New-York tribune., 1881-10-28
PRICE FOUR CENTS
THE ARREST OF PARNELL.
ITS CAUSE AND EFFECT

| iiOsLLf UNANIMOUS IN APPROVING TILE AR
hEsr-fHE LAND ACT NOW TO HAVE FAIR
CHANCE TO EXERCISE IT'S BENEFITS UPON THE
IRISH TENANTRY-PARvEII,s IMPRISONMENT
| NECESSARY FOR THE FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY
OF IRELAND
| FRoM TIE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRrnusrJ
| LONDON. Oct. 15.-At last the Government has
sgniiied IFS purpose to govern. Twice over il has
affirmed its new departure. once by the mouth of
Mr.. Gladstone at Leeds, and again by the hand of
Mr. Forster at Dublin. Mfr. Parnell has been ar
rested. He had warning from the Prime Minister
which he chose to meet with defiance. Probably he
did not understand, what was well understood IN
other quarters, that the stern sentences which
angered him a summons and an eleyenth-hour
repentance. Mr.. Parnell has a reputation for cool
ness if not for but there have been signs Of
late that his head was turned He believed and
am bound to say he had some color for his belief,
that he could brave the Government with impunity,
so long as he kept within the letter Of the law In
the speech in which he answered Mr.. Gladstone, he
publicly avowed his policy to be of personal
| safety. He weighed and counted his words; he
clOaked his meaning in careful phrases. perfectly
Ineligible to those to whom they were addressed,
but so vague, so hedged about with qualifications
full of hints and nnuendOes and gaps to be filled
up by his hearers. that ne was confident he ran no
risk of arrest He forgot that he splitting hairs
with of infinitely subtler intelligence than his
own, and he forgot. or perhaps did not know, that
there is limit to English respect for legal techni-
calites. and that there is maxim to which,
whatever his politics or sympathies every English
man subscrbcs. The Safety Of the Kingdom is tho
supreme law. The people of England, the immense
majority of them. have long been convinced that
Mr. Parnell ought to be shut up. The Government,
under sense of direct responsibility and with an
intimate knowledge of the condition Of Ireland,
have waited and waited; have borne and forborne
till the question in every mind longer is whether
the blow ought to have been struck, but whether it
has not been struck too late.
Liberal journalists, as in duty bound perhaps are
occupying themselves in furnishing the public with
snch selections from the spoken words OF Mr. Par
nell as may be thought to justify his arrest. My
belief is that the English people are in a mood to
interest themselves but slightly in inquiries Of
that sort. They judge broadly They know and
everybody knows that Mr.. Parnell had set
up government of his own in Ireland. He had APP
pealed and appealed successfully. to the coyetous-
ness and other base appetites and passions of the
Irish people, and had founded his power on them.
Mr. Gladstone with AN outspokenness most unusual
in an English statesman, said at Leeds that Mr..
Parnel had preached the gospel of public plunder.
He had done that and he had done much
more. He had organized Irish society," The
Land League-I do not speak of its ostensble but
of its real obects-is conspiracy against property,
and Mr. Parnell the chief conspiratOr. he had de-
clared war not against this Government or that but
against the principles which underlie all Govern
| ments He was, moreover, using agrarian agi-
tatiOn for ulterior purposes of which he made no
secret He meant to overthrow English rule in Ire
| land. and said so. The League bore sway over two
thirds of Ireland in part by the hope of plunder il
held out, in part by sheer violence and
| terror. 1t was daily becoming stonger and
| the lawful Government of the country daily
| becoming weaker A wit said that if Mr. Forster
had not arrested Mr. Panell, Mr.. PaTnell likely
before long to Mr. Forster That not true in
the letter of course but ii is perfectly true that the
League was better obeyed than the Castle and that
Mr.. Forster himself had become persuaded that the
Land Act would have no chance if the League were
allowed to perfect their opposition toit With such
state of things existing 1t is idle 10 seek for usti-
fcaton of Mr.. Parnelps arrest in phrase or two
more incautousy turned than the bulk OF Them
The justification of il is in the state of things he has
created in the spirit of lawlessness he has spread
abroad. in the terror by virtue Of which he regns,
in fine purposes he avOws for the future as well as IN
tbo disastrous and shameful work he has thus far
accomplished.
On tbe immediate effect Of the arrest, only word
mr. two need be said The Prime Minister announced
il at the Guildh all amid burs of joyful accla-
nation which lasted fully five minutes.
Tbere are tender-souled Radicals who think
this iov unseemly Fit were mere JOY over the ln-
carceratlon of an obnoxious and objectionable indi-
vidual IL might be. But IL is not that. ltls tne
response the City of London TO the taTdy DECLARE
tion Of the Government that they me the reign OF
Iawessness in Ireland to cease, and the reign OIL law
IN berin arain As such it is not unseemy The
Tha
tne cause of order and honesty and just
rpIe il everything and the citizens of London did
well TO hail with enthusiasm the assurance thao
returning reason is to lift alOt her scale In Ireland
The occlamations of the English ard Scotch press
are not less hearty. The one or two exceptions do
but make the general unanimty clearer. Ana again
= is n he noted how the opposition which is so
strenuous in theory is senced by an energetic act.
The very Journals which first argued against coer
cion and then proclaimed it failure, are forced TO
approve this application of the law they hated IL
was inevitable, says the foremost OF them that
tbis arrest should occur, if order is to
he kept this winter in Ireland what
more need be saidl Which of the two
is the more desirable; that Mr.. ParnelI should
20 free and Ireland be in chains, or that Ireland
he free and Mr.. Parnell an inmate of Bilmainham
mil? You cannot have both. Which will you
choose? That such of the Irish papers as are more
or less openly League should rage against ths
arrest and that the League itself should pass reso-
lutions of vtuperatve indignation, is matter OF
course.
The ultimate and lasting effect of the arrest is tho
thing il most concerns us to know. Mr. Psrnells
Irish supporters make haste to declare that tho
Jeaque will 60 on as before, ana
that the seizure of its leader will only strengthen
his hold on the Irish people. 1t might have
that effect if the Government were content TO smut
mn Mr.. Parnen and stop there; though don't oe-
ieye even then the act would be without dement,
But the English people assume, and have rgh' 70