISH READER.
[We have every respect for the dictate either of personal friendship or of sympathy with countrymen in misfortune ; but the persons iii question have so completely identified themselves with public events that they can- not avoid public judgment, and it would be a dereliction of duty in a public writer to soften the judgment out of any personal considerations whatever. We spoke on reports which had been published ; and although we have not a file of American papers for reference we believe that our statements were substantially correct. There have been specific statements, and until they are met by specific contradictions their effect will remain. We do not dis- pute the assurance of our correspondent that Mr. Mitchel used the expres- sions recounted above ; but it has been reported that he also expressed a wish that he possessed a plantation in Alabama with the slaves to work it. Now, we may find excuse for Washington, who acquired possession in due course ; but that is a different thing from a foreigner's desiring to become a slaveholder.
It was at New York, i
we believe that at Mr. Mitchel, drawn forth by some hostile observations of a journal n that city, made a speech in which he declared that he should not oppose the Roman Catholic priesthood, siesta he had found them to be gentlemen, and so forth. Now, the very occasion which called in question either support or opposition of " the Romish clergy was the attempt of that sect to recover a temporal influence in the Union, and especially to get control over the public schools. The Citizen, the jour- nal edited by Mr. Mitchel an Unitarian, was established, we believe, to re- present the Irish element in America; that element being mostly Romanist as well as Irish.
It is explained that Mr. Mitchel and Mr. Meagher "formally withdrew their parole" ; but how was that done ? We well remember the circum- stances in one case. The ticket-of-leave to be returned was lodged with an official quite unprepared to receive it, and then the fugitive mounted a horse which stood ready for him, and galloped off; aided in his escape by favour of extensive arrangements which had been made while he was under parole. —En.]
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