The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-03-01

IL IlC lNhoC VI SoullllOilo, UlC outy "
the government does not cease so far as the
affairs of Ireland are concerned. Minister
Gladstone and his colleagues are pledged to
devise a measure that will deal directly with
the land laws of Ireland. Upon this measure
the energies of the Irish patriots will un-
have gained a moral victory in forcing the
English government to pledge itself to bring
in a bill affecting the Irish land question, and
the discussion of that bill under parliament
tary rules cannot prove a less victory. 1t has
been many years since the English parlia-
ment has seriously busted itself in projecting
measures looking to the amelioration of the
condition of the Irish people. The fact that
it has turned its attention to this end marks
the birth of a better feeling and a more
lenient spirit entertained by the mass of til"
English people toward the higl-spirited but
oppressed classes across the Irish channel.
The measure of redress that the new bill pro-
poses to effect, cannot yet be estimated, but it
is safe to assume that it will cover many
existing abuses, or there would be no bill i'll
troduced. BY judicious parliamenty action
the favorable conditions incorporated in the
measure may be greatly enlarged by the
home rulers without antagoniZing the popular
feeling of the English people. We therefore,
may see in the immediate future a strictly
parliamentary warfare between the support
ers of home rule and the radicals of the Eng
lish government.
The policy of intimidation that the COM
mons inaugurated some time since will, with
out doubt, be abandoned. The arrest of a
home ruler, unless for treason, would create a
state of feeling in England itself, and through
out the civilized world generally, that would
bode no good to the English government.
The Incarceration of Davitt, an act of ques-
tionable propriety upon the part-of the minis
try, was the first, and W are inclined to be-
lieve, will be the last blow of the kind aimed
at the leaders of the land league. The civili-
cation of the nineteenth century demands
that questions Involving the happiness of a
people and the peace of the kingdom shall be
treated with due Difference to public opinion,
the requirements Of humanity and the plead
ings of exact justice. The Irish people are
fortified in their position by tho consciousness
Of being in the right. The mass Of the Eng
'ish people know and acknowledge that right.
They know that their government has con-
coded to Canada, Australia and other depen-
denotes the right of self-government, and
denied the same to Ireland. Their innate
sense OF right and proverbial love of fair play
have frequently forced them involuntarily to
manifest their feeling Of indignation at the
treatment their neighbours receive at the
hands of their government. There can be no
question about this. The opinion of the
English people is undergoing a marked
change as regards the Irish people. The land
leasuers are agitating questions in which the
great mass OF Englishmen have a keen and
abiding interest. We confidently expect
to see at no distant future the farmers of
England and Ireland unite in a demand for a
measure that will in the end insure them the
proprietorship of the land they cultivate.
John Stuart Mill, the English philosopher,
said in his "Princ:ples Of Political Economy"
"The land Of Ireland, the and of every
country, belongs to the people Of that coun-
try. The individuals called landowners
have no right in morality and justice to any
thing but the rent or compensation for its
sstdble udtue." Some of the untra political
economists go still further than this, and de-
clare that if the lands belong to the people
the "individuals called landowners" have no
right to the rent. While this assertion may
not be supported by strict justice, it is clear
that what is true in regard to the English
mans right to the land he cultivates is equal
ly true in regard to the Irishman's right. The
channel of water between the two countries
does not change the conditions of the men
who till the soil on either side of it.
a distinguished political economist has
said that "The present system of land tenure
in England and Ireland, Cor rather the ex-
clusion of the people from land %tenure), is
one that is a fresh and continuous. robbery
that goes on every day and every hour. 1t is
toll levied upon labor, constantly and con-
tinuously. Every blow of the hammer
every stroke of pick, every thrust of the
shuttle, every throb of the steam engine, paws
its tribute. 1t levies upon the earnings of
men who, deep under ground, risk their lives,
and of those who over white surges hang to
reeling masts it claims the first reward of
the thrifty, and the fruits of the inventors
patient effort ; it takes little children from
play and from school, and compels them to
work before their bones are hard or their
muscles are firm it robs the shivering of
warmth, the hungry Of food, the sick of medi-
cine and the anxious of peace. 1t debases, it
embrutes, and it embit;ers."
A great and noble mission lies before the
land leaguers of Ireland. If the objects they
have set out to accomplish are pursued with
skill, with patience and with forbearanca