The Departure of Mr. McInerarney

Year
1901
Month
11
Day
16
Article Title
The Departure of Mr. McInerarney
Author
----
Page Number
4
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
THE DEPARTURE OF MR. McINERARNEY Under this heading the Moniteur Acadien of the 14th inst. publishes the following sensational editorial, which we translate: “the departure of Mr. Geo V. McInerney, ex-member of the House of Commons at Ottawa, leaves us in a mood to muse. Of cultured intelligence, sympathetic in countenance, attractive in personality, distinguished litterateur, one of the finest speakers of the House of Commons future cabinet minister: all this Mr. McInerney was, and yet without personal enemies, he finds himself obliged to quit his native country, of which he was an ornament and to which he did honor, where he had spent the best years of his life, to go to try his fortune and begin life anew in St. .John city. After mature reflection, we have arrived at the conclusion that if his brilliant career is now broken, or at least seriously endangered, just at the moment when it was most promising, Mr. McInerney can have but feeble thanksgiving to offer to his own countrymen of his own race, for the s hare they have taken in producing such a sad result, and that he should enrich his litany with the supplication: Ab amicis ibera nos, Domine, – from our friends deliver us, O Lord! “Let us be more explicit: It happened one day that the Acadians, believing that they had the right according to population to two bishops in the Maritime Provinces (according to the census of 1901), they have now a right to three bishops), respectfully submitted to the religious authorities of this country their ardent and legitimate desire to have a bishop of their own nationality, at least in the diocese in which they form three-fourths of the population. They were laughed at. Later they were denied an explanation of the reasons upon which this inexplicable course was grounded which is fairly intelligible in view of the fact that there were no reasons to offer. One reason was, nevertheless given: The church does not recognize nationality: but as the modifying clause was purposely withheld, viz, “provide that the Irish have always the first places,” this reason was deemed worthy at the most to amuse the galleries. “That which appeared to all the as coarse, arbitrary, unjust and unjustifiable, caused a subdued murmur of indignation from one end of the country to the other. We had the unhappiness to hear words of malediction which with difficulty were cast back, to see faith waver in some; and respect for authority diminish with very many. The newspapers seized on the subject: comment ran its course: in a world public opinion crystalized. The people ordinarily show to perceive the bearing of a subject, reason much better than one imagines, once the bearing of a subject is perceived. It was advanced that as it was sufficiently difficult to constrain the bishops, who were opposed to doing us justice; it was always easy to hurl to the ground someone near them by means of the ballot box. The ballot- box is all powerful. In other words the French people said: “the Irish are warring against us. Let us war against the Irish. Down with their idols!” Who dares may blame them for this. Is it not the way for the world generally? Self-preservation is the first law of nature: and people of all nationalities object to being footstools for others who are willing when they do come into power to turn the influence of their authority and position against their benefactors. An apology was therefore made to the people: the elections took place: and the people found a singular pleasure in (illegible) idols here and elsewhere. In Montreal the most influential journal of that great metropolis had no sooner said, in so many words, that it was useless to do anything “for the Irish” who refuse justice to our Acadian brethren, than the present mayor, who, was on the point of ceding his place as mayor to an Irishman, offered for a second term and defeated his Irish opponent. In the county of Kent where it was the custom to push generosity to the extent of heroism in favor of the Irish, Mr. McInerney had for opponent a gentlemen, respectable from every point of view but naturally unequal in point of comparison in many respects to the brilliant orator and yet Mr. Le Blaoc was elected, and Mr. McInerney, the innocent victim perhaps of the ill-devoted zeal of his compatriots in high places, was in time defeated. “Some interested person may perhaps say that politics were at the bottom of all this. Let no one so deceive himself. We have a good working knowledge of how it was, and we know that hundreds of electors dropped their party for the occasion and in all gaiety of heart sang the refrain: “To the devil with politics where national interests are concerned.” “At the present hour, these good Irish who be it said without offense, are singularly obtuse when it is a question of seizing the meaning of a lesson from things, would like well to have a representative in the local cabinet, and they would also like it appears to have him elected in the French county of Gloucester or, may be, Northumberland. Be way, future cabinet minister; history repeats itself, and unless “the signs of the times” deceive us so long as those who are the direct cause of the present strained relations between the Acadians and the Irish, do not repent of their error and lack of clear foresight and that the desired equilibrium is not established, it will be said to you in Gloucester and Northumberland, Vade retro, “Get thee behind”. We do not ask favours of those to whom we refuse justice.” The article concludes with a disavowal of intention to annoy Mr. McInerney further, but counsels him to seek in future, consolation not among the Acadians but from those of his own, who by their high position are better able, and by their share in bringing about his political misfortune are, as a matter of duty held to compensate him fully. We intended quoting this article without note or comment, yet we cannot pass it over without expressing our regret at the note of defiance of ecclesiastical authority which runs all through it. The men who were willing to degrade the Church by making the question of the nationality of their bishops an argument against the election of Mr. McInerney can have but a shadowy sense of the fitness of things. As an election dodge it ranks with any one of the many other discreditable tactics of election times. It served its purpose once, and doubtless it could be made to do effective work a second time. But it was about as mean a canvass, as illogical and barefaced a manifestation of political immorality, as we can well be imagined. “All is fair in love and war” however, and if our Acadian friends believe they have a genuine grievance against the ecclesiastical authorities of the Maritime Provinces, and that the only way to make some people understand is to hit them with a club- perhaps they have devised an effective method of doing the clubbing. In the meantime, however, it is hard on those who are neither directly or indirectly responsible for conditions which, moreover, it is not their business to modify or defend in any degree. We believe that it is a great mistake of Catholics to carry their church grievances into the strife of politics: question of church government should not be bandied about in the polling booth. It is no place for them and a candidate or elector who can be willing to take them there, is about as narrow and despicable in sentiment as the bigot who makes a man’s religion a test for his fitness for place and position. We shall return to this question next week.