Smyrna times., 1879-10-22
1.-THE Troubles in ireland.


The coming question of British politics is
undoubtedly the land question. 1t is
hardly too much to say that this is already
the leading question. In Ireland the land
question certainly overtops all others at the
present moment. The agrarian murders
that have occarred with more or less
frequency have been proof that there was
profound and widespread dissatisfaction
among the peasantry with the presant
system of land.tenure. The Home Rule
agitation in Parliament has shown that this
dissatisfaction is not confined to the peas
antry, but is shared by the cultivated and
well.to do Irish who are not landowners.
These signs OF a coming storm have been
contemptuously ignored With the usual
short'slghtedness of politicians, the Con-
sentative party has during its power sat on
the safety.valve Of Irish discomfort until an
explosion is imminent. Those who have
pooh poohed every suggestion of danger
are now becoming thoroughly alarmed.
The Times, it is true, affects to find
encouragement in the improvement Of the
harvest prospects which is reported from
the greater part of Ireland; but the Times
is a semi-official journal, and so bound to
look on the bright side of things. Very
different is the tone of the Pail Mall Gazette
which has hitherto been as incredulOus as
any English journal when the danger of an
uprising among the Irish tenantry has been
limited at. 1t acknowledges that the dan
ger IS now serious one, and must be
promptly met by wise craftsmanship, and
not by some stopgag or temporizing meas
ures.
The immediate cause Of the present agi-
tation in Ireland is the comparative failure
of the crops this year. This, added to the
misiortunes of previous years, has made it
really impossible for tenants to pay their
rents. Landlords threaten eviction if the
rents are not paid, and this threat has
aroused the passions Of the peasantry. Mr..
| Parnell, the ablest OF the Home Rule rep
resentatives in Parliament, advises the
tenantry TO refuse to pay rents and to resist
| eviction. What the peasants demand is
such reform of the land system as shall
| give the tenant fixed tenure. At the last
session of Parliament the old statute pro
| hibiting conventions in Ireland was re-
pealed, and National Convention is soon
to be held to consider this and kindred
subjects.
That the land system of Ireland should
be reformed there can be no reasonable
doubt. That it will be reformed, if the end
is sought by the Irish people with modera
! ton and frmness, Is tOlerably certain
| But the needed reform would be indef
nitely delayed by general uprising, or by q
wholesale system Of agrarian outrages
Englishmen will yield much to agitation in
constitutional ways, even if the yielding j:
slow; but no nation so obstinately refuse,
TO yield an inch when an appeal to force i:
made. "The syllogism of violence" the
English mind never can comprehend. Or
the other hand, if the landlords enforce re
lentlessly their legal rights under the pres
ent system, and evct from their home
steadS all who refuse to pay rent-equalll
whether the refusal proceed from inabilt,
or dissemination TO pay--a series of agrarial
their agents and officers of the law will b,
shot down whenever opportunity offers. II
the present state of feeling among tn
Irish peasants, a wholesale eviction woul,
i, lead to such disturbance that an ARM
: would be needed to preserve the peace
As the Pail Mall Gazette says, there woulC
result something hardly distinguishabl'
, from civil war;"
J The Conservative party has already ar
/ rayed itself on the side Of the landowners
, This means certain defeat in the comm,
election, and the return of the Liberal part,
to power once more. 1t is not only posi-
, BILE but almost certain that if Mr.. Gladston
lives five years longer he will add to tn
} glory of having disestablished the Irisl
Church, the honor of reforming the LAM
system of Great Britain and Ireland.-N
Y. Examiner