Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-31

A@~s - enob biAS Az iSAb PloPOsisioi ~ 70
too many ways, as Archbishop McCabe
points out in his vigorous pastoral denun-
citation of it. It is not merely the rankest
communism, but it is utterly incompatible
with the maintenance of any semblance
of civilized society. And this wild and
immoral proposition has been put forward
at the very moment when the English
Government had conceded to the Irish
tenants a law which is admitted to be the
most radical measure ever enacted, and
which is complained of by the landlords as
practically abolishing the greater part of
their proprietorial rights. 1t is indeed by
no means clear that the Land Act itself
may not prove eventually inimical to the
progress of the country by going too far in
this direction. However that may be, it
is now acknowledged that it operates in
the interest of the tenants, and they are
not likely to forego the manifold advan-
tages of such law for the sake of follow
ing Parnell in programme which not only
involves civil war, but which would de-
s!roy the value of all the realty in the
island.
For it must be remembered that in Ire
land there are very few tenants who are
not also landlords. The practice of SUBJ
letting has been carried on to greater ex.
tent in that country than anywhere else in
the world, and it follows from this that if
the tenants could escape the payment of
rent to the owners of the soil, they them.
selves would by the same measure be cut
off from the solid profits they derive from
sub-letting their lands. In fact there is,
outside of the cities, but one class which
has not more to lose than to gain by the
adoption of the "no rent" policy, and
that is the class of small laborers who
rent little patches of land for potato gar
dens from the petty tenant farmers. This
class is considerable as regards numbers,
bit it is very deficient in political in
fluence, and it could not either begin or
maintain such programme as Parnell's.
OF course there are higher considerations
than these involved. The Irish people are
not less moral than others, and they are
therefore no more disposed to embrace a
general act of plumber. They know that,
despite all the sophisms of the Parnellites,
the right of property in land is a substan-
tial one. They know that this right can.
not be effected by any consideration as to
how the land originally belonged. For
il that consideration were to be accepted
as possessing any force there is not CIV
ilized people on the face of the earth who
could show any valid title to their lands.
And the Irish are shrewd enough to re.
alize that while the no rent programme
might in some instances help present ten.
ants, its application hereafter would be
sure to counterbalance all such temporary
benefits. They see that in abolishing the
rights of landed property, moreover, the
rights of all other kinds of property would
be undermined. It is only step from
Parnell's proposition to the completest
community of goods and when Commun-
ism is proposed it is always more or less
disguised plan for robbing those who have
something, in order to give it to those who
have nothing. 1t is impossible to carry on
political agitation upon such basis.
Parnell in truth has hoisted the black flag,
and all who are not prepared to advocate
piracy must come away from him. And
this is evidently the feeling, not only ev-
erywhere outside of Ireland, but almost
everywhere in Ireland. The Land Leaguers
were never anything like as strong as they
represented themselves. They made a
great deal of noise, but the sudden and
almost complete collapse of the organiza-
ton upon the arrest of the leaders shows
that the League, like the Southern Con-
federacy, was "hollow she'll" In fact
but for the support the organization has
derived from the Irish in this country it
would probably have collapsed before, for
the passage of the Land Act was really an
evidence that it had ceased to have any
reason for existence.
1t is not perhaps to be expected that a
movement of this kind will die quietly.
Fenianism continued to stir long after it
had ceased to possess any real vitality,
and as long as contributions can be
coaxed from the United States we shall
continue to hear of the Land League. But
| it is clear that the Land Courts have now
taken the place of the League in the
public attention. The new law has been
taken advantage of with promptness and
universally which shows how much the
tenants expect from it. For these actual
and tangible benefits they are not prepared
to substitute further continuance of an
agitation which had done very great injury
to business of all kinds, and had almost put
the country under martial law The con-
test was too unequal, and the goal was too
vague and dubious. "No rent" could
not be adopted as permanent principle,
/ duQ IL COuiu OHlf ShudIEdSS auu c.uOlblcI
sufficiently unsatisfactory condition of
things Ireland has preferred the Land
Act to Parnellism, and in making this
choice she has exhibited wise discre-
ton. It is possible that England may
venture upon further legislation in the
direction of home rule, which seems to be
the almost inevitable outcome of the present
situation, but whatever is done in that
way will have to be unhampered by any
such revolutionary and impracticable prop
osition as that of "No Rent"
MAcyEAcH AND THE sTAR-RoUTE CASES.
There is something little mysterious in
| 11o r. Ho,1-,1 .ob