Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1867-01-03
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Eunh Dean frOclcr Wrtt INC NcW
York Independent very readable let
ter OIL the condition of ireland, dating
at Limerick, and quotes the London
Telegraph as very correctly accounting
for the state of things TO bemitnessed
on every hand;
Clearly, something is wrthg in Ire
land-a fertile soil, gifted people,
and yet the masses are pogr and dis
affected and degraded Hcfe is what
a prominent English paperIthe Daily
Telegraph says of the matpr, in a re-
cent issue:
"Ihe soil 4 IN great nat, untitled,
It's resources are undey8Iopcd, tho IN
habitants are beggars-ior loyalty
there is treason, for tranquility, msur-
rection-from the country theie is
one long Exodus-it is the Egypt of
its people, the Atlantic is its Jorton,
and America its Canaan. For hat
result we English are mainly respsn-
sible. We have-as OConnell uad
to say, with "a truth, which his sc,f-
fing critics will some day have TO rec
ognize-misgoverned the country for
seven hundred years; there are "sev.
en- centuries" OF wrong to redress.
We conquered the island by force OF
arms, and throughout the long period
OF our mastery we have had TO hold
it by similar means, because to a ma
terial we have not added q moral con
quest. Ireland is the despised and
distrusted member Of the United
Kingdom; under the form OF fraterni-
ty, hers is the treatment OF an alien.
Once in twenty years, perhaps, il
sees the face Of royalty, and at other
times it is graced by sham court
a court without splendor, without
dignity, withoutpower; a court which
can make itself ridiculed, but can not
inspire affection nor win respect. To
English or TO Scotch that might seem
a small matter; but to an ardent, en-
thusiastic race, like the Irish, it has
no slight Importance They must be
either loyal or seditious; they must
love the crown or hate it; andit would
be the sheerest afiectation TO ignore
the feeling with which they regard
the throne. They do not like TO see
their country treated as dependen-
cy, which is to be ruled, and dragoon-
ed, and polieed into the most approx
cd English shape but which is TO be
trusted neither by Parliament nor
Crown. Especially do they resent
such treatment when they see that it
forms part Of general system; when
TO coercion and absenteoism is added
an alien church All the sophistry
in the wofld will not blind them TO
the fact that they are cursed with the
most absurd and inquitous eeclesiasti-
cal institution which the perverted
ingenuity Of man ever devised. L.
surping the privileges of national
establishment it is the church OF a
small minority. Counting among its
adherents the richest classes In the
island, it is nevertheless richly endow-
ed, while the national priesthood has
no endowment at all.
Profoundly and ostentatiously a
missionary church, it is detested
with all the strength of fanatieism by
the people whom il seeks 10 convert.
That is one mighty cause of discon-
tent; the land laws furnish another.
Alike in his love for his priest and
his love for his land, the Irish cottor
has been thwarted by our determine
ton TO rule him after our own fash
ion. His creed we degrade by the el-
ovation Of hostile church, and him
sci we make a stranger on The soil he
firmly believes to be his own. From
the fields which were owned and till
ed by his fathers, and which he loves
with a iervor that only Colt can un-
derstand, he frds himself onsted be-
cause he has to wage an unequal fight
with landlord TO whom the law has
given a crushing power. lie has no
inducement to improve his holding,
because TO do so is TO entail a certain,
perhaps n ruinous, rise Of rent He
has no temptation to exert himself
since he has no security that bis ten
ancy will last beyond the next settle
ment day Too often he sows with
the bitter consciousness that another
will reap. Too often his is the worst
Of all positions, in which TO rise is i'm
possible, since burdoned with a rent he
cannot pay, he knows that every
stroke Of work he does beyond what
is required for the satisfaction Of his
immediate wants will enrich none but
the landlord. So, of course, he does
as little as he can, and he finds the
penalty-frst eviction, and then ex.
patriation.