The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-23 00:00:00

IRISH LOYALISTS AND THE NATIONAL

LEAGUE.

An important deputation crowded the Foreign
Office on Tuesday afternoon to see the Marquis of
Salisbury on the subject of the present state of affairs
in Ireland. It was composed of loyal men of the
sister island, belonging to the Irish Defence Union
and the Loyal and Patriotic Union, the Grand Orange
Lodge of England, and the Chambers of Commerce
of Belfast and Derry, and other bodies, representing
railway, banking, and other commercial interests of
Ireland. Amongst those composing the deputation
from the Irish Defence Union were the following:
The Duke of Abercorn, Earl of Pembroke, Earl
Fitzwilliam, K.G., Earl of Egmont, Earl of Carysfort,
Earl of Behnore, Earl of Bandon, Earl of Limerick,
Lord Claud J. Hamilton, M.P. Viscount Midleton,
Lord Gerard, Lord Bramwell, Lord Castletown, Hon.
Evely Ashley, Major the Hon. L. Agar-Ellis, Colonel
King-Harman, M.P., General Sir Henry de Bathe,
Bart., Sir J. Whitaker Ellis, Bart., M.P. Mr. Brooks,
M.P., Mr. R. U. P. Fitzgerald, M.P., Colonel Waring,
M.P., Colonel B. Bagwell, Lieut.-Colonel C. M.
Davidson, Lieut.-Colonel Hatton, Messrs. Ponsonby,
W. Moore, Walter Morrison, P. Penn-Gaskell, D. P.
Seller, J. E. Sinclair, A. H. Smith-Barry, Richard B.
Wade,' Hon. St. John Brodrick, M.P., Sir Algernon
Borthwick, M.P., Commander J. H. Bainbridge,
R.N., and Lord Rowton.
Lord Salisbury, who was accompanied by the Earl
of Dunraven, was addressed by the Duke of Aber-
corn on behalf of the Irish Defence Union. He in-
troduced the Earl of Pembroke, who read the
following memorial, declaring Ireland to be in
a state of rebellion: "We wait upon your
Lordship as a deputation from the Irish
Defence Union, a numerous body of gentle-
men English, Scotch, and Irish whom we feel
wan anted in describing as of great weight and im-
portance, and whose names we hand to your lordship.
Our object is to call your lordship's attention to the
condition of Ireland; to point out the illegality that
reigns there; and to pray your lordship to find a
remedy. My lord, at this moment in the largest part
of Ireland the law is powerless. Practically there is
a rebellion against it. Life is not safe; property is
destroyed; and rents and debts cannot be collected
from those undoubtedly well able to pay. The law
may award the possession of premises to tho3e en-
titled to it, and issue its process to enforce its award,
but in vain; or when possession is obtained it is at
the risk of the lives and limbs of the law officers, and
of the plaintiffs and their agents. A fearful
system called " boycotting " prevails, the effect
of which is that persons willing to work for
and deal with others are forbidden to do
so. The father may not speak to his son, the
boycotted man is shunned in the streets as one
infected. The boycotting bodies erect themselves into
tribunals, and impose fines and penalties, which they
enforce by such a process as we have named. The
objects of these proceedings are twofold. The first is to
plunder the whole landed property of the country,
partly for profit, and partly to assist in the second
object, which is to bring about the erection of Ireland
into a separate State. It is not necessary for us to
protest against the first of these objects. As
to the second, we earnestly hope, for the
sake as well as of Ireland as of the rest
of the Empire, that your lordship will oppose
its realisation. But we wish most particularly to point
out to your lordship that the deplorable condi-
tion of affairs which we have described is in a
great measure due to the uncertainty which bangs
at this moment over the future of Ireland in
the public mind—to a feeling that no Government
will dare to enforce a strict observance of the law,
and to a general belief that the party of lawlessness
are on the winning side, and will become at no distant
time the governing power of the country. Such a
state of feeling necessarily discourages those who are
inclined to resist the tyranny of the lawless, and.
induces the indifferent and the neutral to take the
side of what they regard as the coming power. We,
therefore, beg of your lordship that to end these
practices and to restore confidence to the party of
order in Ireland you will enforce the law, and, if
necessary, promote measures to give to the Executive
the requisite powers to maintain it."
