New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-16
IRISH GRIEVANCES.
A LETTER FROM JAMES REpPATH.

INABILITY TO GOVERN THE IRISH PEOPLE AN
ARGUMENT FOR ALLOWING THEM TO GOVERN
THEMSELVES.
70 the Editor OF The Tribune.
SIR: insist that until England, Scotland and the
United States can present fair a record as Ire
land there is no justification for the pharasacai
accusations constantly made in the British press
and so often repeated in the American press. as 70
the awless character of the Irish people IL should
be borne in mind that the British Government i'sen
collected and published the statistics that COM
mend Ireland and condemn England and Scotland
But there are two other factors to be noteu III
studying the British statistics Of Irish crime. one
Of these factors is admirably stated by Mrs. MaIga
ret F. Sullivan in her recent work entitled =" Ire
land of To Day." which, although written oy an
American is the best statement OF the case Oh ire
land that has ever been made by anyone, whether
Irish or American. Mrs. Sullivan says:
The character of the crime in the three countries
should also be considered. Al IN iIeaanu ,e ev -
reasonably certain of arrest; In England a citllon
may do everything to policeman short OF crackIns
his skull before he is arrested. In Ireland the con-
stabulary are armed with revolvers, rifles swords
which they mercilessly on the smaiieso pre-
teuce; every American who has been IN i.ond h;a
knows that policeman cannot employ even ms
club upon an offender except IN absolute sell
defence In Ireland one of the crimes when SVEN
the aggregate Of arrests Is ti anilsd criminal
,Sayncas Of Ireland are of so trivial character
that in any other country Ill the worlu ho oinoi"'
notice would be taken OF It,
For example: within twelve months boy OF
seven or eight years of age was actually brought MP
before court of magistrates charged with having
,ntimidated a representative of Her MaJestys
Government, by whistling a snatch called harvey
DuH.y-a sort of Irish Yankee Doodle. Last SUM-
mer, was present at court in LtterRehny' h
Donegal at which q respectable citizen, one Oh the
leading shopkeepers. was tried for intimidation.
Tho evidence showed that, in the friendliest con-
yersation with neighbor. blacksmith, whom he
had known all his life, he had remarked that 1t was
unwise and mean in this person to have taken a
farm from which tenant who reclaimed 1t had
been most cruelty evicted
MFR. Healy. member of Parliament, in his
pamphlet, "Why there is an Irish Land
League shows that the statistics on
which Mr.. Gladstone based the passage Of the
Coercion Act of 1881 were not the returns of con-
victions nor even of indictments but of reports by
the constabulary and that an analysis Of these re-
turns demonstrates that the number OF real crimes
was very small. Mr.. Healy says
Intimidation by threatening letters and other
wise" which neither innicts loss nor injury on
person or property forms l,076 out OF the tOtai Oh
> 59O-thus leaving Ola cases in which, according
10 the police, either person or property In some
way suferei These thousand odd cases, in the
oninion of the virtuous British Parliament, justi-
fed the suspension of the liberties of i've and a
half millions of Irish people for over eighteen
months and our disarmament for hve years
Even these LOLA cases represent fictitious total
ior in the Blue Books giving particulars prese nted
to Parliament, the same offences are duplicated
friplicated uuadrupled and even quntuped in the
most ridiculous manner in order TO swell the men
dacious indictment against the Land League;
Thus some women take processes rom palm and
pledQe him to serve no more. That figures under
three terrible heads of crime: assault; robbery; ;
administering illegal oaths An armed party
manufactnred-the three above and illegal
assembly, in addition. 1t will amply repay any
one to invest few pence in the Blue Books Their
perusal Is almost as amusing as - Gil Bias"
In further Analysing the constabulary statistics
Mr. Heay writes:
Murder. as compared with former times has, it
will be noticed, almost ceased and of the above
eight cases lin 1850, which the Police regard as
aprarian the Irish public hold that in at least half
the murders had nothing whatever to do with the
land Many of the other reported outrages are like
those Just alluded to-" show" offences got up &C
cording to instructions to swell the totals IN the
interest of the landlord official class who have the
entire government of Ireland in their hands.
The manufacture of threatening letters last year
became a regular trade in land agents offices and
police barracks; and if sheep got hurt among the
rocks or a heifer fell over cliff down went the
verdict as another agrarian outrage. The owners
of cattle have rect temptation to tall IN with
the police view IN order to get compensation for
malicious injury from the grand juTiesIwhch
bodies are entirely composed of landlords and
agents. and many persons are not without suspi-
cion that several of the incendiary fres-where in
fer1or hay is burnt and COMPENSATION for prime
meadowng is afterward granted-may also be
traced to the state of the grand jury laws.
Crime. then is neither so frequent nor OF so ag-
rrayaring character in Ireland as IN England and
Scotland, nor even as in Philadelphia. Why, then,
has Ireland so bad reputation for lawlessness IN
Americas Because q report of every assault and
every murder is cabled over here to influence
American opinion. Surprising that IN 1879, SEN
of hOmi-
eides committed in PHILADELPHIA had been cabled
over TO England, what would Europe have thought
of that most respectable city, | have shown that
Irelands proportion Of murders that year should
have been 800 in order to put her on an equality
with Philadelphia and vet that there were only
four murders in Ireland. Surprising that every
murder committed in the United States during thu
last ten years had been announced by cable II
England and deliberately commented on by thu
English press what would have been thought abou
ms in Europes England has vital interest in con
ciliating American goodwill on this Irish question
and therefore she spares no trouble and no expens
to malign Ireland here. I do not mean otlicia
England only, and not democratic England at all
but the entire arstocratic ring that supports lris
landlordism and English feudalism as well.
Now wish it most emphatically to be understood
that while do charge Mr.. Smalley with having pei
sistently misrepresented the Irish people, hav
never had the shadow of a shade OF doubt in hi
perfect honesty. In a little book of mine. pub
lisbed last spring. entitled Talks about Ireland,
there is reprinted an interview with reporter o
The Boston Globe in which there is this passage:
RAM see that a local paper said last week
GNr Smalley, of THE NEw-YORK TRIBUNE, a col
respondent Of exceptional information, declare
that since the beginning OF the disturbance, n
week has witnessed greater political excitement Q
more fragrant instances of lawlessncss than tn
week before last"
i .-No man who knows Mr.. Smalley wonl
doubt any statement made on hts persona
authority. III meant knowedgel. But instead @
being in position where he can procure exoeF
tonai Information he in precisely the worst piac
i'm Europe TO learn the truth about lreland-Lop
oil. fnol aufin al infornafin