Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-01-05
The Irish Land Troubles.

The Irish Land Troubles.
The government of Great Britain is con-
stantly in difficulties on account Of the bru-
tai injustice of its laws. In India, in South
Africa, and in Ireland it is the same. The
purpose to favor the rich at the expense Of
the poor is unblushingly declared in all the
legislation of the British empire. Gun
ningly evading the odum Of chattel slavery,
and precautionary declaring that slave
cannot live in Britain, the ruling power sur
rounds TIE workingiuan With such net /
work of legislation that he lives aud dies in |
more suffering, poverty and disease than |
slaves elsewhere endure. Strange as it
may seem, this spirit of oppression pervades
all classes alike. Each descending grade
in the social scale submits to oppression from
the class above it, seemingly on condition
that it may oppress the class below, until at
last we reach the most degraded of the pau
perized workmen, who are protected by the
courts in brutality to their helpless wives
and children which would provoke the burn
ing indignation of christendom if exercised
against distinctly servile class. A man
who steals turnip from neighboring field,
or snares rabbit on rich mans land, is
punished by three months Imprisonment;
but if he beats and kicks his wife until her
flesh is a mass Of weals and bruises he is, if
arrested at all, discharged with an admoni-
ton from the court. This state of society
is being constantly testified to by the news
of the day as recorded in the columns of the
English press. There is not shame enough
felt in regard to it to cause the suppression
of such "news,' much less the correction of
| the evil.
Fortunately it is the tendency of all wrong
to go on increasing until it becomes an alb
solute necessity to abate it, in order that the
people may live. In England the oppression
of the poor by the rich, and of one class by
another, has made the English the chief col
onizing race on the globe. At this time
English farmers and working people are
leaving their native country by thousands to
escape the oppression of the land owners and
the employers of labor. England is the
richest country on the globe, but its wealth
is aggregated in the hands of few. These
turies ago. The middle class struggles and
strives, and manages to live in uncertain Sc
curity upon the crumbs that fall from their
masters table. The queen is unpopular be-
uha 10 top tn LOT he
fall. Below the middle class there is con-
stant and still fiercer struggle for bare exis-
: .anlse. and more than a quarter OF the people
of that wealthy nation are objects Of what
is called "charity," that is, they are not al
lowed enough from the proceeds of their
labor to keep them from pauperhood.
| In Ireland it is far worse. The rich men
of England and Scotland spend the great in
comes wrung from the producing class at
home; and thus, for service rendered, for
luxury secured, it returns again amongst the
people, tolled only by the cost of keeping
the nobility and gentry in gaudy Incidence
and luxurious vice. But in Ireland the rents
and tolls are collected by agents and sent
the continent, by absentee landlords. These
agents are more hated by the Irish than the
Roman tax-gatherers were by the Jews, and
with better cause. Their standing with
their employers and their security in their
places are exactly proportioned to the
amount of their remittances. They keep
the closest watch upon every tenant. If by
hard labor and skill he improves his income
from the land he occupies, an addition is at
once made to his rent. No leases are ever
granted. Any evidence of prosperity is a
pretext for raising the rent. If son OIL
daughter is sent to school, if anything new
and convenient is added OIL the farm that is
not Immediately for the advantage of the
landlord, if it is even rumored that tenant
has money left in his pocket after paying
his rent, the rent is raised. If complaint i:
made or any offence given, out goes the ten
ant, without a penny Of allowance for i'm
provements made, either upon land or fix
lures.
1t is unfortunate for the Irish as regard
. our sympathies that they have adhered u
their ancient religion, and hate the religion
of their oppressors. If they were Protest
ant people, thus scattered and pealed as the,
have been, by Catholic conquerors for thre
. centuries, every pulpit in America woul'
long have rung with their woes. But righ
e is right, and justice is justice. The liberal
ity Of our institutions and of our people bt
, gin to need vindication on this point.
Great stress is laid upon the "outrages
which are reported as occurring in ireland
Some landlords and agents have been shot
and many threatened. Non-intercourse wit
: them and their sympathisers is in man
places established, and popular opinion e,
presses itself unpleasantly towards the aic
! ers and abetters of oppression. Well, W
: Yankees, whose ancestors would not us
| stamps nor tea, and whose soldiers marche
so eagerly to the succor of the oppresse
negro with the song OF John Brown on thei
lips, ought not to condemn the Irish too 81
verely if at last, with starvation at thei
~, doors, a few turn and smite their foe
!, Their lives, taken as a whole, have surel
y been marvel of patient endurance "Su
!; ferance has been the badge of all the
z tribe"
. But whatever we may think or feel in r
q gard to Ireland, there are lessons to |
4 learned by us from the conditions of IL
O. people of both England and Ireland whic
concern the future of America We ha,
inherited ideas, habits of thought and Law
from our English ancestors. We have bee
'' taught and moulded by English literatur
and succeeding generations have grown I
with increasingly English ways of thinkin
L With little accumulated wealth and cont
ty nent OF unoccupied soil before us, the evi
:. of the English system have not seemed pc
sShh sible of reproduction here. But we are e
~ tering upon new era. America is gettir
NJ full of millionaires The society of o.
iis iRis centers of wealth is becoming aristocrat
~ anJ oorrnnt and makaa EnnIiah aociatv