Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
.m 4 --
"r ’e' i2e15iib'ii‘c.-
the‘ light, ever glowing, ever brightening,
" radiating from the dawn of the Nation, touch-
ing all the functions with a common glow.
We‘ know the past, and, building on it, we
‘have no fears for the future; we know the
present, and, judging by it, we have no fear
for the future.
And the future brings with it work, and
achievement, and, it may be, conflict.
Shall it bring peace or conflict? The pibroch in the
glen
‘And the flash and crash of battle where my banner shines
again 1
The essential note of the whole movement
is one of conflict; of opposing forces, of op-
‘posing ideals, if not the flash of battle; and
behind it all there is a growing murmur of
stem, resolute determination, the determina-
tion to have Nationhood at any cost 5 a
murmur which was long weak and indefinite,
now growing strong and definite and clear ;
like unto the murmur of a crowd, at first faint,
finally swelling into a roar; a murmur to which
Rooney gave articulation when he wrote 1-
0 Dear Dark Head, that mourneth by thy waters,
Crooning a cAomeA'0 for the countless graves
Cf valiant sons and brave true-hearted daughters,
“failing the angel’s trump beneath the waves.
Take from each rising sun some ray to cheer thee,
Some gleam of glory from each sunset red ;
They bring an hour all close and closer near thee,
That shall avenge these graves, 0 Dear Dark Head 1
O.Dear Dark Head, though but the curlew’s screaming
Wakens the echoes of the hill and glen ;
Yet shalt thou see once more the bright steel gleaming,
Yetshalt thou hear again the tramp of men ;
‘And though their fathers’ fate be theirs, shall others
Withhearts as faithful still that pathway tread,
Till we have set, oh ! Mother clear of mothers,
A Nation’s crown upon thy Dear Dark Head 1
SARSFIELD.
i5
"Financial. Robbery in India . .
Twenty-four hours give a long start to a
lie, and England has had over a century and
Va-half to make up her case in regard to India.
That would be ample time even for novices
at the art of manufacturing evidence, a line
in which British apologists need fear no com-
petition with those of any other nation in
the world. Statesmen, soldiers, travellers,
journalists, all have entered with a will into
the great conspiracy, and it as true now as in
the days of Burke, that “the cries of India
are given to seas. and winds, to be blown
about, in every breaking up of’ the monsoon,
over a remote and unhearing ocean."
Even those who have the best reasons to
be suspicious have been practically silenced
by endless eulogies as to the benificent influ-
ence of the British Raj and the ‘self-sacrificing
devotion of its servants to the best interests
of an alien people. They have come to
read almost without protest appreciations like
this :- .
“If any enterprise in the world’s history has
deserved success it is the British Empire in-India.
Our connection with the country began as most
legitimate and mutually beneficient commerce. It
developed into conquest-not through any lust, of
dominion, but almost accidentally and certainly
against our will; it was the inevitable‘ consequence
of the weakness and dissensions of the Indian races
themselves. Having acquired the empire, we have
administered it with a single-minded devotion tozthe
interests of its own people which has never had’a
parallel. We make India pay its own ‘wa'y,"but
beyond that Britain gets not a penny’ from it forany
public purpose.”
In Ireland, where statements of this‘ kind
have a familiar ring, there is a total ‘dearth of
curiosity as to India; and the popular Press,
which sees everything outside Ireland through
English spectacles, has done nothing to break
down the false conception. This has made
some hesitate about approving of thevswadeshi
movement, and they are at a loss to know why
such a jarring note should be struck in an
earthly paradise. The movement, denounced
by England and all whom she can influence
as a pestilential attempt to obstruct progress
and send the country headlong to ruin, is,
when we come to examine it, seen to be the
last despairing effort of a nation to remedy a
situation aggravated beyond endurance.
In India the Government has pursued
exactly the same policy as in Ireland. There,
as here, the sole object was to narrow down
industry to the production of raw materials
for the British markets, and to push the
consumption of British manufactures to the
exclusion of home-made goods. There, as
here, they have succeeded almost beyond
their hopes, and it is only at the eleventh hour
that any effective protest has been made. -In
the i7tli and 18th centuries India conducted
a great export trade in manufactured goods
with Portuguese, Arab, Dutch, and English
merchants. Once the conqueror's hand
tightened its grip on the country itistrangled
that trade by prohibitive duties, and at the
