New-York tribune., 1882-04-21
IRE1AND VIEWED BY 4 FRIEND.

the country. One OF our readers confessed Ill
yesterdays issue that his own views had been
reversed by this speech, and expressed his
gratitude for the report and the impartial estl-
mate placed upon it. 1t is not, however
new thing for THE TRIBUNE to allow the
friends of Ireland to make the best plea they
can in her behalf Democratic newspapers
and the troop of agtators which have per-
sistently and maliciOusly misrepreSented I's
course on this question have memories con-
veniently short, or they would hesitate
before charging it with deliberate intent 10
suppress facts and to prejudice Americans
against the Irish cause. Now the truth Is thao
no journal in this country that Is not con-
Quoted in the special interests OF irish readeIs
has taken as great pains to enable the puDhc
to form an intelligent and impartial estimate
of the merits of this controversy az The 1RIB-
rNr. When the famine was at It's worst ana
the agrarian agitation was opening, it dis
matched to the island Mr.. James Redpath an en-
thusiast in the Irish cause, and published long
series of letters from his hand, in which the
wrongs of an impoverished population and the
moral and economic evils of an accursed land
system were brought to light Our accomplished
London correspondent, the genuineness or
whose patriotism has been so recklesSly assalled
by malicious scribblcrs and narrow-mlnded
fanatics, has done full justice TO the efforts
of statesmen of brain and conscience, like Mr..
Gladstone and Mr. Bright, to restore order
and to redress grievances i'll the unhappy,
miscoyerned island. His convictions we have
shared in the main, having had an instinct
i've feeling that the English Liberals could do
more, if they were given the chance, to help
the impoverished tenantry than parliamentary
Obstructonists and crossroads demagogues.
At the same time we have neglected no op-
portupitv of giving Mr.. Parnell, Mr.. Mccarthy,
Judge Black or any other conspicuous advO-
cate of the Irish people free access to our
columns and a respectful hearing.
judge Black tells us there has been mon
strous Injustice and criminal neglect in Eng
glands treatment of Ireland since the Con-
oncst. He contends that there has been de-
liberate effort to reduce the tenantry as much
as possible to ignorance, illiterate barbarsm
and pauperiSm. He denounces the land sys-
TEN as a gigantic monopoly clothed with the
privilege of deSOlating the country and starv-
ing the industry of the people. lie attributes
tho depopulation and wretchedness OF the
island to the atrocious misgovernment which
has bliehted and cursed it. He lays bare
the false pretences of political piety ami
the horrors of religious persecution, and
forces home the charge that English big
otrv was merely simulated to cover Eng
| Ish rapacity. He is right. We have said
as much many times. The attempt to
| force upon Ireland laws and institutions
that were at variance with the instincts, ira
| dtions, customs, habits of thought and pa
triotc and religious instincts of the people is
one of the most glaTing crimes-One OF the
most criminal blunders in the history Of ma
tiops. For the crime and the blunder the
statesmen and Parliaments of many genera
tions must render an account. The infamy is
70 be distributed through several centuries of
English history, and the Irish people them
selves. although grievously sinned against, are
not wholly guiltless. Let the burden of re-
proach rest where it belongs. Let the blood
that cries to Heaven dye the hands that never
can he clean.
| But here we must take issue with Judge
| Black. Why should ho be cruelty unjust to
the Liberal statesman who has acknowledged
the trausgressions Of the past and labored all
his life long to repair the fortunes and redress
the wrongs of lrelandY Why should Mr.. Glad
stone be singled out for curses when he has
sought to bless the island with remedial lcgs
! lation7 If he is his Irish brothers keeper to-
dav. he has not been during the centuries of
misrulc. If he is to be judged, it must be by
the great landmarks of reform which he has
set up in Ireland, and not by the infamy and
blindness of former generations. How un-
! Just and partisan is the view which
.Judpe 3lack takes of NIr. Gladstone's agraran
measures He says that the present Ministry
entered upon Office solennly pledged that Ire
| land should have justice, but instead Of facing
the great question of the day, " "shufllcd out of
| at their promises and threw themselves into the
"hands of the Tories >; and that the act of
1850 was ga mere abortion" and "ceased to
olive and was buried out of sight in less than
ga wear" The truth is that that act never
became law, but was rejected by the Tory
Lords, and that it was radical measure for
preventing evictions for non on-payment OF rent
| II was the defeat of that act that led to re-
newal of the land agitation and made the COcr
cion acts political necessity; and when the
Land act was introduced the following year,
it was accepted by large majority of the
Irish party in Parliament, by veteran re-
| former, like Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, by the
prclates and clergy of the Roman Catholic
Church. and by the best class of Irish tenants,
as a substantial act of justice. What can
Judge Black mean when he denOunces the
Liberals for shuflng out of their promises
and turning Tories, or when he describes the
Land act as "quack plaster, which covered
"scarceIy a perceptible part of the sore, and
"what it did touch was made worse by its
"poisonous irritation -? Does he not know
that that act conferred upon Irish tenants
rights and immunities enjoyed by no other body
of tenants on the face of the earth? ? Does he
| ,..o,, chat ~ hrouDLt within tLo;r ,oo.I