Mr. Isaac Butt is an able man, but he sometimes
says things which make reasonable men doubt either his intelligence or his honesty. At a meeting of Irishmen in Manchester, on Tuesday night, to petition for the release of Fenian prisoners, he declared that the "distinction between a political offender in a black coat and him who owed allegiance in a red one was absurd and miser- able,"—in other words, that a rebel who is also a mutineer is no worse than a rebel. Does Mr. Butt really mean to say that if he were President of Ireland, he would pardon an Irish soldier who rebelled against Ireland in the interest of England ? Does he not know, consciously know, that the Irish, who, if they have nothing else, have an innate military sense, would shoot such a soldier red- handed, and would be perfectly justified in so doing ? Whatever the right of insurrection—and no State can acknowledge that— the man who voluntarily enters the Army gives it up till he leaves it again. Natives of India have, if any men have, the right of rebellion. The Sepoys have none.
Previous page
