The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-01-17
THE IRISH LAND LEAGUE.
Speeches by Gen. Dow and Mr.. Murdoch.

The /. A. r. A. hall was filled to repletion
last evening by large and enthusiastic audi
ence. Gen. Neal Dow and John Murdoch OF
Scotland delivered addresses Both gentle
men received an ovation and their addresses
were frequently interrupted with applause.
Gen. Dow declared that there are no people IN
the world more industrious than the Irish,
more patient Of fatigue, more economical In
their habits; but the fruits of their toll are
reaped by the landlords Their condition is
that of negro slaves mold times in this country
He said that if they had fair chance OF sue
cess they would be justified by the genera
opinion of mankind in an attempt to gain ma
tional independence. The visitor to their
shores is struck with the fact that while the
country is fertile to high degree, capable OF
producing abundantly all the necessaries OF lie
the people are poor, very poor. Why is TINS
so? 1t is because the landlord receives in high
rents all the products of the land and constant
toll of the people, except the most meagre pit
lance, hardly sufficient, in many cases not suf-
ficient, to keep starvation away. In ireland
all the labor of the people in the same way goes
to the landlord, who has no thought, no care
for the food of those from whose labor all his
wealth comes. The slave master lived upon
the unrequited toll of his slaves. The Irish
landlords live upon the toll of their tenants,
whose share is only that which the horse has
or the OK, but in smaller quantity.
Ireland was conquered and crushed by Eng
land, having no cause of quarrel, and for CEN
turtles was kept under the iron heel. The in
terests of the Irish were never consulted by
their conquerors. Irish industries were for
hidden and suppressed by law The people
were made poor and kept poor by the law.
Many of the laws enacted by the British Parlia-
ment for oppression of the Irish were atroc-
ious, some of which have disappeared from the
statute books only in our own day. The
Irish are now the only people in the world ex-
cept the Poles who are habitually treated as
conquered people, with no recognized claim to
just and equal rights before the law
There has never at any time, been any step
taken by the British Parliament to soften the
oppressive laws bearing upon Ireland, or in
any way to ameliorate the condition OF the peo-
pie except under the compulsion of an intense
agitation.
There are few people in the world who have
been misgoverned and oppressed as the Irish
have been, few who have had such just and
abundant reasons for resistance to the govern
ment. Our fathers resisted what they called
the tyrannical policy of the British govern
ment, rough long, costly and bloody war
of sevea years. But the griefs of which they
justly complained and boldly and bravely re-
sisted to the bitter end were as nothing COM
pared with those under which the Irish suf-
fered The unjust policy of the British gov
eminent towards the American colonies was
rather violation of abstract principles of just
and equal laws from which in fact our fathers
experienced no great practical evils. But the
policy of England towards Ireland has imposed
upon her speople the greatest injustice, and
practical hardships and wrongs.
Mr.. Murdoch claimed that the land agitation
in Ireland was an educational process, teach
ing the Irish people their rights, and how to
insist upon and maintain them; familiarizing
them with methods of political action and the
use of political weapons; and training them to
the practice of local self-goyernment He dis
cussed the condition of land-tenants in Ireland |
and Scotland and predicted that the agitation |
over the channel would provoke North Britons |
to an assertion of their right to the ownership |
of the soil they titled. Much of his address was
devoted to eulogy of the Gaelic language and |
literature and Gaelic achievements In poetry |
and kindred forms of art.