New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-04-30
ACB1VGETN IRISH POLICY.

Il tHINUE ~ IHINH OiItf'
| Mr.. Gladstonc's remarks on Mr.. Iiealy's bill
| foreshadow a radical change III his Irish policy.
| When he welcomed that measure as the first
CLEAN of hope on a dark subject" and added
| in the next breath that while he had not lost
! confidence in the power OF the Empire, he must
confess that cOmpulsiOn was completely alien
! TO the Constitution he made advances to the
| Irish members which tended most powerfully to
conciliate them. Those members are naturally
averse to an English settlement of the agTallan
controversy If they can be allowed to prescribe
their own specific for the ills with which
the island is afflicted and at the same time
can effect its delivcrance from the physical re-
| straint to which it is now subjected, they may
| be induced to Join hands with the Liberals in
n final and successful effort to make peace
| between landlord and tenant. The Premlcrs
! speech has apparently done much to reconcile
| them. and if 1t is followed 10y a clearance of
the jails of political prisoners it is possible
that working alliance may he established
between the main body of English Libe-
rails and the Irish party. The Land bill
was very generous remedial measure,
but the Irish legislators were not person
ally identified with it. Mr.. Parnell's own
amendment to it staying sales under writ OF
execution for debt or damages pending the
! settlement of judicial rent for the statutory
| term was one of the sacrifices which the Com
| mons made to the Lords. That concession
was vital mistake, for il irritated the Irish
| leader and set him against the whole meas
| ure. If he is now released from Kilmainham,
and the principles of a measure which he has
prepared in conjunction with Mr.. Ilealy are
virtually accepted the popular resistance which
now paralyzes the efforts OF the Government
to apply the Land Act and to restore order may
be eventually overcome.
The question with which this bill deals has
! been presented to the English public with ad-
mirable force by Mr.. ODOnnell, one of the
| Irish members i'll a recent letter to The Times
| Iondon). 1t is a very simple matter-the
debts of the tenants incurred during famine
wears. In 1876 the value of the potato crop
| in the island was $G2 800, 900. During the
next three years of bad crops the average out
turn was $4,000. 900, the aggregate deficit
| for the whole famine period being
| Sl25. OOO. 600 Now the tenants were barely
able TO pav their rents in good times, cspe-
| ciallv as those rents are shown by the
decisions of the Land Commission to have
been excessive, and when the bad years came
a very large proportion of the cultvators were
plunged into hopeless arrears of debt. In 1851
there was an excellent crop. but it did not en-
able the tenants to pay their arrears of rent
for three years as well as the current seasons
expenses. Now, according to Mr.. O'DOnnell,
| it is this burden Of arrears which hangs over
| the Irish peasant "chilling his honest resolves
and stimulating his desperate impulses"
| This, he contends, is the evil which has
converted the tenants into syInpathizers with
intimidation, clogged the application Of
remedial legislation, and indefinitely post
| poned the pacifcatOn of the island Arrears
| of debt deprive him of the chance of profting
| bv the promise of reform. Plunged and
overwhelmed in the flood of unpayable ar
rcars, why should he strive in vain to reach
the firm ground of any Land Act Struggle
Gas he may, is he not doomed to perish be-
fore he can reach the shore Z"
Mr.. O'Donnell's plea for an immediate set
| Element of the arrears question is very strong
| one. 1t is open to criticism at some points,
| but he is undoubtedly right in his claim that
| it is the fundamental difficulty to be solved,
| and that so long the cultivatOrs are crushed
| by the burdens of past years, the Land Act
| cannot be enforced and a class of peasant
proprietors cannot be established with State
| aid Mr.. Healy's bill provides Cor suspen-
| sion of legal proceedings pending the fixing of
| a judicial rent by the Land Court and for the
payment of rents on Grifth's valuation while APP
| plcations are awaiting hearing or settlement. In
the case of tenants who are in arrears and occupy
holdings under $3.50, the payment or tender
of one years arrears of rent, provided it does
not exceed one-half of the whole amount due,
is to be accepted as a full payment of all ar
rears, and the landlord, by reinstating tenants
who have been evictcd, is to confer upon
them the same privilege of partial pay
ments. Mr. Gladstone is unwilling to deal
with the arrears question precisely in this way.
But he encourages the Home Rulers to perfect
their mode of adjustment, and promises to dis
cuss the question with them. He wisely says
that relief must take the form of gift rather
than a loan, and is willing to apply the Irish
Church surplus so far as it will go for that pur-
pose. Evidently he.is i'll most conciliatory mood,
and if Mr. Parnel and his followers can re-
duce their proposals to definite and Dracti-
cal form and rise " the level Of their present