The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-02-02
ireland Past and Present.
st. Louis Republican.


One OF the most Interesting, as 1t GER
tsinly 10 one Of the most suggestive fsa-
lures of the Irish question, is the repro
duction in the present OF the wrong and
suffering Of the past. 1t is continuance
rather than reproduction. for in no period
during che past hundred years at least
have the wrong and suffering been absent
or materially different from swhat they are
now. This fact-the Importance OF which
in forming Judgment Of Irish Affairs we
need not dwell upon-is proved By the
testimony of number Of most reliable
witnesses which We propose to submit.
In letter written in l772, after tour
of Ireland, Benjamin Franklin says:
1.-THE bulk, of che people are tenants,
EXTREMELY poor, living in the most sordid
wretchednsss, in dirty novels OF mud and
straw, and clothed only in rags.
Had I never been in the American col
onies. but were to form my Judgment Of
civil society by what have lately seen, /
should never advise q nation OF savages to
admit of civilization, for | assure you that
in the possession and enjoyment OF tho
various comforts of life, compared to these
peopls.ayery Indian lisa gentleman, and the
effect of this kind of civil society seems to
be the depressing rnultitudss below the
savage state that few may De raised
above it"
rArthur Young. F, r. s., writing in
ITO. says;
ut must DO very apparent to every
traveller through that country that the
lsboring poor are treated with harshness.
and are in all respects so little considered
that their want of Importance seems
perfect contrast to their situation in Eag-
land. of which country, comparatively
speaking, they reign sovereigHs
To discover what the liberty of the people
IL we must live among them. and cot look
for il in the statutes OF the realm, The
language of the written law may be that of
liberty, that the situation of the poor may
speak no language but that of slavery.
There is too much of this contradiction IN
Ireland. A long series Of expressions.
aided by many very ill,judged laws. have
brought landlords into habit of exertiDg
o very lofty superiority, and their vassals
into that Of an almost unlimited sUbmis'
sion: speaking language that is desplsed,
protesting religion that is abhorred. and
being dissrmed. the poor find themselves
in many cases slaves even in the bosom of
soritte,s liberty. Many strokes
in the Irish character are evidently to be
ascribed to the extreme oppression under
which they live. If they are as great
thieves and liars as they are reported. it is
certainly owing to this cause"
Friedrich Won Raumer, professor of his 4
tory at Berlin. who visited ireland in 1885
and lS41, foundsit impossible ito describe
the misery he saw there. 1t convinced him
that Europe. too. has its pariahs-yet not
Europe but ireland alone" Gustave De
Beaumont, the celebrated French public
ist. whoswas in Ireland in 1885 and 1887,
says:
Il have seen the Indian in his forests
and the negro in his chains, and thought
that | beheld the lowest term of human
misery. but did not then know the lot of
Ireland.
Irish misery forms q type by itself. of
which there exists nowhere else either
model or imitation. In seeing it, one
recognizes that no theoretical limits can
be assigned to the misfortuues of
nations"
KOHL, famous German traveller. visit
ed the country about the same time. and
his opinion is summarized as follows:
He had pitisd the Lstts OF Livonia for
living in huts built of unhewn logs of trees.
with the erevices stopped up with moss.
but having seen the West of Ireland he
regarded the Let's, Esthonians and Fin
landers as living in state of comparative
comfort, He doubted whether in the
whole world a nation could be found
subjected to the physical privations of the
awzkA - a
Russian peasant was a slave, but he was
housed and ted to his contentment; the
Hungarians were not the best used people
in the world. but even the humblest had
good wheaton bread and wine for his daily
fare; in Ssrvia and Bosnia, if the people
were badly housed. they were we'll clad
the Tsrtars Of the Crimea were poor and
barbarous, but they looked at least like
human beings; in short, nowhere but in
Ireland could be found huma1 creatures
living from years end to years end on the
same root, berry or weed. There were
indeed, that did so. but human
beings nowhere save In Ireland.
Even 1uglis, an English tourist of 1885 |
said, 1T is undeniablesthat the condition
of the Irish poor is UNNECESSARILY worse
than that of the West Indian slave" and
his countryman. Barrow. the next year
said: mo picture drawn by the pencil,
none by the pen, can possibly convey an |
idea of the sad reality ~ There is
no other country on the face of the earth |
where such extreme misery exists as in |
ireland" Slsmondi, the Italian pol,i- |
sal economist after q THOROUGH investi
CATION of the subject some forty year ago,
thought that the government should ad |
dress these words to the Irish landlords;
lyon have endangered the whole Brit |
sh empire. in driving more than q quarter
IF ts.population to aidistress which but for
bur Intervention could only have finished |
By rebellion. You have shaken the
of society itself by render
ng the laws of property hate
ul. The first right of pro-
oerty ia that of the cultivator to live on
he fruit of his labor, and that right you
nave violated; we shall interfere hence
ourth without fear or scruple to guarantee /
[ to him in its entirety We demand that
Upon the rich soil of Ireland, in the midst of
Ill It's iuxuriant vegetation, the Irish peas
mt shall live ar least as yysII ne Tho raaSant