New-York tribune., 1870-04-09
IRFLAND Under COERCION.

"There is.r said old Sir John Davies, mo
"nation of people under the sun that doth
"love equal and Indifferent justice better than
"the Irish, or will rest better satisfied with
"the execution thereof, although it be against
themselves, so as they may have the just
"protection and benefit of the law when upon
"iust cause they do desire it," These words
of an ancient and eminent English lawyer have
been often quoted in the discussion of the
Irish Land Question, but by none with more
effect than the author of the Force bill, Mr..
Gladstone. Their supplement will be found In
striking passage of his speech on that bill in
which he says-"I is pleasure and salts
"faction to the Government as 1t must be
"to every man of public spirit, to confess
I" that the state of general crime In Ireland
"is most satisfactory and most honorable to
"that country Excepting that a state of crime
can hardly be called satisfactory, Mr. Glad
stones admission. is as edifying as other English
testimony to the same effect. We think 1T was
The Times which lately said that the general
character of Ireland will bear comparison with
that of any other country, although her pc
cuar class of crimes is unfortunately on the
increase. 1t has been demonstrated by another
English authority that in 1868 the Irish prison
committals were but 29,501, or very little more
than those of Mddlesex and North London,
though Ireland has three times the population
Of that district.
Thus, by various English testimony ancient
and modern, it is clearly confessed that the
Irish as people signally love justice and hate
crime. What. then, is the proper commentary
on the facts we have cted7 Mr. Gladstone
answers with a measure of Coercion, which, in
its dealings with the Irish press, surpasses the
tyranny of the French code, and in its treat
ment of the Irish people takes despOts lib
erty, which can only remind us of some of the
political necessities" created in Poland by
Russian oppression. We will not say, in the
language of the Irish press that it is an Algerine
measure, but it is in one or two respects a Rus
sian one. For a better understanding of the
most stringent provisions Of the bill we refer
attention to the analysis of the measure, drawn
chiefly from an article of Mr.. Sullivan, the
editor of The Dublin Nation, and presented in
the letter of our London correspondent The
fact that Irishmen have traditiOnally loved
"eaual and Indifferent (Or impartiaD justicon
is their best reason for hating Coercion bills
and asking for Land Reform. 1t might also
prove, as a London authority hints, the secret
of the simplest and most eflectual settlement
Of the Irish question.
These are considerations, however, which,
in hours of English panic and exaggeratiOn,
are in danger of being thrown away. They
will have no eject upon such newspaper as
The Pail Mall Gazette, which remarks that
Ireland wOuld be more agreeable if stocked
with Cinnamon, though, we apprehend, not less
miserable. In the recent speech of o repre-
sentative of The Pail Malls views of govern
ment, one Col. Knox Gore of the British army
in China "contended that the Chinese were an
"inferior nation, and should be brought down
"and shown that they were the inferior ma
"ton" Herein we have a better enunciation
of an Anglo Chinese policy for Ireland
than any Tory organ has found opportunity to
make, or Mr.. Gladstone occasion to put forth
in so many words in Force bill. Yesterday
a London reviewer remarked on the Land bill
that legislative Imperialism breaks down
" everywhere, and blunders sadly over local
work. In the same strain Mr.. Isaac Butt,
one of the most thoughtful of Irishmen, asks
for an Irish Parliament to legislate on Irish
affairs. The O'DOnoghue still remains stead
fast to his belief in the earnest good faith of
Mr.. Gladstone but the Coercion bill is already
working its mischief, while the Land bill is not
operating to good. How long will Mr.. Glad
stone count upon Irish partisans7 An unhappy
hour has come to English craftsmanship.
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