Mr. Smith Barry then referred to a list of 30 or 40
cases of boycotting and outrages. In his county
there had been horrible cases of outrages, all of which
had been led off by boycotting. He referred to
numerous cases where the land courts of the boy-
cotters had abrogated the laws of the land. Farmers
said they "Can't fight against public opinion, the
Government won't protect us, and the gentry can't."
Mr. Bagwell confirmed these facts by independent
cases in all the different offences committed by irre-
sponsible revolutionary committees, which were really
governing the country. He appealed, as a Liberal,
that her Majesty's Government might be enforced
over that of the revolutionists.
The Irish Loyal and Patriotic Union was presented
by Earl Fitzwilliam. Professor Mahaffey then read
the memorial, as follows: "We desire to approach
your lordship, as head of her Majesty's Government,
with every feeling of respect and of confidence in the
desire of the Government to protect the personal
rights and liberties of all her Majesty's subjects. We
—.a

Union—an association formed for the purpose of
uniting persons of both political parties, of all creeds,
and of various interests, in the maintenance of the
Union between Great Britain and Ireland. We
strongly object to any measures for the establishment
of a Legslative Assembly in Ireland: (1) Because we
believe that such a measure would be, and is, by
the Parnellite party, meant to be a step towards
the complete separation of Ireland from Great Britain.
(2) Because we believe that a separation of the two
countries would be disastrous to each, and would, by
destroying the unity of the Empire, seriously impair
its greatness, which is dear to us all. (3) Because
we believe that, even before the separation was com-
pleted, such a Legislative Assembly, in dealing as they
are determined with the land question, would pass a
large measure of confiscation, against which it would
be impossible to provide any effectual guarantee. (4)
Because, in the question of education the rights of the
minority are as little likely to be respected as they
would be on the question of land. (5) Because,
looking to the recent history and present state of
Ireland, to the tyranny of the National League, and
especially the practice of boycotting, we believe that
all other rights of minorities and of individuals,
especially of the commercial and professional classes,
would be quite unsafe in the hands of such an
Assembly.
"In answer to the objection that the great majority
of the Irish representatives in Parliament nold views
opposed to ours, we wilh to observe: That the
Systematic terrorism practised in this country during
the recent election has prevented the whole voice of
the nation from being heard, as is proved by the fact
that outside Ulster nearly one-third of the constituents
abstained from voting; also, that the secresy of the
ballot was in many cases destroyed by the practice of
voting as illiterates, and that it was not, we believe,
generally trusted by the people. We further desire
to point out that the great number of apparent
supporters of separation is mainly due to the large
bribe offered to holders of land in the form of a pro-
mise to relieve them from the payment of rent. We
finally and urgently press upon the consideration of
her Majesty's Government the present condition of the
greater part of Ireland, where, by the working of the
National League, it is now impossible for any man
depending upon his industry to protect himself,
hardly even to live, unless he strictly obeys the courts
openly established by the League. We trust the
Government will take steps to rescue the country
from this tyranny, and that its repression will be
provided for in any Irish measure which the Go7ern-
ment think it their duty to introduce. Any trans-
ference of the -control of the police to local boards,
or, indeed, any powers such as powers of taxation,
which would increase or perpetuate the present in-
fluence of the National League, would plainly defeat
this object."
The Provost of Trinity College pointed out the
disastrous effect that Irish independence would have
on individual liberty, especially in regard to the boy-
cotting of schools and social right. They all looked
to a Government—of which his lordship was the head
—to protect the loyal inhabitants of Ireland.
