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the struggle—the opening of a war to
which the future historian may look back
as to the Grand Revolution of Europe—
as to the day of the darkest and deadliest
war of the modern centuries—the war
when the supremacy of the Powers was
liercely contested and finally decided.
TIIE COUNCIL.
The Infallibility is at length decided,
GOl Fathers voted and only 48 non
placets were given. The result of the
vote is received with pious j-.y ana de
vout thanksgiving to the great Revealer.
Veritas.
THE WAR IN! EUROPE
CONCERN OF IRISHMEN IN* IT.
Instinctively and universally, all
over the world, the Irish people are alive
to the portentous possibilities of this
impen ding war in Europe. There has
been much stupid talk about division
and “disunion” amongst national Irish
men on this Continent. We should soon
see how much division and disunion
would dare to show itself, from the very
first moment when the European war
w 'ulu involve England as an antagonist
ot trance. At that instant the trade of
all the Head-Centres and “Organizers”
would suddenly cease; and the vast mass
gnine Irishmen in Am r.ca wou'd
imperiously take possession. Even in
anticipation of such possible collision be
tween England and France, we find that
the Irish element of this country—in ac
cord with their kinsfolk of Ireland—
straightway takes its place; either ranges
itself at once on the side of France, the
old ally and friend of our ancient island,
or places itself in an attitude of expect
ancy, until we shall see where England
is to be found in the world-wide stru^-
i °
gle.
Let us announce at once—and we an
nounce it without the slightest apprehen
sion of being contradicted by the Irish
in America—that we are lor Prussia, if
England succeed in forcing her alliance
upon France; —and that we are for
France if Englad should be by some
happy chance shamed into taking the side
of Prussia, the future realm of England’s
daughter-in-law. In any case, under all
contingencies, Ireland is for that Power
whose success will be the destruction of
the “British Empire.” This is the sen
timent of the Irish in Ireland, of the
Irish in Australia, in Canada, and in the
United States. Thus, it is too soon to
display a too absolute and unreserved
sympathy with either of the present
belligerents. Naturally and necessarily,
at the first bursting out of the war, Irish
good wishes go with France; not merely
because France has endeavored to be
friend and redeem our country more
than once in former days, but also be
cause France is the authentic representa
tive of all that is free and really liberal
in Europe. It is the country of univer
sal suffrage—a privilege which can by
no means be allowed to the Irish: the
country of perfect equality of all reli
gions,—an idea too romantic to be en
tertained in Ireland, even since the pre
tended Dis-establishment; the country of
plebiscites, in which every grown-up
man is invited to vote upon the destinies
of his nation; the country of perfect
social and political equality, public and
private. France it was that broke up the
feudal system in Europe; that freed the
United States of America, that inspired
and set a pattern for the great Land
Revolution in Prussia itself. France it
was that announced authoritatively the
principle that every ration has the right
to choose its own form of government
by the voting of the people. The cause
ot France, then, in Europe is the eause
of the Divine Right of the People—the
cause of Prussia is the cause of the Di
vine Right of Kings. France is the
realized ideal of Democracy; Prussia is
the gieat European champion (next to
England itself) of monarchical and
oligarchical tyranny. Yet after all this,
and in spite of all this, if in the course of
this war, England finds it safest for her
to palm herself upon France as an ally,
as she has done always for the last half
cent ary, then we are for Prussia.
But next comes the other question—
apart from sympathies and old recollec
tions—which of these two belligerent
Powers (supposing it at war with Eog
land) could render effective aid to Ire
land? God knows Ireland would eager
ly accept the aid of either; but it hap
pens that France is the only one of the
two which could do Ireland any good,
by furnishing a base of operations and
facilitating an invasion by the Irish
Americans. If France and England were
unhappily in alliance, then their two
great combined fleets could hold the sea
—hold and control it so absolutely that
no Prussian squadron, no flotilla of
Irish American privateers could so
much as look into an Irish harbor. No
expedition taking Prussia as a base 'of
operations could pretend to reach the
Irish shores. In short, it is France
alone in Europe that can give Irelanc
the aid she needs; and if England re
mains an ally of France, or even ct
peace with France, all action of Irelanc
or of the friends of Irelaud remains
simply impossible. Unless and unti
England and France find themselves on
opposite sides in this war, whoever urges
Irishmen to “take action” in any form
either speaks in gross ignorance or has
some dishonest intention—most likely to
gather dollars.
