The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-02-27 00:00:00

MINISTERS AND IRELAND.
VIEWS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
PRELATES.

The following is the text of the letter addressed to
the Prime Minister by the Roman Catholic Arch-
bishop of Dublin, acting on behalf of the Bishops of
Ireland:
"Sir,.—Your letter to Lord De Vesci, which was
published in the Dublin newspapers, has been under
the consideration of a large and representative body
of Irish Catholic Bishops assembled here to-day on
important ecclesiastical business. The prelates so
assembled substantially represent the whole Irish
episcopacy. At the request of their lordships, I beg
to lay before you, in response to your expressed
desire, the views they entertain regarding the wants
and wishes of the Irish people. There are, as you
observe, three great Irish questions demanding the
immediate care of the Government—namely, self-
government, the settlement of the land question, and
social order.

"First, as regards self-government, or Home Rule,
it is our firm and conscientious conviction, based, as we
believe, on the fullest, most varied, and, at the same
time, most reliable information, that it alone can
satisfy the wants, the wishes, as well as the legitimate
aspirations of the Irish people. Those wishes and
aspirations have been expressed with unmistakeable
clearness by constituencies of the four provinces of
Ireland at the recent elections. We venture to remind
you that immediately before those elections you had
appealed to the people of this country to speak out
their mind on this great question, and that in doing so
you clearly laid down the lines within which you
believed it to be a question of practical politics. We
regard the issue of the elections as the answer given
by the Irish people to that appeal. We are fully
satisfied that the demand for Home Rule thus put
forward in no !ray transgresses the constitutional
limits marked out by you. Its concession cannot
trench either on the supremacy of the Crown, or on
the unity of the Empire; nor can it interfere with
the maintenance of all the authority of Parliament
necessary for the consolidation of the unity. This
being's°, we feel convinced with you that the granting
of Home Rule within those limits will be not a source
of danger but a means of averting it, as furnishing a
new guarantee for increased cohesion, happiness, and
strength.
"As regards the settlement of the land question
we have no besitation whatever in stating that in our
opinion it now imperatively calls for a final solution,
and that this cannot be better effected than by some
such measure as that which certain English journal-
ists and statesmen have recently advocated—that is
the purchase ui) by Government of the landlord in-
terest in the soil, end the re letting of the latter to
tenant farmers at a figure very considerably below the
present judicial rents. In addressing one of the fore-
most financiers, as well as one of the most enlightened
statesmen of the age, we do not presume to enter into
the details of this weighty and no doubt complicated
project, but are perfectly satisfied to leave them to
your own sense of what is due to the equitable claims
of existing landlords on the one hand, and of the
future tenants of Ireland on the other. We desire,
however, to have it perfectly understood that the
Irish people do not aim at the confiscation of any
species of property, but only ask for fair play as
between man and man, or, what has been well des-
cribed as the right to live and thrive in their native
land.

"Third, as regards social 'order,' we shall confine
our remarks to two aspects of the case; public out-
rages—namely, what is called personal intimidation,
or, as you otherwise express it, the fulfilment of con-
tracts—and personal liberty of action. It is our
deliberate opinion that no just cause of complaint on
either head will, or indeed can, exist after the settle-
ment of the land question on the basis just indicated,
or on any other basis which supposes the utter efface-
ment of that system of landlordism which has so long
and so ruinously existed in Ireland. In point of fact,
every disturbance of social order that has occurred
for years amongst our people has arisen from the sense
of wrong entertained by a large majority of the
occupiers of the soil, owing to the remorseless exaction
of needy or extravagant landlords. Even now the
peace of the country is seriously imperilled by the
fact that very many landlords, as if making a final
but fruitless effort to collect impossible rents, have
entered on an ill-considered course of eviction against
their unfortunate tenants. We would therefore ear-
nestly and most respectfully urge that, pending the final
settlement of the land question, which we are confident
is now near at hand, the power of eviction be suspended
in Ireland; at the same time, that in the most im-
poverished districts some provision in the shape of
remunerative labour be made out of the public purse
to support the starving poor in the present and help-
ing them on to present times.
"Wishing you every success in your renewed
efforts to restore peace and prosperity to our long-
tried and much-loved country, I have the honour to
be, Sir, your very faithful servant,
"WILLIAM J. WALSH, Archbishop of Dublin,
"Chairman of Episcopal Meeting."
To this communication the following reply has been
sent:

"10, Downing-street, Whitehall,
"Feb. 20, 1886.

"My Lord Archbishop,—l have the honour to
a-cknowledge your Grace's communication to me on
the 17th of the views entertained on pending questions
with respect to Ireland by yourself and your episcopal
brethren, and I request your Grace to accept my most
sincere thanks for this communication.
"W. E. GLADSTONE.
"Most Rev. Dr. Walsh, Archbishop
of Dublin."