New-York tribune., 1868-02-18
JOHN BRIGHT ON THE IRBH QUESTION

|
clares 70 be for Great Britain the most press
ing and perplexing of all questions-what shall
be done for Ireland7 OF the general and
dangerous disafection of the people, and the
long course of oppression and misgovernment
| by which this state of feeling has been pro-
duced, he assumes that there is no dispute.
| How to assuage the popular bitterness by re-
forming the administration is the great problem
to which British statesmen have to bend them
selves. The wrongs of Ireland he sums up
under two heads: the first is the Established
| Church the second is the tenure Of land. On
these depend the whole Irish difficulty, and on
them too may depend the duration or the
decay of the Empire. The Established Church
in Ireland is a political State organization
| it was imposed upon Ireland for the purpose of
building up English interests, placing the Irish
| at the feet of their cOnquerors, and making them
feel that they were the servants of an English
master. 1t was upheld in early times by cruel
penal laws, and it is supported now by unjust
| taxation For the maintenance of this estab-
ment which is detested by all but very small
minority of the population, the Government
sets apart the sum of f13,00O,OOO; to stop the
grumbling of the Irish Presbyterians, an annu-
| al grant of E40,000 is made to that denomina-
| ton the great majority of the people, the Ro-
| man Catholics, get nothing at all. This, says
| Mr.. Bright, is just as if the Government were
| to give E13,OOO 900 to Birmingham and Manches-
| ter, which number about as many people as
| the Established Church in Ireland, and to the
rest of the British Empire not penny. Now
here is a standing injustice which must be swept
away at once. Let us give, he says, to each
denomination O moderate allowance. proper
toned to its numbers, and this done let them
all shift for themselves, with no further help
and no interference from the State, ThencefOrth
let all the churches be self-suppOrting. This
plan once adopted, public sentiment will change;
the people will feel that the past Is to be for
gotten and a new era of justice is opening be-
fore them
The question of land -tenure is more eompli-
Gated. Mr. Brights remedy is briefly tins: Let
a Commission of Parliament buy up the estates
of absentees and any other land which owners
are willing to SELL and lease it to the peasant
farmers on terms which viii enable them, In the
course of say thirty five years or less to become
the actual owners of the soil. The prospect of
ownership and the certainty meanwhile of the
tenure so long az the rent was paid, would be
poyerful incentives to industry; the peasant
would no longer be hindered from improving
the farm by the precariousness of his holding,
and. with direct interest in the stability and
order of the country, his prOneness to plots and
instructions would disappear. Beside this, the
laborer must have the ballot; with that IN his
hand ne will no longer be at the mercy OF
grasping landlords.
Mr.. Brght's plans are just and practicaDie'
Ireland needs the alleviations which he recon-
mends; she has a right to them; and sooner
or later she will inevitably obtain them. Yet
even with these we doubt whether she Will be
satisfied. The reduction of the Established
Church to what all churches ought to be-a
voluntary, self-supporting organization OF wor-
shipers-wil do more toward the creation OF
better feeling between the sister islands than
any other one thing. A change in the tenure
of the land will also do much, but that Mr..
Bright's scheme will effect it we are by no means
sure. The Incumbered Estates Act threw a
great deal of land into the hands of small pro-
prietors, yet it was not found that the farms
were any better cultivated, or poverty any less
severe, or the peasantry any more provident or
industrious Besides, what evidence have we that
any considerable number OF the proprietors
will be willing to sell The distribution of
few hundred acres here and there will have
little effect If the peasantry generally can be
made proprietors, or at least II ownership can
be held out in prospect as the sure reward OF
thrift then we shall see q rapid improvement
in the condition of the country; but the I'M
proyement must be general before 1t can infiu-
ence the drift of Irish politics.
The legislative union Of the two countries
Mr.. Bright touches lightly. He will not con-
sent TO separation. because he believes that
Parliament of the United Kingdom, sitting at
st. Stephens, can do as much for Ireland as
National Parliament sitting at Dublin. Let us
show the Irish people, he says, that we can
govern them Justly and intelligently; let us
sweep away old wrongs; let us reform old
abuses; and they will have no reason to de-
mand separation. But he has left out of his
calculation one important element. Sentiment
often has more to do with political revolutions
than reason. The hostility which was created
by centuries of oppression cannot be obhter-
ated by expunging few laws from the statute
books. The wound still smarts after the arrow
has been withdrawn. Great Britain may prove
her ability and her purpose to legislate fairly
for Ireland; but if the Irish people prefer to
legisate for themselves, if they cannot forget
in q day the wrongs of hundred years, what
thenf The justice which the distinguished
English Reformer advocates must be meted
out to them, but they will hardly be satisfied
until they have more.
IL Dlota aokaf afn