There is still [another reason why
Irishmen in America should not at
present come out with their gushing
sympathies with France: it would be
placing themselves in a position of most
ungracious'hostility towards their neigh
bors and fellow citizens of German birth
and parentage. They are directly con
cerned; it is their country which is at
war with France; it is their united Ger
many which may be dismembered if
France be victorious; their brothers and
kinsfolk are standing this moment on the
right bank of the Ivhine-River, awaiting
the shock of invading armies. Natu
rally and necessarily they are excited.
If the French citizens, indeed, who are
but a handful in comparison, thought fit
to hold war meetings here, and make
demonstrations and sirg the Marseileaise
the German population might be pro
voked, yet they could make no reasonable
objection; but
direct or present interest in the war at all
should make themselves gratuitously
prom'amt on the side of Germany’s
potent foe, there would be mortal offence,
indeed. Between German-Americans
and Irish-Arnericans, brotheas as they
ought to be, there would be a gulf
fixed, and the feud thus created
might bear bitter fruit for us all some
other day.
To be sure, the moment we should be
well assured that England was engaged
in the quarrel, and against France, then
for us there would be no such word as
neutrality; then all would be open to us,
by sea or land, whereby we might hurt
either England or England’s allies; then
the cause of Ireland for generations to
come would suddenly find itself committed
(under God into the hands of tho Em
peror of tho French,
For all the reasons we have mentioned
we commend the resolutions and pro
ceedings of that meeting of Irish citizens
of Memphis the other clay, where it was
determined to wait for the happy con
tingency, and to do nothing in the mean
time but establish a vigilant neutrality.
The Memphis people are not alone; we
have before us evidence that Irish citi
zens of other cities, taught and sobered
by experience, are taking the course,
tlrs time, of keeping themselves quiet,
lying low, provoking no needless resent
ments on the part of their neighbors,
keeping within their own power and
local control such funds as they may
think it right to contribute, by way of
nucleus for a militaty-chest some other
day, avoiding New York and Philadel
phia “Headquarters,” and waiting for
events, being sure that they will be ac
quainted with those events as they befall
quite as soon as anybody else.
In the meantime, it has been suggest
ed to us that, with a view of setting
clearly before the minds of our people
the real exigencies and possibilities of
the situation—showing what may be
done, what has been done in past times,
and in what way a people may avail itself
of a state of war between other peoples
to strike for its own cause—it might' be
well for us to recall a scrap of history at
this crisis,
When Theobald Wolfe Tone first went
to France, and got himself into com
munication with the French Republican
Government, France and England were
already at war. Without that, he could
not have so much as got an audience of
any French minister. After long delay
and the preparation of elaborate states
mens, he succeeded at length iu so far
interesting the French Government in
his projects—that is, convincing them
that through Ireland the British enemy
could be struck to the heart—as to procure
the expedition to Bantry Bay, he himself
having been first made a cheif-de-brigade,
employed in bringing the Irish prisoners
of-war then in French prisons to accept
their freedom on the terms of fighting for
France. Observe, that there could
have been no Irish prisoners of-war then
in French prisons, nor auy expedition to
Bantry Bay, nor could Tone, a British
subject, have been commissioned as a
French officer, nor indeed could he have
so much as spoken with Clarke and
Carnot and Napoleon Bonaparte, but
that England and France were alacady at
war.
That great expedition failed, and the
gallant Tone passed away. Then came
the era of 1803, and the formation of the
( “Irish Legion” in France, and the plan
ning of a now expedition from France to
Hi IS IF ffaii eBCB US a
! the coast of Ireland. Miles Byrne and
many other Irish military exiles were
ffien in France, burning for active ser
vice; and England and France were
again at war, after the short interrup
tion of the peace of Amiens, Napoleon
Bonaparte was First Consul; and by his
decree this Irish Legion was formed in
November 1803. It included manv of
the most gallant and accomplished of
ficers who ever served in France, and its
rank and file consisted of such Irish as
could be then found in the country, es
pecially the prisoners of war taken from
the English. It was when the Legion
was complete, and quartered in Bre
tagne, at Morlaix, that Thomas Addis
Emmet, who had remained in Paris, ob
tained from the First Consul that most
interesting of all State papers relating to
the history of Ireland. It was Bon
aparte’s specific reply to Emmet’s me
moire. We here translate it literally*
from a copy sent by Emmet to Mac
Nevin:
Copy of the First Consxrt's answer to
my memoir eof Voth Nivose, delivered
to me 2*l th Nivose.
