New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-10-28
MR. EROEDES LECTURES.
as it goes

That English rule in Ireland has not been a
success, Mr. Froude clearly admits. He only
parties the natural inference by insisting that
Irish rule there has been a still more cOnspicu-
Gus failure. Ii this were admitted it would
seem that some other alternative should be
sought.
Mr.. Froude's picture of British rule in Ireland
is one fearful to look on. SO many and such
diversified wrongs and plumbers never stained
the annals of another nation.
lures a good reason for holding that the Can
adas may have general and each province a
local parliament, that Australia may have
several more, and yet Ireland must have none
Canada has her Catholics and Protestants rs
well as Ireland,-and they are Cells and
SaxOns respectively as the Irish are. 1t does
seem that an Irish Parliament, properly con-
stituted, might deal with Irish home questions
as well as a Canadian Parliament can deal
with Canadian questions.
The one crying evil of Ireland is the own
ership Of her soil mainly by men who are
strangers to her territory and alienated nom
her sympathies by differences of race and re-
ligion. We find in Mr.. FrOude's lectures no
adequate remedy for this natural result of
foreign conquest.
A parliament of Irish landlords, he urges,
would do little to mcli0rdte the condition OF
the Irish peasant culdyators. True. But will
not a parliament of English and Scotch land
lords be likely to do even less
Property has duties commensurate with its
rights He who draws a bOuntiful income
from the labor of a famshed peasantry, doing
nothing for them in return, is a bad landlord.
If he draws bis rents away to some foreign
land and spends them there, their loss is
more keenly felt than if he discussed them
on the soil that yielded them. But let him
devote liberal share of them to draining,
building fit cottages, and improving generally,
and he will be recognized as benefactor.
The recent Land Tenure act was a step to-
ward justice for Ireland. The principle it
involves reaches very far, though the applica-
ton is rather negative than positive" You
shall not do this wrong"-nOt "Yoh must do
"this right" Can Parliament of land
lords be reasonably expected ever to re-
quire the landlords of Ireland to render full
Justice to their tenants in matters concerning
their health comfort, and general condition
Admit that it is the landlords true interest
to do all this has it not been OBJ
viously so for at least century,
Yet see how arabic Scotland has been
at vast expense fitted for advantageous tillage,
while little or nothing has been done to i'm
prove the sanitary condition OF the soil of
Ireland. What legislation in London can be
expected to effaee this cOntrastf
An Irish Parliament, wherein the peasantry
were represented in one house, the nobility
and gentry in the other, might not BIO able
soon TO agree on much that would be bene-
fetal to their country, but it seems TO afford
the fairest hope of improvement. Each house
having veto on the doiHgs of the other.
they might pass few bills, but those few would
mainly be good ones. Parliament of land
lords, and these mainly alien landlords, is not
likely to do better.