New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-09

10 sas Ea1Ior OF The Tribune.
SIR: Mr. Smalley In his indictment OF the lrlsf
people. says that " in their own island they nave
abolished at least two of the ten commandments.
If this statement is correct it shows that the Irish
are initiating the English For, ever since the art
of printing was discovered, England has abolished
one of the ten commandments In all its utterances
about Ireland" Tbou shalt not bear false wit
ness against thy neighbour What is the military
and constabulary history of the English in Ireland
1t is one long red record of violations of the con-
mandment Thou shall not kill" What is the
history Of English landlordlsm in Ireland 1t is
police gazette chronicle of daily proofs, occurring
for more than three centuries of the abolition Of the
commandments against stealing and against covet-
ing ones neighbours lands and goods That is TO
say, if the Irish have abolished two of the command
ments the English have abolished four of them;
and England shows no serious disposition OF re-
newing obedience to the unabridged CODE
do not know which of the two commandments
Mr. smalley regards the Irish as having abrogated
in the interests of patriotism. There Is no divine
commandment that / ever heard of that inculeates
the duty of paying rack-rents and the only other
chief complaint against the Irish people Is that they
are addicted to physical elimination of landlords
Or 10 be perfectly fair has your able correspondent
divided the Irish decalogue-abbreviators into two
that the Irish landlords are mostly thieves and that
il will be assumed without proof that the Irish
peasantry are assassins If such be his meaning,
shall only undertake the refutation of One-haf Of
his accusatlon-that one which THE TRIBUNE edi-
toriallv advanced quite recentlyfor no honest man
who has studied Irish landlOrdism can defend 1t
in America 1t is capable of legal as well as his
torical proof that IN ninety-nIne instances out OF
every hundred the arabic or rentable value of the
farms of Ireland has been created not by the land
lord OF at his expense, sole or JOINT, but by the I'M
aided toll and at the exclusive cost Of the tenant
who hired them. There are one thousand evlctlons
every week IN ireland now Mr.. Gladstone justly
called an eviction a sentence OF starvation" But
every eviction is also cOntscation-that Is a
legalized theft for these evicted tenants get 10
compensation. The landlord appropriates the i'm
provements made by the tenants on the property
without paving for them. Even where the law
would enable the tenant-on the face of ito re-
cover damages as the legal costs would exceed the
amount that could be got from the corrupt and
nartisan bench of Ireland, the law that seems TO
protect the tenant is practically aworthless lnstru-
ment must leave the landlords, therefore, With
ont a defence.
Now when it comes to a defence of the IRISH
neasantrv against the charge of lawlessness the
facts are so astounding that any American VINO Il
familiar with them before be presents them must
have moral courage enough to be willing to see NM
self written down either as an INSCRIPTIONS par
tisan or as untrustworthy or as a fanatic II MS
honesty is admitted. his augment Will be derlded'
lam willing to take this chance again, as / have
done thrice befOre-when the men who told the
truth and nothing but the truth about the ouIrages
in Kansas were branded freedom shrlekers
VIII en- the men who told the truth and nothing but
the truth about American slavery were sugmatlzed
ne "nigrer-worshippersD; and when the men who
told the truth and nothing but the truth about
the nersecutions of the freedmen and Southern Re
nublicans were denounced for waving the bloody
shirt No one denies to-day that We told the truth
then Hundreds of thousands OF isworn witnesses
and official documents have vlndlcated us. Eng
land has the ear of the world to large extent on
the Irish question and as she gets her story told
first she makes it difficult for the truth to have
fair hearing But, as The TRIBUNE has been one
of the most potent influences to destroy this English
monopoly i do not despair, as so many OF my irlsh
friends despair Of teaching the American nation 20
discredt always the stones OF the prosecutors ABOUT
their victims until the victims are heard In re-
plv-not in Ireland only but in every struggling
European nation 1t is pity that the only free IA
ton on this earth should be willing to listen to any
despot until the voice OF the oppressed has first beer
heard.
Companions are odious." says an old proverb
Init surely. no American, however patriotic, who ha
believed the English stories about Ireland will OBJ
iect 10 have England aud our own country compared
to Ireland On a point on which we pride ourselves
en- rnuch rs on our obedience to the law. II can
not show that Ireland is more law-abiding thar
Eng laid and America l am willing TO abandon the
defence of the Irish peasantry. Isn't that IAN
proposit on-far enough, at least, to England lanc
our OWL nation
Let me begin with facts that gathered wher
was In the service Of THE TRIBUNE in Ireland, al
though did not publish them in The Tribune
for had not the space al my command to repro
duce one-tenth 0. the facts that you enabled me tc
gather m Ireland. If my facts destroy belief II
your theories You may find consolation in the
knowledge that you paid for the statistical shllla-
lab that now against you.
The comparative statistics of crime in the three
islands which first examined were published III
October or November 1880. The Dublin Freeman
Journals London correspondent, most trustwor-
thy authority, thus summarized them:
The outcry against crime in Ireland ought to be
prettv considerably checked by the result OF re-
turn Just published The proportion OF the Grim
nal classes in aud out of prison. taken together, IL
about half as large in Ireland as IN England and
Scotland The proportion OF cOnvlcts Is consider
ably below one-Iaf and persons In places OF punish
nent not more than one-half. A. regards peculiar
classes of crime find that under the head of " Of
fences against property with violence" llsnt that
fine specal Irish crime according 10 the raducers OF
Ireland scotland is about six times and England
and Wales about TWO aud half times as criminal as
| Ireland; and that under the head of " offences
against morality" the proportion IS as twelve to hVc
against Scot 9Id!
As to the responsibility of the Land League agita-
ton for the prevalence OF crime in Ireland the most
Trustworthy reply to this accusation is made. I'M
consciously. by the statistics published as well rs
| gathered by the British Government itself There
was batch of statistics issued by the Government
in January or early in February, 1881. l analysed
il Before reading these statistics ought to call