“The First Consul has read with the
utmost attention the memoirc addressed
to him by Monsieur Emmet, the 13
Nivose.
“He wishes the LUiited Irishmen to be
well convinced that his intention is
to assure the independence of Ireland,
and to give full and efficient protection
to all those amongst them who shall take
part iu the expedition or join the French
armies.
“The French Government cannot is
sue any Proclamation before having
touched the Irish shore. But the general
wlio is to command the expedition will
be furnished with sealed letters, in
which the First Consul will declare that
he shall not make peace with England
without stipulating for the independence
of Ireland—that is provided the army
shall have been joined by a considerable
number of United Irishmen.
“Ireland shall be treated in all res
pects as America was during the late
war.
“Every person embarking with the
French army destined for the expedition
shall be commissioned as a Frenchman:
if he should be captured, and not treated
as a prisoner of war, reprisals shall b«
used upon the English prisoners,
“H-rcrj- corpo formed in fPo norrto n f
the United Irishmen shall be consider
ed as making part of tl c French army.
Eventually, if the expedition should not
succeed, and the Irish should be obliged
to return to France, France will keep on
oot a certain number of Irish Brigades,
and will grant pensions to every one
who shall have formed part of the
government or authorities of the coun
try.
“Pensions shall be assimilated to those
allowed in France to persons of the cor
responding grade or office, not iu active
service.
“The first Consul desires that a Com
mittee of United Irishmen be formed; he
sees no impropriety in the Members of
this Committee making proclamations
and instructing their compatriots in the
state of things.
“These proclamations shall be inserted
in the Argus, and in the different jour
nals of Europe, in order to enlighten the
Irish as to the line of conduct they
should take and the hopes which they
ought to cherish. If the Committee
wishes to prepare a narrative of the vari
oms acts of oppression inflicted upon Ire
land by the British Government, it shall
be inserted in the Moniteur."
This is the whole document. We all
know the expedition then contemplated
never sailed for Ireland. The French
armies, and the Irish Legion with them,
were called elsewhither; and for twelve
years these Byrnes, and Corbets, and
Allens, and Mac Sheehys, served France
upon every battle-field of Europe until
on the fall of Napoleon, the Legion was
disbanded by an article of the Vienna
Treaty; and as France has been ever
since clogged and trammelled with an
English alliance, she has had no pretence
for forming another Irish military or
ganization. Os course, if she were free
of the clog and trammel of that accursed
entente cordimle , she would be happy to
form anew Irish Brigade or Legion, and
accept its service in another invasion of
Ireland; and the important document
we have reproduced shows under what
conditions and on what kind of terms,
such arrangemements can be made. The
the condition, sine qua non, is a state of
war between England France.
That condition does not now exist.
It may not exist in our time. We can
not bear the thought of finding ourselves
on the side of France, if England is to be
her ally. For the present, therefore, our
♦The French original maybe found in Mr. Mit#hal’s
continuation of Mac Geoghegau—Sadlier’s edition on
p. 431.
plain policy is t® do nothing unless it be
to accumulate money in the hands of local
trustees (avoiding carefully New York
Headquarters)—to refrain from boasting,
expressing rash sympathies, which we
might have to turn into antipathies be
fore long; and, in short, to take no “ac
tion,” and to hold our tongues.
Irish Citizen.
From the New York World.
History and the Hessians
L is a curious telegram which comes to
us from Paris announcing tha r Count En
zenberr. the agent in that city of the
Grand Duke. of Hesse Darmstadt, has re
quested the American minister to take un
der his protection the Hessian subjects
whom or their mere free will, or their
foreknowledge absolute of the events ot
the war, may restrain from rushing to the
aid of the Fatherland and keep as residents
in France.
It is not surprising that Count Enzen
berg should have asked this favor, for he
was long a resident cf the United State?,
and he knows hew thoroughly cosmopolite
is the bird of our freedom, how forgiving
of injuries, and how generous to the down
trodden. Nor is it either surprising or
improper that the favor thus asked should
have been promptly granted by our envoy.