Mr. Ewart, M.P., headed a deputation from com-
mercial men of Belfast and elsewhere, who presented
the following memorial: "We appear before your
lordship as persons widely concerned in the banking,
railway, shipping, manufacturing, and general mercan-
tile interests of Ireland, as distinct from the land-
owning interest. Representing various creeds, and
both political parties, we have united for the purpose
of expressing to your lordship our unqualified objec-
tion to the establishment in Ireland of any form of
Leical Legislature or National Representative Council,
and o‘,r unaltered desire for the maintenance of the
legislative union between Ireland and Great Britain.
We believe that no statutory or paper limitation on
the powers of a legislative assembly in Ireland would
endure, and that those who may now nominally
accept such an arrangement will never cease their
agitation until they have gained their avowed object,
viz., separation from Great Britain. We hold that
there can be no stopping place between the union
under the Imperial Parliament and total separation.
It has been the object of Imperial legislation for the
past fifty years, to confer upon Irishmen every right
enjoyed by Englishmen and Scotchmen, and to unite
the three peoples more and more together on terms
of personal and religious equality under the law.
Under this treatment Ireland made steady pro-
gress. The dwellings of the people had been im-
proved, wages had risen, agriculture had ad-
vanced, commerce had grown, education had
been more widely diffused, and general con-
dition of the people had been elevated ; re-
ligious disabilities had been swept away, and every
position in the State thrown open regardless of creed.
Confiding in the maintenance of order and the
supremacy of British law, men of energy and pro-
perty had devoted their minds and their capital in
the various forms of mercantile enterprise by which
the prosperity of Ireland had been advanced. By no
class in the community is separation from England
more dreaded than by those whom we represent, to
whom the progress of Irish commerce is due. But if
the Government policy is now to be reversed, the
bonds of union loosened, and the tendency towards
separation strengthened by the establishment of an
Irish legislature under the control from the very
outset of those whose object is the overthrow of
British rule, distrust will take the place of confidence,
all progress will be arrested, property will be depre-

elated, and impoverishment and decay must follow.
The political agitation for the last few years has done
serious injury to Irish commerce, but notwithstanding
that agitation, such has been the confidence of Irish
mercantile men in the practical wisdom of British
legislators that few have admitted to their minds a
belief in the possibility that any proposal for the
separation of the Irish from the British Legislature
would be countenanced by responsible statesmen.
Recent political rumours, however, have given a rude
shock to public opinion, and the result has been a
paralysis of enterprise, a rapid fall in the price of
securities, and wsrse than a fall in prices, such an
absence of buyers as has obliged railway and other
public companies to suspend operations involving the
outlay of capital, rather than attempt to issue stocks
or raise funds in such a condition of the market.
For the time being the fall in prices has beenarrested
by a prevailing belief that these rumours will not
be followed by action, but should these hopes prove
false, financial distrust will be intensified, and will
result in panic and disaster. There seems to be an
idea in some quarters in England that the granting of
limited legislative powers to an Irish representative
assembly will produce contentment and confidence.
It seems to us idle to suppose that the surrender of
power under such circumstances as those which now
exist in Ireland will produce any such effect, or lead
to a change in the objects of the agitation, or an im-
provement in the character of the representation of
the people. On the contrary, it is our full conviction
that existing political and social evils will be aggra-
vated, and the mercantile community will lose all can-
fidence in the future; they will feel that their pro-
perty will be at the mercy of persons willing to con-
ciliate the masses by financial schemes for their en-
richment at the expense of property. Every effort
will be made by capitalists to withdraw their money
from Ireland, the most energetic and indus-
trious of our people will remove, with what-
ever may be left of them, to other countries where
they may hope to receive that protection from
the laws which hitherto they have relied on
the Imperial Parliament to secure to them at home,
and that portion of the people of Ireland, fully one-
third of the whole who are now strongly attached to
the British connection, supporters of the Constitu-
tion and loyal subjects of the Queen, will feel them-
selves betrayed and desertea by those from whom
they are entitled to receive support and protection.
