Page:Australia and the Empire.djvu/177

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THE IRISH IN AUSTRALIA
145

in a paragraph." "When it comes to be written," he proceeds, "it will be seen how large and effectual a factor were the Irish of both sections. It would be absurd to suggest that they were fitter than Englishmen to administer a system honourably known to the world as 'English liberty,' but they were more eager to show that they were fit, and readier to make the sacrifice which a public career involved in a gold colony, where 'be in a hurry to grow rich' was the accepted gospel."

I have fully and frankly conceded all that he can possibly demand for what he calls one "section" of the Irish, and now propose to examine the purely Celtic claims.

Sir C. Gavan Duffy quotes, with marked approval, the saying of some Scotch journalist, that they (the Celtic Irish) were "the only politicians in the colony,"—meaning the only men of the rank and file who would organise, and make a sacrifice of time or money, to return a candidate or control an election.

Allowing for the picturesque exaggeration of statement often thought necessary to effective journalism, there is much truth in the remark. It accounts, too, for many of the men who have come to the surface, and for not a few of the