The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-12-10

the Government cSLtOilSntu IN lTeIbnu by inc
London Parliament
Il Notwithstanding the many fair promises
made within vtg''y Se,t, ~ English states
men since the passage of the hateful act OF
union which destroyed the legislative lnde.
pendcnCe and aimed to Ollterate the national
Nv of Ireland, fifty cOciCIye acts have been
passed 10 chain the country 10 compact
forced upon her by corruption and the sword,
and the condition OF the island Is AT this day
as unsettled and as hostile to Eagllsh DONNA.
ton as it was when Grattan's voice in splendid
protest was heard tor the last time III an Irish
House Of Commons.
! We may pass over the insurrectIon Of 1903,
the struggle for religious equality, the war
against the titles, the agitation for repeal, the
efforts of young Ireland, and the revolutionary
attempt of the Fenan Brotherhood, and come
down to the last few months, 10 show the evil
effects Of foreign rule in Ireland, combined
with an agrarlan system which Is unique in
point of establishment and unlavoraOle in
point of atrocty. Within few months the
Irish people have been subjected 10 the old
process OF foreign coercion 10y military force
the recognized leaders OF the Irish nation have
/ been arbitrarily arrested and insolently I'M.
! prisoned and the alleged benefits of the recent
Land act have been forced upon the Irish ten.
antry by the rifles of powerful army and Il
military conptabulary The Irish members OF
the BRUSH Parliament who resisted 10y Paria-
mentary procedure the passage of = ieroClous
coercion act were toicDly expelled from the
House OF Commons, and such OF them rs
Iventured, in Ireland 10 give voice 10 the wish
es OF the Irish people were, IN common with
hundreds of their less prominent countrymer,
Iconsigned to Jail, under suspension OF the ha
beas corpus act, there 70 remain, daring the
pleasure OF the British Government, without
chance of appeal or hope OF trial. The Irish
prisons are even now filled with the men most
beloved by the Irish uauon--the enunciators
of its sentiments and the champions of It's lib.
erty. The civil law is paraly zed, and martial
law in spirit, if not in FORM las been substltu.
ted by pouring into Ireland 10000 foreign
mercenaries, and by converting what in all
other countries are he peace officers Of the
community into hostile garrison 10 maintain
the will OF an alien Government.
The Irish people during the whole course
Icf the agitation incepted by Michael Davltt
and carried forward 10y Charles Stewart Par
nell and his colleagues, kept within what is
called the constitutional law OF Great Britain
There was no secret attempt at combination
Everything was open, ana, even according TO
English law in Ireland, legal Nevertheless
the British Government has dealt with const
tutional agitation embodied III the Irish Ma
dealt with the secret revolutionary bodies that
preceded it, thereby indicating that legality
cuts no figure in her relations with Ireland ;
and that when any Irish organization, whether
legal or illegal, threatens her supremacy IN
the subject island, she drops the mask Of con.
jstltutiOnal government and strikes her victim
TO the earth with the mailed hand of relent-
less despotsm. This is no mere rhetorical as.
sertlOn. The American press, In its foreign
dispatches, has been filled with accounts of
fresh arrests of suspects" day by day since
the menlal Ministry reinaugurated the policy
of brute force until, at this hour, the prisons
in Ireland are surcharged with the best cltI-
zens OF the country who have dared to remain
faithful to the men whose patriotic ardor and
splendid ability have made the Irish cause,
both IN Its national and agrarlan aspect, the
leading question in the contemporaneous poll
tics of the British Empire, and opened the ear
of the outside world To statement of the fraud
and oppression practlced through many gen.
erations by the British Government on the
people of Ireland.
Deprived of the last vestIge of freedom of
opinion, terrorized by amiltary occupation Of
their soil, outraged in their hottest feelings by
the treacherous arrest of their tried and trust
ed friends, handed over, so far as the foreign
Government could hand them over TO the ven.
people, faithful to the doctrine of passive re-.
sistsnce, have IS an overwhelming majority,
stood by the manifesto OF mo rent" issued by
their Imprisoned leaders, and in so doing they
Iexposed themselves to all the penalties that
the British Government could impose upon
them, and pledged themselves that we as their
kindred in happier land, must see, for our
own honor as well as tor their salvation, that
they do not make IN vain.
As we cannot in person share whatever dan
ger the people in Ireland may be called upon
to face, ii would be ungenerOus in us to urge
them to acts beyond their power; but, having
assumed the attitude of passive resistance to
landlord robbery, as embodied IN the address
Of the Irish Government OF the people locked
IN Kimainham Jail we cannot do less than
sustain their action and render them that
moral and material aid which they SO urgent
|ly require.
We have but one opinion in regard to the
Irish landlord question, and that Is that it is
too infamous to have any existence in any
country that prctends to be civilized. Ii has
been established by the sword of conquest
maintained 10y foreign influence, and made in
famous by the plumber and wholesale starya
ton of our people. 1t was and is the natural
result of British rule in Ireland. The infamy
planted by the freeboOters of the long line Of
now maintained by all the resources at the
command of the British Government The
Irish people had their birthright torn from
them in the dark and brutal ages, and the
spOils that are the result of unjust oppression
are to-day 0he stolen property of a whole ma.
tom guarded for the robbers by the guns and
the bayonets of a power hostile to Ireland and
abhorred by her people.
In whatever efforts the Irish people may
now or in the future make to rid of alien dom
nation. and to regain the highest privilege
that people car enJoy-,hat Of selfgoyeen.
ment--we pledge ourselves to be their faithful
allies subject to their calls upon us tor aid, so
far as our power and resources may permit,
but debating to them no policy, and demand
ing from them no conditions.
| We believe ana declare that Ireland cannot
| Ike happy prosperous or contested under the
| rue of an alien Parliament and. furthermore,