The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1879-12-11
THE COURSE Of EVENTS IN IRELAND.

THE COURSE OF EVENTS IN IRELAND.
From the New York Sun.
It is becoming plain that the agita-
ton for land reform In Ireland has &C
quired great momentum, and that I'm.
less promptly Gacifled by judicious
concessions it may involve the Bea-
c0nsfield Cabinet in serious difficulties.
The impetus of the present movement
Is the more significant of profound
grievances and infiexible purpose be-
cause II has been attended with some
circumstances calculated to allay the
growing excitement and strengthen.
the hands of the English Government.
On the whole, Mr.. Parnell and his
leading fellow warriors among the So
called ObstructiOnist members of Par
Lament seem to have been cautious
and circumsI'ect In their management
Of the recent demonstrations. They
have sought to insure the most inIpOs-
ing expression of the popular feeling.
while holding back the masses of their
followers from anything like menace
or violence. But it seems to be in the
nature Of things that such intentions
should come to naught; that the cool
commanders should be only family re-
produced in their subordinate agents
and almost wholly lost sight Of among
tho rank and file in any great national
uprising. Wise and moderate counsels
from the chiefs, with wild promises
and fierce threats from the minor pro-
pagandists, eliminating in incendiary
and murderOus outbreaks on the part
OF their partisans. such has been the
normal course Of Irish agitatiOns dur
ing the past hundred years, a course
which lreland's enemies have natu:.
ally viewed with secret satisfaction and
turned to sly account. The present
demonstration, organized by Mr.. Par
nell and his coadjutOrs, seems to be
running through the same phases, and
there was at one time ground to appre-
bend thatit would split on the same
rock. Candid men will hardly deny that
some Of the newspaper articles, print
ed by hOt-headed and unauthorized
spokesman, were insuFrectiOnary in
tone, and gave the English Govern
ment precisely what il desired, plaus-
ible pretext for arresting the writer's
and discrediting the really sober and
reasonable claims Of the Irish reform
party. So, too. the proceedings last
week before the magistrates at Sligo,
and the unjustiiiable attack perpetrat-
ed by an attorney for the prisoners on
the Archbishop OF Dublin, could hard
~ fail, it might be thought, to sully
and weaken among the most earnest,
devOut, and respectable part Of the
Catholic population, cause upheld by
such unseeInly and injudicious advO-
Gates.
The attitude Of the Roman Church
toward the present demand for the
sweeping dispOssessiOn of absentee
landlords, and the radical reform of
land tenures in Ireland, has been sim
gularly discreet and pacific; SO tenn
perate, indeed, that had the grievances
complained of been less fragrant and
intOlOrable, the popular uprising
would probably have been nipped in
the bud. The pastoral epistle address,
ed by the Catholic Archbishop to his
flock, and against which the Belfast
attorney inveighed with so much vio-
lence, rebuked, in the plainest and
severest terms, the incendiary doc
trines preached by certain Dublin
newspapers, and which provoked the
interference Of the civil authorities.
In this letter ii appears DIR. McCabe
told the faithful that such doctrines
struck at the root of good faith and
mutual confidence, and were driving
God from their side by violation Of
His law. Nor Is there much reason to
doubt that in this matter the Dublin
prelate has acted in accordance with
what he believed to he the policy Of
N.Ns ,s, D., r~.l a.,t-
ly comedies in tenor with the instruc-
tons known to have been lately trans
mitted to the Belgian EpiscOpate re-
garding its present disturbed relations
to the civil power.
In almost any circumstances, such
an Intervention on the part Of the head
of the Church could not fail to have o
tranquilizing and indeed decisive ef-
feet on the Irish population; but. new
ertheless. the Parnell movement seems
to he constantly gaining force at home
and within the past ten days has ex-
tended itself to England, where the
cause of Irish land reform is advocated
before immense and enthusiastic audi
ences. The fact that most of these
meetings take place in the strOnghOlds
of the Liberal party, as. for instance,
on last Saturday, in Liverpool, city
lately wrcstcd from the Conservatives
by a large majority, suggests one cause
Of the vigOr exhibited by this move
ment, which neither the excuses of
some eccentric champions, nor even
the distinct discOuntenance of the
Catholic Church seems able to arrest.
The English Liberal party, uncertain
of its power to Gust the BeacOnsfleld
Cabinet on questions of fsreign policy,
il prompted by the strongest motives
to adopt, ress, and fOrtify the Irish
claim for land reform. With the help
of the Home Rulers, swollen as that
faction may expect to be ut the coming
elections In the present heated state Of
the public mind. the Liberal leaders
may look forward, not unreasONably
control the next House of Commons.
1t is not improbable. therefore, that an
understanding has been reached be-
tween certain Liberal statesmen and
the chiefs Of the Home Rulers. and
that an energetic propagation Of the
Parncll movement throughout Eng
land is part of the concerted pro-
gramme.
1t Is certainly significant that Mr..
Gladstone should select the present
juncture for declaring himself u con-
vert to the doctrine Of home rule for
Ireland in all local matters, and that
he should compare the present excite
Inent with the disturbances of 1888.
pointing out that the latter accustomed
the disestablishment of the Anglican
Church, and implying that the pres
emf Innvxnpnf mav have. rteultA no