If the German sympathizers for Ameri
can political ends who are just now making
such a noise among us really controlled the
policy of the government, the favor could
not have been decently asked nor wisely ac
corded. We owe it to our position as a
neutral power, and to the good sense of
the American people in insisting upon
such a position, that we are able to exert
our national authority efficiently in times
like the present for the benefit cf such
otherwise hopeless nationalities as the
Hessian.
But who in 1779 could have dreamed
that the flag of the United States would
ever be invoked as their palladium of
safety by the people of Hesse? It is no
fault of that people or of their rulers that
the flag of the United States now waves
in the air at all. If Hesse and the Hes
sians could have had their way some three
generations ago, there would have been no
legation of the United States in Paris to
day to open its sheltering doors to their
descendants.
It was a hard saying of Lord Grey that
“nations knew no chivalry.” One might
almost believe it true who sees how care
lessly a certain class of Americans have
come to think and to speak of the saving
help extended to our fathers in their hour
ot sharpest need by the government cf
Louis XVI. and the countrymen of La
fayette. But it is surely rebuked by the
magnanimity which throws the folds of
the stars ana tne stripes over tuo .cranu
children of the mercenary cut throats whom
an English king found it so easy to hire
in Germany for the suppression of liberty
in the New World.
It is exactly ninety-two years ago since
the hearts of this people were made glad
by the news which came to Washington,
amid the chill horrors of Valley Forge,
that France —her rulers and her people—
had recognized as independent States these
United Colonies, and that they were willing
to aid us with men, with money, and with
materials of war. Lafayette had come
sooner; but Rochambeau was now set on
his way. and soon after the little village
city of Rhode Island, where peaceful a: and
luxurious wealth now recreates itself, saw
the lilies of France fl >ating from her men
of-war in that beautiful harbor. Old war
riors from Fontenoy, and silken knights
like Lausun, and plainer soldiers likeCus*
tine, came on shore, ready to share hard
ships and privations with the half.elad,
ragged Americans. Lincoln (Dot Abra
ham, for there arc others in our story be
sides the immortal rail-splitter) and
Rochambeau, stood side by side when the
British flag was finally struck at Yorktown
and Laurens and Lafayette bad stormed
Cornwallis’ last redoubt* From that day
lo this, in the land which gave us such
friends when we mo9t needed them, there
have been sad and bloody chances and
changes, but till lately it was clear
that our ancient sympathies had sur
vived them all. It was an impulse of
gratitude towards the France which helped
us in our hour of trial which made us re
joice at the good the first revolution
promised, and made us mourn when the
dream was so bloodily broken. We re
joiced over Dumouricz victoriousat Valmy;
and we sorrowed for Waterloo, though
we had no more reason to like the first
Napoleon than the third. We hoisted our
flags and rang our bells when the Bour
bons fell in 1830, and again when, eighteen
> ears later, the dynasty of Orleans ran
away in a cab. Our minister was the first
to recognize Lamartine’s fancy govern
ment of'February ; and we were content
when Cavaignac put down the mob of June.
The return of the Napoleonic dynasty was
not absolutely distasteful to the American
people ; and when Irish McMahon stormed
the Malakoff ahead of the English in war,
and Ferdinand de Lesseps made his canal a
success in peace, we felt proud of France
as of our ancient friend and ally. Even
the error of Napoleon 111. as to the
Southern Confederacy had something more
manly about it than the “willing to wound
and yet afraid to strike” conduct of
Great Britain. We felt even that there
was something more picturesque in French
sympathy with the South than in the
spirit of some other nations who showed
their regard for the North chiefly by buy
ing up our bonds ac a discount. Thus,
then, throughout the web of our story!
from first to iast, has run a bright and
genial thread of natural, honest and credit
able sympathy with France. Our Teutonic
friends must admit this ; and they must
admit also that the other side of the pic
ture is less bright.
In the month of November, 1786, there
appeared on the British budget an omin
ous item. It was £171,000 of the sweetly
simple “three per cents,” transferred to
the Landgrave of Hesse for auxiliaries
killed or wounded in America, at the rate
of about £3O a head. We forget how
much went to Nassau, and Brunswick,and
Hanover, and Waldeck, and Anspach—
for all these small states were in thisbutch
erv trade—but it was in each case no trifle.
“It is noticeable,” says our friend, Mr.