In our opinion the restoration of law and order and
personal liberty should precede the granting of any
extension of local self-government in Ireland, and in
whatever reform may be contemplated no wider
powers of local administration should be conferred
on Ireland than on England or Scotland, and this
principle should be kept clearly in view, that the in-
cidence of local taxation and the distribution of
electoral and administrative power should be brought
into correspondence. It is, in our view, essential for
the preservation of order that the constabulary and
police should remain subject to the control
and authority of the Imperial Parliament. It is
furthermore, in our opinion, imperatively necessary
that measures should be immediately ken to sup-
press the organised system of interference with
personal liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of
dealing, called boycotting, by means of terroriAm,
based on outrage, and sometimes of murder, by which
the country is oppressed and the people coerced and
enslaved. Finally, quite apart from our monetary
interests so seriously jeopardised, valuing most highly '
as we do our position of equality with Englishmen and
Scotchmen as subjects of our gracious and beloved
Queen and citizens of the British Empire, and having
been faithful in our allegiance to our Sovereign,
upholders of the Constitution, and observers of the
law, we claim from the Imperial Parliament the
maintenance in its integrity of our Constitutional
birthright."

Mr. W. Johnston, M.P., introduced a deputation
from a special committee of Orangemen in London,
who presented a memorial, which was read by Dr.
Alexander Miller, Q.C., and in which the deputation
took the opportunity of expressing their conviction
that the policy of successive concessions had proved
a disastrous failure, and that the time had come
when it was necessary to propose to Parliament such
measures as would without delay put an end to such
a state of affairs, which was a disgrace to any civilised
country.
Lord Salisbury said in reply: I have to thank you
for coming here to-day, and for laying before me the
striking statement to which I have listened. It is
impossible I should not be deeply impressed with the
number, the character, the weight, and the arguments
of those deputations; and I cannot but feel that they
indicate how grave is the crisis which has brought
them together on this occasion. It is no trifling
juncture that has brought men from Cork, from
Belfast, and Dublin—from every part of Ireland—
that has brought together merchants, agriculturists,
bankers, and country gentlemen, that has fused
into one the ordinarily opposed mass of Liberals
and Conservatives (cheers) that has, as
one speaker expressed it, effaced the former
party lines, and has brought you all together
to represent to the Executive Government the gravity
of the evils you experience, the greater gravity of the
dangers you fear, and the remedies you expect at the
hand of the government of this country. I have
listened with the greatest attention. It is my busi-
nessw an so, anti mon valuame and arming is the
information. It was very painful to hear from one
speaker that an association overshadowing the law
and superseding the ordinary tribunals of the country
exists, and exercises power in every parish in the
South of Ireland. It was painful to hear the list of
works done by that tremendous instrument of intimi-
dation, and the certainty and power with which it
penetrates into the most intimate relations of social
life and the difficulty of any class resisting its effects.
It was painful to hear that the machinery of local
government in Ireland is used not for its
primary purpose, but for assistir.g these combina-
tions. All these things are matters which undoubtedly
gravely interest you, by reason of your own personal
exposure to their results, and gravely interest us, on
whom so momentous a duty is cast in these times.
You will not expect me to go fully into the policy of
her Majesty's Government with respect to Ireland.
("No, no.") It would not he seemly two days before
Parliament meets, and if it is not seemly I should go
fully into it, it would be still less desirable that I
should go partially into it, in a 'half, in a fragmentary
manner. lam hers to listen, not to speak. I have
listened with the greatest- interest, and I can only
part from you in thanking you from coming here to-
day by saying that we deeply appreciate the purport
and the importance of the sorrowful facts which you
have laid before us, and that we shall not be untrue
to the responsibilities which lie on the heads, at such
a moment as this, of the Government of the United
Kingdom. (Cheers.)
The deputation then thanked his lordship and re-
retired.