The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-30
ENGLAND'S RULE IN IRELAND.


singular expedients by way of proving the
earnestpess of its desire for the paciication
of Ireland. The reconciliation of the Irish
people to English rule was one of the pur-
poses professed at the formation of the Min
istTy, whose strength in the House of Com
mons seemed to be a guarantee for the full
tlment of its pledges. All its perform
ances, however, have been inconsistent and
unsatisfactory. Each succeeding attempt to
do justice to Ireland has been followed by
measures equivalent to a confession tnat no
real progress towards an enduring settlement
had been achieved. Coercive measures have
cast a shadow over measures avowedly
friendly in their nature. The discs
tabishment of the Protestant Church
was attended with the enactment of authority
to proclaim" districts, and to bject news
papers to processes and penalties not known
in England since the days of Castlereagh.
The discussion of the Land bill in the House
of Lords proceeds simultaneously with the
passage of a Felony bill through the Com
mons. An affectatlon of friendship and
stern exercise of force go on together. The
Ministers who set out with q promise to give
order and security to Ireland practically con-
fess that they do not understand the causes
of her trouble, or that they are unable or un-
willing to apply adequate remedies liberal
government, after months of trial. virtually
acknowledges that the maintenance of its
power i'll the disaffected isle depends upon
the free use of weapons from which even the
despotisms of the present day have instinc-
lively shrunk.
The suppression of Protestant ascendancy
for that is what disestablishment logically
means-was doubtless the removal of sub
stantial grievance. But though it went too
far to please the Anglican bishops, it did not
20 far enough to satisfy the Roman Catholics.
The latter insist that the reputation of An
glican pretensions in ecclesiastical matters
should be followed by the restoration to the
Roman Catholic Church of edi6ces and pro-
perties of which, in other days, it was de-
spoiled; that the contiscations which were
among the earliest evidences of Englands SUI
premacy should now be revoked. At the
moment, then, that we were led to look for
peace as the consequence of great stroke of
legislation, we actually witnessed unusual out
bursts of popular discomfort. Violent resist
| ance to law became, in some districts, more
frequent than ever, the Nationalist" Press
urging with increased vehemence the futility
of all attempts at compromise. Then came
the enactment of fresh coercive measures
which stand upon the statute-book melan-
choly commentary on Mr.. Gladstones Irish
policy.
The pending Land bill promises to be not
one whit more effectual Judged by old
fashioned notions of landlords rights, some
L
asserts right of interference which the land
ov DeIs of England and Scotland cannot view
with unconceTn. But what to them would
SAVIOR of agrarianism, only half meets the
exigencies of the case in Ireland. The old,
updying feeling of the conquered towards the
cOnqueror complicates question otherwise
not difficult of solution. The tillers of Irish
| soil have no faith III the Intentions of their
''allen" lord. The sense of common in
| nf
| ings, which make possible harmonious re-
| latioDs between the owners and cultivators
| of the land III the other parts of the British
| islands, exist only to very limited extent in
! Ireland. The result is, that ere the Land bill
| becomes law its failure as a measure of pacifi-
cation appears to be assured. The Irish
| journals are analy wing it's provisions, and de-
monstrating their insufficiency as means of
averting the cruelty and wrong doing which
| have rendered Irish evictions infamous
throughout the world. Again, therefore, the
| spectacle is presented of the passage of a
measure purporting to be for the removal of
| injustice, and designed by its authors as an
indication of England good will, but which
is SO manifest failure that Felony bill
must be contrived to make Englands autho-
1ity secure.
The good intentions of the British Govern
| ment towards Ireland we cannot doubt. 1t
| has dared much and done much to prove the
| genuineness Of its desire to remove chronic
evils and mitigate chronic discomfort. And
yet there is no abatement of the popular
aversion to English rule. "Where there is
smoke there is fire" is a maxim as applicable
To Fenianlsm to-day AZ to Chartism thirty
years ago; and it is to confront Fenianism
that felony bills are concocted and troubled
districts proclaimed" The revival of the
repeal movement, which has slumbered since
the death of OConnen, is another sign
of the popular fever to which imperial
sedatives are i'll vain applied. More
significant still is the recurring expression
OF conviction on the part of the men who
are neither Fenians nor Repealers, that to
Ireland must be conceded control over its own
local concerns, leaving the Imperial repre-
sentation possessed under the act of Union
exclusively applicable to Imperial affairs.
Whatever shape the final settlement may
assume, this now seems certain-there can
be DO effective legislation for Irish grievances
which does not recognize the means by which
the Union was consummated as the crown
ing grievance of all. The organic relations
OF Great Britain and Ireland need revision
and amendment as conditions precedent of
peace.
If England will act as frankly and as boldly
toward Ireland as Austria has acted toward
Hungary, Mr.. Gladstone will realize the happy
results which, under his present policy, re-
main beyond his reach. The task to which
Count Beust has addressed himself, with NO
ordinary success. is Identical in its nature
with that which battles the British Minister
There may be differences of opinion as ia
some of the results which have rewarded the
exertions of Count Beust. but there is none
in regard to the fact that under his admins
tration the Hungarian difficulty has dwindled
down and that solid progress has been made