New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-04
TIRE GREAT IRISH QUESTION:

Elsewhere we give q comprehensive eAiloII
of a profoundly interesting subject OF br1tish
agitation. That the Irish problem fundameht-
ally involves the whole British land system;
that it is an enormous type OF evils unucl
which all oppressed peoples grOan; ana thaI
is warning to every country however ilee,
ought to be remarked. Those WHO leiC
afraid that our negroes might in time cry out
against some added crime of landlOrdlsm may
observe what men of the race OF OCohheh
suffer from the countrymen of Wherefore.
Again, too, we are bitterly reminded OF ehat
immense English sin of might-wOrshlp az lOr-
mulated by the philosopher who gioriled
the Jamaica massacre, and, cOnceNlng Iha'
nothing could be better than n landlord KING
and tenant subject sneered at the gospei Oh
the Door according to McCrowdy. Here now
is wretched McCrOwdy asking the beggarly
right not to be made vermin of by Mr.. Car
lyles wild beast of landlord; praying with
bloodshot eyes to be allowed to be thrifty,
and not to be provoked to do murder Una
yailing lamentation and eart-break have been
heard from year to year. Irish croncs have
torn their hair and sweethearts and wives,
like sweet Maggie Mccormick, have gone dis
tracted Men of more utter baseness than
Irish landlords were never known, saith
The Times of 1852. But the widow of McCrOwdy
still weeps like Rachel, and will not be COM
forted, and some of her children emigrate and
build ramparts of natural hatred against the
laundering tyranny which scatters broadcast in
evictions and exilcs the seeds of ill-will. By
and-by it may be that martyred and humble
people will work out an unforeseen revenge.
England made Catholic, as some OF her con-
verts threaten, would be more than poetic
retrbution; but Englishmen convinced that
only 10y justice to Ireland can they themselves
be redeemed in Church, State, and society, would
argue sufficient pang.
We have no want of testimony as to Irish
wrongs. Mr.. Bright thought that the larger
andordism of English government was brutal.
Mr.. Gladstone admits tragic retrospect when
he says that Ireland ought to be governed for
Irishmen. Lord Clarendon describes landlord
ism as felony Prof. Rogers of Oxford writes
that Ireland's social condition is the grossest
scandal, and that from no fault of n thrifty
people. Shameful is it to think that in this
year of Christian grace, $3.50 landlords, mostly
Protestants, dispose of $4,000 tenants, and
back of them six millions of people, mainly
tenant may sell his good will to an incomer,
is the best that has yet been done for lrishmen,
and still seems vastly in favor of the landlord,
since it generally relieves him of any charge
for tenant-made improvements, and does not
secure the farmer against capriciOus, ava
ricOus, or political eviction, either because he
does not marry, or does not pay, or does not
vote as his liege lord requires. Ninety-five per
cent of Irish farmers have no leases whatever,
and may be evicted, which is to say trans
ported, at any moment.
What the Irishman most earnestly desires is
to be rooted in the land he passiOnately loves.
Prussia has given the right of hereditary fix
ture to her PEASANTS England has given inn
munities to her Indian ryOts against evictions
not to speak of her endowing Pagans when
Roman Catholics were neglected. The Irish
tenant asks for right TO his improvements
security against the arbitrary raising of rent
and fxity of holding. Mr.. Brghts loan
scheme, including the purchase of the estates of
absentees, and the famous Prussinn land sys
TEN. equally aim to make the tenant a
proprietor For the honor of human ma
ture, we hope that the British Govern
ment will do more than adopt the proposed
Ulster tenant system. Against any cowardy
yielding to that respectable hardness of heart
which has done so much TO make criminal En-
glish craftsmanship, the priesthood of Ireland
show a unanimous phalanx Of protest. At n
time when Father O'Keefe calls Mr.. Gladstone
the greatest statesman Of any age, and Car
dinal Cullen, at the head Of the tenants, de-
clares against the Fenians, this is both warn
ing and assuring The land reform must come
effectively, not merely as a concession, but, let
let us hope, also in the spirit of expiation.