New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-12-04
ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT.


ACTION OF THE GOVERNMENT.
| THE ARREST OF DAvITr AND KILLEN-BINTs FROM
| CoNsTASTINoPLE-CBAEACTE OF TIE LAM
GUAGE COMPLAINED oF-MR. PARNELLs LEAD
RRsHIp.
[FRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRTBuSE.l
LONDON, Nov. 2O.-Yesterday's arrests in Ireland
| mark the commencement of q new pohcy-or at
| tempt at pollcy-on the part of the Government.
Heretofore they have let the agitation run lis course
When they issued orders for the arrest of Davitt
and Killen and DAILY they must have made up their
minds to crush the movement, if crushed 1T can be
at all events to restrain the zeal of future orators
within legal bounds. Perhaps il may be assumed
that some of the many recent Cabinet meetings.
which were supposed TO be devoted to Asia Minor
were in reality occupied with Irish affairs. The
taunts Of the Constantinople press have reached
Downing Street. SAID Turkish paper not many
days ago: d" You pretend to reform Asia Minor;
you had better begin with Ireland, whose people are
in state of permanent revolution" The counsel of
the Mussulman journalist has been needed. We
hear almost at the same moment of Baker Pachas
4 appointment as Superintendent of Mesopotamia,
and of the successful movement of the Irish con-
stabulary upon three of the most insignificant
speakers who have taken part in the Irish war
against landlordsm Mr. Parnell thinks these arrests
are only the precursors of suspension of the ha-
beas corpus. He may be right but the value and
significance of the present step are not TO be meas
ured by the predictions of Mr. Parnell as to the u
turc-save so far as his predictions may be the OH
spring of wholesome fears.
II is now some months since the outbreak in Ire
land became agrarian in character. Nothing is
more curious than to remark how merely political
and even gous matters have dropped out of sight.
The Home Rulers members quilted St. Stephens with
their mouths full of Obstruction and the new Irish
University 'the latter being the price paid by the
Government for temporary mitigation Of the for
mer. Flushed with something like a victory. they
sought their constituents, but they found their con-
stltuents much more keen about reductions OF rent
than about the parliamentary successes OF their es-
teemed representatives. Home Rule was as popular
as ever, bnt Winter of dire privation was before
them, and the cry for local sclf-govern-
ment was soon drowned in the roar OF
Indignation against landlords who are so I'M
patriotic as to desire their rents paid. The meet
ngs held i'll different parts of Ireland have been re-
ported IN the English press with unusual fulness
| They had much the same character everywhere.
| Little was said of politics in shape and much
| about bad harvests and the land question. The
temper of speakers and people alike grew daily more
| violent In England these performances seem to
have attracted the attention of every body but her
| Majesty's Ministers. who too much occupied
in the promotion of Imperialism in the four quar-
ters of the globe to attend to the distress and dis
turbance manifesting themselves in these unpeas-
| ant ways at home.
| At last Lord Deaconsied addressed a few words
Mt the Gudhall to his brilliant brethren across
the Channel. They perhaps seriously meant.
but they were not very seriously taken. Nobody
| believed the Government going to act. Why
should theyf Or rather. why should they not have
acted months ago, if at all Ii is certainly some
months-two at least since people who concerned
| themselves about Ireland became convinced not
| merely that discomfort was general-for Irish dis
content is chronic-bat that there was every reason
TO fear that period of real suffering at band.
| The Irish themselves thought so, and said so, aud
based their agitation upon the prevailing and ex-
| pectcd misery Of the poorer classes Two courses
| were open to the Government. TO suppress apita-
| ton altogether what no man expects to accom-
plish IN Ireland. But it might have been Modified
| and the sting taken out of it by timely in
| auiry into the condition of the country and a
promise of relief in some FORM for the most urgent
| distress Or the law might have been put in mo-
ton upon the first outbreak of sedtious oratory.
strong Government might have yentured to do
| both but this Government did neither They have
| allowed restitution to reach point where 1t
threatens to become, in districts famine aud
| they have tolerated language, whether from the
| platform the multitude, which was both sedi-
| tious toward the Crown and menacingto every
| subject who had the misfortune to own land aud
the presumption to expect rent for it, Nor is 1t yet
clear that the Government have made up their MIND
| to deal vigorously with their difficulties.
| The meeting at which Davitt and his comrades
| held the language now complained of is already
nearly three weeks old. What they said is bitter
enough, but no more bitter further outside the
law than many otlfer harangues before and since.
| The chairman Went through the usual farce of ex-
| horting the speakers to use temperate language
advice which the speakers interpreted IN the
| usual PckwickIan sense. When the chairman ut
| tered il, banner with the inscription " the land
| for the tillers; down with the land robbers"
staring him in the face. Davitt modelled his
speech on this motto This patriot Is an ex-Fenian;
| q martyr whose martyrdom originally took the
shape of fourteen years of penal servitudej since
| abridged by the tyrannical Saxon to eight Davitt
being. in fact. at the moment tcket-of-leave man.
He has found leisure in his years of retirement 10
mature his views political economy. He
| considers rent for land, whether In pros
| porous times or bad times, an unjust and
| immoral tax the industry Of the people. Land
| lordism he describes open conspiracy against
| the people which ought to be crushed by those who
| suffered from It, He cared nothing about fixiy of
tenure, which Only meant fxity of poverty and deg
| radiation. They must have the land owned by the
| tilers; meantime. tenants should only pay rent
when they had surplus after everything else. and
could afford it, 1t is upon such insane rant as this
that the charges against Davtt are based. Whether
his words are OF are not legally sedtious may be
| question, but who believes that an Irish jury will
convict upon themi Kiien went further. He is a
barrister and was possibly DESTROYS to see how near
the wind he could sail. lie aivocateda confiscaion
of the land in favor of the people; leaving TO the
| people to say whether tho oonfscaton should
DO effected by the pen, the pencil or the