Relieved from the pangs of mortal hunger and despair, the
Irish recommence the national sport of shooting each other. Much indignation is wasted on the conduct of the military at Dolly's Brae, and of Ministers in Parliament, for not preventing the meeting either by force or by reenactment of the Party Pro- cessions Act : but the true culprits are the Irish themselves. You cannot keep them from killing each other ; why then should you try ? They like it : " volenti non fit injuria." No more typical or gratuitous outrage than that which has just happened could be ima- gined. Lord Roden, an aged man, is assumed to favour the mum- mery of Orange processions on the 12th of July, and a party went in procession to his house. They resolved, with stupid bravado, to g.o through a Riband pass ; the Ribandmen resolved, with bra- vado not less stupid, to prevent them. Military stand to watch and keep the peace. Mutual promises are extorted from the two hosts, not to begin aggression : but stupid ferocity cannot keep faith ; some fool fires a squib, and there is a regular fight of guns. To keep peace in Ireland, every Irishman should be at- tended by a constable to restrain him from burning or shooting his neighbour. They like death : if it is not cholera it shall be choler. No armies can preserve peace among such a people. Something might be done, indeed, by abolishing every possible exemplar of faction and sectarian bitterness ; more may be done by the steady process of education already at work, in which well-informed people have great faith. But for this gene- ration, probably, they will fight it out. The Executive is only bound to protect passive or neutral third parties. Not a Riband- man or an Orangeman that entered that pass for a bloody-minded bravado deserved to have a little finger raised in his defence.
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