Bancroft, whose cue was not just then anti-
Catholic, “that they all came from Protes
tant countries.” But come they did. It
was Yon Heister’s yagers who led the on
set at Gowanus, and (we love to quote
Bancroft) “pursued the fugitive Ameri
cans relentlessly through the thickets, and
here and there found amusement in pin
ning with their haycne*a a rifleman to a
tree.” It tvas Bieyman and Daun that
did their best to make Molly Stark a
widow at Bennington. It was the
drunken Rabl at Trenton. It was
Riedesel at Saratoga—and when we
saw the enthusiasm of our Newark
friends the other day over Germany and
America, we recalled that dark day of De
cember, 1776, when Washington left the
village at one end and Cornwallis entered
it at the other, with hi3 Germans in the
advance, spreading havoc and terror and
wanton carnage through New Jersey, till
their march was checked .'orever by Amer
ican valor in the moat at Red Bank. It
is of these Hessians that another Radical
New England historian, Mr. Palfrey,
pleasantly writes : “Hired stabbers as long
a3 they were in arms, horse-thieves as
soon as they were beaten, they had noth
ing to claim at the hands of meekness it
self.” Such, unfortunately, is the Ger
man record of our revolution; aDd, if the
first crash of arms and war’s fiercest rava
ges should fall on that little circle of prin
cipalities, loDg since absorbed or presently
doomed, of which Hesse Cassel is the
centre, there will be something not un
like poetic justice in the event. It
was down the Weser that the Hes
sian mercenaries floated on their way
to America. It is true that old
Fritz of Prussia protested against this
pitiful trade in men, but he did nothing to
prevent it. He was bound hand and foot
by subsidies from Great Britain, and
either cared not or dared not to contra
vene her purposes. While Franklin was
an idol in Paris, Arthur Lee had a dreary
time in Berlin—his papers stolen from
him with impunity, and the old king sul
lenly refusing to have anything to do with
him. Bismarck is much more polite to
Bancroft.
Tliese aie uIU-uuuv, tuju 6 la u .... J
obsolete memories, but they come up ir
resistibly under the pressure of passing
events; and it were neither wise nor honor
able to ignore them utterly. Whatever
our Hessian friends in Paris may owe, be
fore the war is doi e, to the protection cf
America, it will be but a little thing in
comparison with the debt which the Ger
man citizens of America owe to our insti
tutions, and through those institutions to
France, which did so much to make them
possible. Let them ponder this unes
capable fact with German honesty, and it
can bard y fail to help them to a wiser ap
preciation of the meaning of the measure
of that American neutrality which is really
as important to them as to any other class
of citizensin the great republic.
Tlie Irish American Brigade f®r France.
The traditional friendship between the
natives of the Emeral Isle and La Belle
France, and the historic enmity between
the former and their old time enemies, the
Hessians, is finding practical expression at
the present moment in the organization, in
this city, of an Irish brigade to aid the
French in their present struggle. Imme
diately upon the receipt of the first tele
graphic news of the impending strife, a
large but secret conclave of well-known
Irish-Araerican officers was held in the
armory at Essex Market. After a general
interchange of views was had, in which it
was decided that the movement should not
be distinctly Fenian, but should be open to
all Irishmen who had distinguished them
selves in war, no matter where waged, the
following programme was decided upon:
The brigade to be limited, at the start, to
3,000 men who had seen actual service, and
to bear the talismanic name of the Irish
Brigade. The organization was to be effected
by the choice (which was then made) of a
eomrai.tee, who, in turn, wore to select
thirty of the most daring and trusted
Irish soldiers in New York, to each of
whom was to be deputed the duty of rais
ing a company of 100 men. Each captain
was instructed to admit to membership no
person far whose entire respectability and
personal bravery he could not personally
vouch. After not a little quiet jealousy
thirty captains, each of whom had gallantly
won his spurs in the face of the enemy,
were selected. Recruiting began briskly,
and in less than four days a committee
was sent to the French Consul to tender
the services of the brigade, and to ask
as an especial favor that, if accepted,
it should be attached t"> Marshal Mc-
Mahon’s division. His Counsulship was
at first rather chary, and seemed to
entertain some doubts a3 to the feasi
bility, if not the sincerity of the move
ment The committee laid before him
iurthcr details, as well as the names of
the thirty captains with the individual
record of each man. This so favorably
impressed the French diplomat that he
5