From The Nation, October 15, 1842.
With all the nicknames that serve to delude and divide us—with all their Orangemen and Ribbonmen, Torymen and Whigmen, Ultras and Moderados, and Heaven knows what rubbish besides, there are, in truth, but two parties in Ireland: those who suffer from her National degradation, and those who profit by it. To a country like ours, all other distinctions are unimportant. This is the first article of our political creed; and as we desire to be known for what we are, we make it our earliest task to announce that the object of the writers of this journal is to organise the greater and better of those parties, and to strive, with all our soul and with all our strength, for the diffusion and establishment of its principles. This will be the beginning, middle, and end of our labours.
And we come to the task with a strong conviction that there never was a moment more favourable for such a purpose than the present. The old parties are broken, or breaking up, both in England and Ireland—Whiggery, which never had a soul, has now no body; and the simplest partisan, or the most selfish expectant—who is generally a creature quite as unreasonable—cannot ask us to fix the hopes of our country on the fortunes of a party so weak and fallen. Far less can we expect anything from Toryism, which could only serve us by ceasing to be Toryism; even in its new and modified form it means the identical reverse of all we require to make the masses in this country happier and better. But this shifting of parties—this loosening of belief in old distinctions and dogmas, has prepared men’s minds for new and greater efforts. Out of the contempt for mere party politics will naturally grow a desire to throw aside small and temporary remedies—to refuse to listen any longer to those who would plaster a cut finger, or burn an old wart, and call this doctoring the body politic—and to combine for great and permanent changes. The point of honour which restrained multitudes from abandoning Whiggery, while their service could sustain it in its old accustomed place, can operate no more. The idiot hope, that Toryism might for once produce something good, has been pretty well disappointed; and, after an unexampled lull in politics, the popular party are ready, and willing, and anxious once again to be up and doing.
On this new spirit our hope for Ireland depends—and it will be our frequent duty hereafter to impress our views in detail on our readers, and to indicate all the ways and means of their accomplishment. We believe we will have the advice and co-operation of many of the wisest and best of our countrymen; and as our pages will be always open to fair discussion, we hope to reflect the popular mind, and gather the popular suffrage, within our columns upon this and all other questions of National politics.
But let us guard ourselves, from the very beginning, against being understood, when we speak of politics, to mean the thing which the phrase expresses in the vulgar tongue of journalism. By politics we mean the science of government, and all the facts and circumstances with which it must naturally deal. We do not mean, and never by any accident will mean, the calculation of chances on Mr. EDWARD LITTON’s remaining for life a deputy in the Court of Chancery, or the comparative merits or demerits of Messrs. BREWSTER and Sergeant GREENE, or any other matter or thing which has not some direct leaning on the condition of our country; not that we by any means debar ourselves from laughing with SYDNEY SMITH, or at TRASHEM GREGG, upon all proper occasions; but we call this badinage, or pleasantry, or anything but politics.
For this National party in Ireland we believe it indispensable to its usefulness to claim, now and always, the right to stand at the head of all combined movements of Reformers in this country. They have too long forgotten or mistaken their true position. Is it not a lamentable absurdity—a blunder almost too ludicrous for an English commander in Afghanistan—to have the officers of an army less resolute and courageous than the soldiers? NAPOLEON, we believe, did not choose the Generals who led his legions to victory from the most timid and hesitating of the aristocracy, but from bold and sagacious men, whether in the ranks or on the staff. Those who go farthest ought naturally to lead the way. ‘Come with us as far as we go together,’ say the Moderate or Non-National party. ‘Certainly,’ we are prepared on all occasions to reply; but as we go farthest, just permit us, for convenience sake, to go foremost.’ This is the tone which naturally belongs to a National party, and wanting which they must always want the dignity and solidity necessary to accomplish great effects.
But the first duty of men who desire to foster Nationality, is to teach the People not only the elevating influence but the intrinsic advantage of the principle and the thing. You cannot kindle a fire with damp faggots; and every man in the country who has not an interest in the existing system ought to be shown, as clearly as an abstract truth can be demonstrated, that National feelings, National habits, and National government, are indispensable to individual prosperity. This will be our task; and we venture to think we will perform it indifferently well.
But no National feeling can co-exist with the mean and mendicant spirit which esteems everything English as greater and better than if it belonged to our own country, and which looks at all the rest of the world through the spectacles of Anglican prejudice. There is no doubt at all that the chief source of the contempt with which we are treated by England is our own sycophancy. We abandon our self-respect, and we are treated with contempt; nothing can be more natural—nothing, in fact, can be more just. But we must open our eyes and look our domineering neighbour in the face—we must inspect him, and endeavour to discover what kind of a fellow he is. Not that we ought to do him injustice—not that we ought to run into opposite extremes—not, above all, that we ought to take universal England to be fairly represented by the disagreeable person who sometimes condescends to visit Hireland—a fat man, with his head in the clouds and his brains in his belly, looking the incarnation of self-importance, and saying, as plainly as plumb-pudding countenance can speak—‘I am a Great Briton.’ JOHN BULL is as much a better fellow than this animal, as he is worse than what our shameful sycophancy would make him. We must learn to think sensibly and candidly about him; and we do not doubt that THE NATION will tend materially to this end.
We may be told that we expect to effect too much through the means of a newspaper, but nobody who knows this country thoroughly will say this. A newspaper is the only conductor to the mind of Ireland. Periodicals or books make no considerable impression, because they have no considerable circulation. Speeches are more effective; but we include them among the materials of journalism. O’CONNELL the orator, is as much the food of the Press at O’CONNELL the writer. And it is undeniable that the journals, with all their means and appliances, were, and are, and are to be for many a day, the stimulating power in Ireland. Their work may not be apparent, but it is not the less sure; its slow and silent operation acts on the masses as the wind, which we do not see, moves the dust, which we do see—and in both cases the invisible giant is sometimes forgotten.
But, in addition to all that journalism has been, we shall add a new element to its strength. Men who have hitherto only written books, will now take this shorter and surer road to the popular mind. Already the ablest writers in the country are banded together to do this work; but we shall, besides, rally round us the young intellect of the country. Many a student, pent among books, has his mind full of benevolent and useful thoughts for his country, which the habits of a student’s life would prevent him for ever from pouring out in the hot arena of politics. Such men will find a fitting vehicle in THE NATION; and our kindred love of letters will often induce them to turn with us from the study of mankind in books, to the service of mankind in politics. Such a legion will be more formidable than ‘a thousand men all clad in steel;’ each of them may fairly represent the multitude whom his intellect can set in motion; and the weapons which they will lay to the root of corruption will not be less keen or trenchant because they may cover them with the flowers of literature.