The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-11-11
Mr. FrOude and the Irish.

If we understand Mr.. Froude he comes to
America to say simply this: SIT is true that
the conduct of England toward Ireland in
the past has been inconceivably atrocious.
But that is matter with which the present
generation of Englishmen has nothing to do.
except that some of them, in the capacity of
landlords, hold the material advantages of
past conquests. The Irish have absolutely
nothing to hope from the independence
which they so much desire. Their past his
tory abounds in conclusive evidence on this
point. Their true policy is to seek under the
forms of the British constitution relief from
the landlord incubus" In the effort to get
rid of Irish slavery to the landlords Mr..
Froude says that he will go as far as the red
dest Fenian thatlives. He comes to America
to present his views so that he may, if posi-
Bile, dissuade the Irish here from their peri
Britain, and if not, to deprive such attempts
of at least all American sympathy. IN
doubleday the historian has got his case. He
does show that in the past autonomy has
done nothing toward lifting the yoke from
the neck of the peasantry of Ireland. And
all modern experience goes to show that
the consolidation of smaller powers
into large States, when voluntarily
consummated and when there is
complete homogentity in all the parts so far
as political and civil rights are concerned, is
better calculated to secure the happiness,
peace, safety and prosperity of a people than
a multitude of little separate nationalities,
with their multitude of little officers and little
quarrels If Ireland could be really united
with the rest of Great Britain so as to become
no more provincial than England itself, and
if the ownership of the soil could be so adj
justed as to make the condition of the people
what would naturally follow from the fertility
of the soil and the other advantages of the
country, the world need then have as little
sympathy for the Irish craze for "home
rule" as for the Southern madness for estate
rights" Earl Russell proposes at the next
session of Parliament to submit to that body
new quack remedy for the pacification of
Ireland. He would give the Irish repre-
sentative assembly for each of the provinces
of Leinster, Ulster, Munster and Connaught.
He thus thinks to give the malcontents what
will in measure satisfy their longings for
''home rule" without establishing an Irish
Parliament, which would be the initial step
toward complete separation. He. of course
makes provision for the revision of the de-
crees of these pretty little assemblies
NV tha ;oI Do,
seem that the offer to ireland of such poor
trumpery as this by the great originator of
the Alabama claims, in lieu of the substantial
justice she demands, would be anything but
pacifying in its effect. Mr.. Froudes method
seems to be much more philosophical than
fundamental wrongs of which the Irish COM
plain.
But there is one consideration which both
Mr. Froude and all other theorists in regar
to Irish wrongs and their remedy forget when
they ask the natives of that country to cease
their attempts to obtain justice by means of io-
lence, and to rely on convincing mankind and
the English in particular, of the righteousness
of their cause. 1t is poor encouragement for
men who have never obtained the smallest
concession by complaints or arguments, how
ever skillful or moving, but have always got
such amends as have been granted at the tail
end of some kind of an instruction to rely
wholly on argument and supplication. Eng
land has never, so far as we know, granted
anything to ireland because it was just, or
because the evil complained of was monstrous,
or because humanity and religion alike de-
manded the removal of grievances. Even
down to the days of Mr.. Gladstone, from
whom the Fenan agitation has wrung the
disestabllshment of the Irish church and the
partial reform of the Irish tenures of real pro-
perty, rebellion or the menace of it has been
the only road to stout old John Bulls heart.
So long as English statesmen are unwilling to
do right for its own sake, it is probable that
Fenianism in some form will continue to ex-
Ist in spite of Mr. Froude's conclusiv histori-
cal arguments