The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1882-04-28
~s BLOOMSBURY, Pa. FRIDAY, APRIL %. 1882.
JUDGE BLACK ON IRELAND.
THE YOKE OF POLITICAL BONDAGE.

Judge Dlack spoke upon tne 1rlSn
troubles. lie said that for seven CEN
turies Ireland has worn the yoke Of
political bondage. During all that
time, except one short interval, she has
not been permitted to make any laws
for the protection of her own people in
their persons or property. What they
call home rule, or the privilege of local
self government, is wholly denied
them. Their affairs are entirely di.
rected by another power, whose orders
are executed by agents and overseers
sen: upon them for that purpose.
Such a government is sure to be ad-
ministered without the smallest regard
for the rights, interests, { ceilings or
wishes of the people who are subject
to it. The want of home rule in Ire
land is the want of everything else. AS
a consequence of that privation she
is oppressed, degraded, insulted, steep
ed in poverty to the very lips and
overwhelmed with afflictions which
make her peculiarly what Senator
Bayard has called her "the Island
of Sorrows The general notion is
that England and Ireland are united
Kingdoms. But there is no real union
There is connection made by force /;
they are ''pinned together with bayo-
nets Ireland is not governed ac-
cording either to the common or
statute law of England, but by special
legislation made for her alone. In
effect, the British Government, which
is limited monarchy at home, be-
comes an unrestrained and absolute
despotism when it crosses the Channel
and the exercise of this unboundGd
power through all the centuries of its
existence has been marked with the
coarsest cruelty and the most heartless
oppression that this world has ever
witnessed If the Irish had been in
ferior to the race which trampled them
down, their fate would seem less hard
But intellectually and morally they
were greatly superior; their civiliza-
tion, science, art and general intelli-
gence were much farther advanced.
The deliberate and long-continued
effort of England to darken the mind
of Ireland and reduce her people as
much as possible to ignorance and
illiterate barbarism is most shocking
part of the story.
THE LAND QUESTION.
Judge Black next took up the land
question and said that much of the
present trouble was due to the un.
natural relations between the millions
whose labor cultivates the soil
and the landlords, small in mum
Der but great in power, who stand
ready to snatch away the fruits of it as
soon as they are gathered. Judge
Black spoke of this land, formerly
owned by the Irish, as having beer
taken from them. He believed in the
sacred right of property, but the ex
istence of that gigantic monopoly
clothed with the privilege of desolatine
a country and starving the industry O
a people, was the saddest fact in tn,
history of the human race. Except il
Ireland all nations of the earth hat
been making some progress. During
the last forty years the population o
other countries had doubled or trebled
but in Ireland the numbers had beel
reduce ed from nine millions to five, ant
of those who survive the great major
ity weIe suffering the last extremes O
want and necessity When the bloc,
Of that unhappy people cries from tn
ground, the British tyrant cannot an
swer like Cain, cam / my brother
keeper The rulers of nation are it
keepers, responsible for its fate, an,
these men have an awful account t,
render. But each defeated effort t,
right themselves was made an excus
for the intliction of hew outrages
Whole districts were depopulated b.
the process which they called a clear
ance-that is, the destruction of al
habitations and the expulsion of all oC
cupants, accompanied by circumstance
of the direst cruelty. Political opin
ions adverse to the government wer
sure to call down its wrath and malice
Even the fidelity of the people to thei
religious convictions-the highest vii
tue that can adorn any human charaC
ter-was imputed to them as Grim
and punished so barbarously that
cannot be thought of without detesta
ton and horror, | deny that this wa
in any true sense conflict of religion
opinion. Let no Protestant slando
his church by asserting that its do,
trin,s contain any warrant for pers,
cutting those who dissent from it. n
Christian man, with conscience {
his own, ever thought himself autho
lied to force the conscience of anothe
English bigotry was merely simulate
to cover English rapacity.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
| But what can we do for them? Ho
can we help them in this fearful strait
We have no right to come betwee
England and her subjects by any kin
of force or violence, for that is prohil
tied by the law of both countries an
by treaty stipulations. But you ha,
ways well understood of giving mor
comfort and material aid which brea
no law. The most devoted adheren
of the British Ministry acknowledge
that the success Of their Irish policy
more endangered by your opposite
to it than by all other causes put t.
gether. A Land League merely Iris
they can easily repress, but a leagu
with its roots on this side of the A
lantic will grow to be a power NJ
merely formidable but fatal to the a
cendancy of the landlords.
Judge Black went on to tell how Il
present attitude of the Land Leag,
was a new era in the history of Ii
contest, Agricultural laborers resolv,
that they would not work for the
enemies, aud tenants said they wou
voluntarily pay no rent without Il
distinct assurance of some permane
and substantial relief to the countr
1t was the grandest labor strike
record. The association was perfect
lawful. 1t spread panic among Ian
lords, middlemen and bailiffs. III
contest deepened as it grew mo