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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 23rd October 1869, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag

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    • LA W FOR IRELAJVI? I
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      The Tomahawk. A Saturday Journal Of Sati...

      THE TOMAHAWK . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . Cfcitefc tip & rtt > UT a' 3 S «« fectt , o mLMZJiL _ L ^ C"r ~ Tr ^ 11 ^ » m .. Jg j ^ BJBBHBiaES . !! il ... ' . * maU ii JJt ... i " i l \ « 58 a flBBBB ii ^ mti Illli I ~ M PB ^ 15 » y ^ nSJPJ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ - T l ^ - ^ ^ ^ | ttdl TB I " INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRiETERIT . "

      No. 129.] London, October 23, 1869. [Pri...

      No . 129 . ] LONDON , OCTOBER 23 , 1869 . [ Price Twopence . —— .. — - —

      La W For Irelajvi? I

      LA W FOR IRELAJVI ? I

      Last Week We Showed The Danger Of Exacti...

      Last week we showed the danger of exaction and harshness . This week we would show the danger of indolence and leniency as regards the Irish Land question . To insist upon one ' s bare legal rights without any regard to the moral claims of the tenant is foolish and wicked , for it makes the devil's work easy where

      otherwise it would have been impossible . But how much more foolish , how much more wicked , it is to call anything but a cow , ardly crime that arrogant and cruel self-vindication which claims the life of the wrong-doer as forfeit ? Even in the very worst cases the sympathies of those who love order more than

      rebellion , and patience more than revenge , must be with the victim , not the author of the crime . The perverted minds of those with whom , the murderer lives may confuse dogged malignity with brave heroism , and may not be able to see the crime of the assassin for the shadow that his wrong had cast over him ; but

      in proportion as he meets with aid and sympathy , while justice is baffled and detested j in proportion as his impunity is secured by the complicity of those who , without the courage to commit the crime , have sufficient cunning to conceal the criminal , so is the anger of all those who hate violence and bloodshed

      increased , till , from unwillingness to demand the life of the one murderer , they are eager for the severest punishment of all his accomplices . For accomplices those are who either actively , or passively , encourage these cowardly assassins to think themselves heroes , and sanction the violation of the most sacred

      human and divine law , because the violator has , or imagines he has , suffered some wrong . The long list of crimes that the annals of Ireland for this year furnish would be stain enough on her people , even if the authors of them had paid the penalty of their deeds . But when we find

      that in not one single case , however brutal or atrocious , has the law been able to vindicate its authority , we may indeed wonder that the cry in Ireland is " Down with the landlords , " and not " Down with the assassins . " We should have thought that even the illogical mind of Paddy might have grasped the fact that a

      single criminal , delivered up to justice by the aid of the peasantry themselves , would have done more to silence the voices of their detractors and enemies than all the murderous snaps of triggers from behind the shelter of a dense hedge . But no—while scheme after scheme was being earnestly xirged for the benefit

      of Ireland by the nation whom she chooses to call her oppressor ; while minds were being racked , and voices were being strained , and purses were being emptied , to aid her ; Ireland was reviling and cursing her helpers , and reserving her

      approbation , her sympathy , and her gratitude for the brutal wretches who were shooting or beating to death defenceless men . For the murderer there was welcome at the fireside , there was aid , there was comfort j for the widow and children of the man struck down without warningwithout chance of defence , there

      , were nothing but malicious sneers and cruel taunts . Not one man , from north to south , from east to west , stood up and said , " Friends , fellow-countrymen , the assassin shall not escape ; he shall expiate on the gallows his brutal treachery , and clear oar good name from the pollution of harbouring amongst us a fiend

      like that . Our religion , which we love , and for sake of which we would gladly die , teaches us long-suffering and gentleness . Because our enemies are unjust , shall we be criminals ? because they are harsh , shall we be cruel ? because they eat our substance , shall we drink their blood ? No ; let us teach them that if we

      cannot forgive or forget the injuries they have done us , we can leave it to God to avenge us ; that we are ready even to wipe out the black records of the past , if they will promise us a brighter future ; that we are not the barbarians which they would try and make us . "

      This may seem too much to ask of the tenant-farmer class of Ireland j but the Irish have always claimed to be a generous and an eloquent race , and we cannot but believe that , had the desire not been wanting , the ability would have been easily found amongst the peasantry with which to make an appeal far more eloquent

      and more forcible than the one which we have suggested . It is the most disheartening thing to the would-be friends of Ireland that , as a nation , they should have utterly failed to understand the vileness of these agrarian murders . They are lower , more brutal in nature and execution than any crimes having their source in

      vindictiveness which the history of any other nation contains . Where the tenderest affections , the sweet sanctities of home have been outraged by lust and cruelty , one may well pause before one condemns the assassin j but where the simple refusal to obey the peremptory and often unjust , as well as illegal ,

      demands of a secret tribunalwhen the mere performance of a duty , however harsh , the com pliance with conditions which are not of the victim ' s choosing , when such causes as these are held sufficient justification of the most treacherous , mean , and bloodthirsty crimes , —what sympathy can a good and pure soul feel for

      the murderer ? If there can be anything more painfully astonishing than the degradation of those who commit these crimes it is the moral obliquity of those who tacitly encourage and condone them . It is easy to thunder denunciations of the usurping Saxon , to declaim against the unjust laws of which one , perhaps the most

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), Oct. 23, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_23101869/page/1/