New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-10-20
DEPRESSION AND RESISTANCE.

DEPRESSION And RESISTANCE.
The British Ministry having once entered
upon the barren path of repression cannot turn
back, but is forced to push on with relent-
less purpose. Those who were intimately as
sociatcd with Mr.. Parnell in the direction OF
the Central Committee have either been i'm
nrisoned or driven out of Ireland and secre-
taries, treasurers and organizers of branches
of the Land League have been arrested III
every quarter of the island A determined
effort is making to paralyze the action OF the
League, heart and branch. If the organization
is not suppressed outright, it is crippled by inc
loss of its most efficient workers. Inc
suspect who is charged with participation
in the general work of the League shares the
fate of those who have been most violent III
their public harangues. The exceptional pow
ers granted in the Coercion Acts are strained
TO their utmost tension. The ganisons are
strengthened, the police are reinforced, ana
arrest follows arrest in rapid succession. III Is
desperate struggle on the part OF the
Government 10 break down the Land League
bv force and terror. The resistance which Is
offered is equally desperate. The League mas
not ordered general nsuTection against the
Crown. which could he easily suppressed, but
q general suspension of rent-paying, which Is
eouiyalent TO n national strike against land
lordsm The test cases are abandoned, inc
meetings of the League are indefinitely adj
iourned, and tenants are commanded to keep
back their rents until there shall be general
iail delivery. The Russian method of repres-
sion is thus met by form of passive resist
ance which is peculiarly Irish.
That this method of repression is dctcStable
no genuine American will venture TO deny.
The law of arbitrary arrest shocks the sensl-
biIities of a law-abiding Nation like ours. The
conquest did not occur last year, nor
in the last generation, but before Crom-
wells time. Yet after centuries Of cxpe-
rence England cannot govern Ireland
without garrisonnS it heavily and examining
the tails with suspects not one OF whom could
be convicted by native jury. IL Is most
bumilating confession from an English Minis
FRY. and what makes it all the more dcplor-
able is the fact that il is cXtOrted from Lib
eral Ministry led 10y n statesman OF command
ING genius and progressive tendencies. But
Americans, in their adherence of force bills
and arbitrary arrests, will not forget that Mr..
Gladstone began with concessions and ended
with coercion from stern necessity. When the
Liberal Ministry went into power cigh-
teen months ago, it adopted n most
concilatory policy toward Ireland. The
Peace Preservation Act was not renewed,
and Compensation Act designed To prevent
capricious and unjust cyictions was forced
through the Commons The Lords threw out
this necessary measure and gave a new i'm
pulse TO agitation, but the Ministry did not
ask Parliament for exceptional powers until
number of the Irish leaders had been ac-
quilted in a State trial without regard Ia the
evidence Or the counts OF the indictments.
Then the coercion bills were introduced, and
with them was mfoldcd most thorough,
Ingenious and progressive measure of land re-
form-a measure which satisfied all the Irish
members except small group of irrcconcablc
Parnclltes, and electrified the leader of the
tenant movement OF 1852. If, therefore.
Mr.. Gladstone has finally taken up the
force bills and applcd them with recnt-
less vieor, he has not been Indifferent to the
Iaisfortuncs of the Irish people, nor neglected
any opportunity for substituting Ccntcr for
stcrncr measures He has struggled with all
his heart and strength against the dire alter
native which has been forced upon him.
The same Burke who declared that there
was no method of drawing mp an Indictment
against a whole people, adding that when pop
ular discontents are prevalent it may well bc
affirmed that there is something amiss in
the Constitution or in the conduct OF the Gov
eminent. also made this confession: II am not
4" one Of those who think that the people are
"ncvcr in the wrong. They have been 50, fire.
"mently and outragcOusly. both in other conn
4" tries and in this" We think it is the DELHI
crate Judgment of Americans that the Irish
population who have made hero of Mr.. Par
nell have been in the wrong in not accepting
the Irish Land bill in the generous spirit in
which it was offered to them. They had
been demanding a systematic and thorough
reform Of the land system. Yet, when the
remedial legislation WAS secured, they were
still arrayed in hostility to it. win anyone say
that Mr.. Gladstone could allow the authority
of the Crown TO be utterly stamped out by the
Land League, and that, too, when he was en-
forcing the very reforms for which the people
had been vehementIy and turhulcntly clamor-
ing7 viii anyone say that he can now COM
promise with tenant mObs on the basis of the
no-rcnt manifesto and acquiescc in the confis-
cation Of landed property in lrelandl
------
JOHN KELLY is SCAPEGOA7.
Mr.. John Kelly is a man to be pitcd. Do