National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-02-05
The Irish ReyoIution.

ceedlngS III Ireland, make it tolerably
clear that England is not dealing simply
with disorderly members of Parliament,
nor yet with riotous mobs in Ireland.
The despised and oppressed people of that
island, under fiery and enthusiastic lead
ers, whose Judgment is yet to be tried, are
in a state of revolution. This revolution
is organizing, and bids fair to assert itself
before many days in an Irish National
Assembly or convention. The Bull of
England roars and bellows, paws the
ground, and, with blood in his eye, dashes
furiously at his revolutionary foes. The
filibustering tactics of the Irish members
on Wednesday night SO exasperated the
government that in the early morning
the Speaker relieved the Deputy Speaker,
who had been occupying the chair, and
proceeded to violate all rules and prece-
dents by arbitrarily stopping the debate.
He delivered written speech, in which
he modestly declared that the minority
should close their mouths, and then ad-
mitted his want of authority to do this
by saying that the House would have to
"assume more efficient control over its
debates, or intrust greater authority to
the Chair"
What would be said if in our House of
Representatives Speaker Randall should
say that, under the rules as they now are,
the majority could not get on fast enough
in the consideration of questions, and that
new rules ought to be adopted to remedy
the inconvenience, and should then pro-
ceed to apply the proposed remedy before
any change had been made i'll the rules q?
Would this country submit to the tyran-
nical gagging of minority, even of thirty
members of Congress, by the Speaker in
violation of the rules adopted by the
House, merely because he deemed it de-
manded by what he considered a crisis
The London Times, remarking upon the
extraordinary and unauthorized action of
the Speaker, says:
The assumption of responsibility by the Speaker
| of the House of Commons for the course of action
adopted by the Government is irregular in form,
| but is clearly justified in substance, and will be
! abundantly condoned by the common sense of the
whole nation.
"Irregl lar in form " is soft phrase for
lawlessness and assumption of respon-
sibility" is velvet casing for the claw
of usurpation. One cannot fail to draw
from this an analogy with the "assump-
ton of responsibility in this country in
1861. That was an assumption in be-
half of fslave-property laws, which, though
not assailed, were deemed by the prop
erty-owners to be in Jeopardy. In Great
Britain an infamous land system prevails,
under which Irishmen in Ireland are
trespassers upon their own land. The
island belongs mainly to nonresident
Englishmen. The people have such rights
as have rats in a barn.. E., they may have
nests there until driven out by the big
dog of the barn-owner This dog in Ire
land is usually a mean sort of cur, and
his owner gives him his own way among
the rats. If the earth and the fullness
thereof were the private property of a
score of persons under existing laws, the
property-owners would find it difficult to
enforce their rights against the balance
of mankind. But if one-third of king
dom, acquired originally against the pop
ular will by the corruption of their rep
resentatives, is owned by few, the latter
may, as they do now, call upon people in
the remainder of the kingdom to lash
them into submission, and single enemy
of theirs in Parliament may stifle the out
cries of their representatives, as has just
been done.
Property in land sits in the House of
Commons and tramples down law in pre-
tended defense of law. The right to own
principalities and to drive whole popu-
lation forth as fugitives upon the face of
the earth comes face to face with the
law protecting the liberty of the citizen.
The rats, being cornered in the barn, are
fighting the dogs sent to worry them.
The government asks for arbitrary power
in Ireland. Her sons contend against it,
praying for the alienation of the suffer-
ings of their people. The laws to protect
property cannot be enforced unless the
laws protecting the rights of persons are
withdrawn by suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus. 1t is to be a fight. The
Land Leaguers have an executive COM
mittee. That committee has already
sounded the note of revolution. On
Wednesday, at Dublin, the League re-
solved to hold convention between the
passing of the coercion bill and its becom-
ing a law. Delegates to this Irish con-
stituent assembly are to be elected imme-
diately under instructions issued by the
executive committee. That convention
will constitute the provisional govern
ment of Ireland, and its DEGREES will be
the law of that country unless success
fully resisted by English arms. We can
draw no other conclusion from the situa-
ton.
In 1861 slave property in the United
States took unlawful and violent steps
against Government regarded as un-
friendly. In 1881 landed property in
Great Britain takes unlawful and violent
steps within the government for the pro-
lection of its feudal prerogatives The
shifting phrase-mongers then, as now,
admitted that property was proceeding in
a manner irregular in FORM" but they
declared it to be clearly justified in SUBJ
stance" Property rights were set above
human rights then, as they are now. Eng
land'srulers stood by the right Of the slave
owners, and Gladstone and Russell We'd
with each other in sympathy for and sup
port of the slave rebellion. The sacred
right of revolution is now appealed to in
behalf of man as it then was in behalf of
property in man. Gladstone set property
above human rights in 1861. and en-