The Sunday herald., 1881-02-20
TyE ,BJsB LAND QUESTION.

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scribbler, as We have always considered him,
known TO good deal Of contemporary fame as
w. II. Mallcck, has come to the front lately
with an article on "The Philosophy Of Con-
servatsm." We had occasion TO remark in
reviewing a recent book that nothing could
make the case of the Irish landlords so odious
to American readers as the specious pleas
put forward by themselves No people have
more regard for the true rights of property
and more jealousy Of causeless disorder
than Americans. fthe Irish landlords were
content TO rest ON that, they would find no
undue sympathy here for assassination, card
ing, or other agrarian crime, but on the con
trary determination ON the part Of
Government and people to put down any |
lawless plotting under our flag against the
peace Of the mother country. Mr.. Mallock, |
however, may be taken as an example of
those who wish TO argue to home and trans |
| Atlantic readers that the landlords are al
together in the right and the tenants alto
gether in the wrong in the present struggle.
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resort TO series of scphisms and an ignoring
of the question in regard to the origin Of
English land titles in Ireland only surpassed
by the brutality of the slurs superadded in
regard to the down-trodden and suffering
race. The latter are accused Of being lazy,
improvidcnt, unclcan, and, worst crime of all,
very poor. So much the worse, we say, for
the argument oftheir oppressors. The ques-
tion recurs, Who made them 30 For we do
not believe IL Is true, as Mallock insolently
says of the Irish peasant, that " lie is content
with squalor and with Ignorance, and,
within limits, with poverty. lie has no
" longing to be able to buy palace. All he
: wants Is to pay no rent for his howell"
This description may apply to a few isolated
instances in any country, but 1t does not to
n whole race endued with ordinary reason
and affections. That Mr.. Mallock grossly
libels the Irish race is proved by the fact
: that the peasantry he maligns do no, exhibit
: the character he ascribes to them after they
: have emigfated to America. II men capable
of better things lapse into condition where
such assertions can he made about them, II
must be from some strong pernicious cause
outside. This we understand TO be, in the
Emerald Isle, the false state of affairs pro.
duced by the English conquests, never recti
=, fled up to the present moment. The land
. has been violently torn away from its right
:, ful owners, the dwellers upon and cultivator:
= of the soil, and vested through coniscatioi
~, and similar processes in n set of rapaciou.
:, spoilers whose heirs and assigns hold it I,
"a the present day. The rightful owners, a
we have called them in accordance with on
American notions Of right and wrong in sucl
ia matters, have been converted into thralls o
!, drudges called in modern English "ten
- "ants," compelled to work for tn
- enrichment of the land-grabbers, thei
. very homes held at the mere mere
80 of these latter, and, above all, entitled
, to no credit for improvement of their littl
"a holdings, but only compelled to pay highe
=. rent therefor. This last has been the mos
:, demoralizing feature of all, and inevitabl
produced the very state of hopeless stagna
tv tion on which Mallock's insulting argumer
to is based.
!" Americans admit that crime is wrong, br
ty hold that the land tenure in Ireland is itse
il a crime, as well as provocative of crnfe. W
of have seen in our own country the SAN
is struggle that is now being waged over I'll
he green fields of Erin. The "Yankee an
IN, " Pennamite War; was one phase of u IL
on fight against the big estates of the Propri
taries in New York another. We may SOC
see the old contest renewed in a slight
s's varied form If our Goulds and Vanderbilt
he become so bloated as to render intoerab
be what French writer's aptly call "the ne
=. feudality of wealth." II is only throug
unjust laws that the labor of the toiler ca
go constantly and incessantly, through lor
ge periods of time, to enrich the drone or pa
on der to the prohigate, while leaving Il
Ter laborer pauper. In this country it is Il
sts monopolizing corporations in Ireland Il
na land system. Where such a state of thin
is clearly shown to exist the demand for
readjustment of affairs becomes as imper
" tive as II is righteous. The venerable Pet
III Cooper never did better service to luman
en- than in pointing out TO Mr.. Gladstone fro
for the example of our own deplorable Civ
ng War that it is cheaper to expend millions
n. peacefully righting a wrong than to wa
and lose billions in the inevitable war
% must give rise to. On England, rich. e
'a' lightened, and powerful, and not on Il
nn sister, desperate, down-trodden, and miser
ing BILE, must rest the responsibility for all Il
, of outrages that may be perpetrated before
uh new equilibrium or modus ricendi is reach
between the landed and the landless class