New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-06-11


.yohn Mitchell was conveyed away from Dublin to
nermuda., Mr. Parnell set himself to form In the
Uouse of Commons party of men who should be alb
soutey independent of any English polltlcai party
whatever, whom no Ministry could gain TO It's SIDE
bv compliments by the prospect of place. and
who would walk their resolute way without any
very great regard for Parliamentary tradition so
long as they had behind them the sustaining force
of Irish public opinion. Out of this came policy
which no one could recommend except under Well
nigh desperate conditions, and the conditions OF
that time as regarded Ireland were well-nigh des-
perate. IN
For nearly half century Irish members OF ar
lament had been endeavoring TO secure by law ,le
rrinciple of tenant right for Ireland. ana had
ALWAYS failed Every year bill was oronsht in
only to be contemptuOusy rejected Now and again
some Government undertook to brlDg III nieSsule
nj their own but il was either dropped as WORTH
less or if il had anything In IL that maze IL
moments consideration from the lIlsh people, ~
was sure to be rejected by tie House OF Lords even
if 1t passed tie House of Commons. The House OF
-; ommons is an assembly mainly composed OF great
landlords and great capitalists. The House Oh LoIus
l. an assembly composed of landlords 1t not likely
that either House would put itself 10 much pans
for the purpose of passing ameasure IN tie
tho Irish t.nauts When Mr.. Gladstone at last sue
Ceeded
8 measure which M ght have been of some use to
Jrland twenty wears before but then but little
better than worthless. This was pointed out TO MIN
by Irish members best acquainted with the condi-
tion of Ireland in the debates on his bill, but the
WARNINGS were dsregarded, and the measure had
hardly passed into law when everybody saw
that it was worth next TO nothing 1t con-
tanned certain clauses called the Bright
clauses because they owed their Inspiration 10
Mr. Bright, and which were intended TO 1aeh-
itate the purchase of their holdings py INC
tenants. but the clauses were miserabW limited
IN their application there was no machinery 10
work them; and they became simply dead Ietter
Ihe effort which was made by the bill to stop eve
lions proved failure. and evictonS kept on IN
creasing year by year. The one thing essehtiai 10
be done by any independent lrlsh party when hau
really at heart the good of Ireland TO force this
Land Question and the Home Rule Question on the
attention of the Parliament in Westminster, and to
make the English Parliament und erstand that until
something was done toward the settlement OF these
terrible grievances nothing else should be done
Ireland was in position like that OF the
woman in classic story who stopped the Roman
Emperor on his way. and begged OF him to bear
her complaint The Emperor haughtily declared
he had no time to listen to her tale and bade her 10
clear the way. Thereupon she seized the bride OF
his horse declared that he should not pass ana tha
if he had no time to listen be ought to cease 10 gov
ern. Whereupon, says my friend Mr.. Aillngham Ia
his pretty poetic rendering of the incident, Inc
Roman wheeled his horre and heard" The OBJECT oil
Mr. ParDell and those who acted with him was 10
make the House of Commons turn and hear the de-
mands of Ireland.
When entered Parliament entered ii absolutely
independent of Nr. Parnell. had made 10 promise
10 support him. / was not certain whether my way
Of thinking would lead me to decide one way or the
the other / resolved to judge 1or my
self. 1 did so, and / found that his was
q sincere and on the whole promising
effort to form all independent Irish party in
Parliament, thing which, be it remembered never
had existence before, and also to compel the Eng
Ish Parliament and the English pIbhc to turn
serious attention to Irish demands. / therefore
Joined his little bandit was then very small
party within small party-and after q while
came to act in regular cooperation with him.
Soon Mr.. Butt died, and the leadership of the
party was given to Mr.. Shaw. Up to this time Mr..
Parnell had not even thought of seeking for or &C
ceptng the leadership. If there had been no other
reason, | believe he considered himself too
young. He was then not much over
thirty wears Of age. Mr.. Shaw Is a
man OF solid ability and great knowledge of Irish
affairs He is a man of sllrewdness ana of Judgment,
but his Judgment consists in the avoidance of
danger than in the accomplishment of success. Ills
influence such ii was, only existed IN the House
of Commons and among those who knew him In his
own County of Cork He had no following among
the people at large Mr. Parnell was steadily grow
ing in influence all through the country. and he was
known TO be- in close friendship and political rela-
tionshlp with men like Michael Davitt, who had
beeu Fenian and had been imprisoned for an at
tempt at rebellion, but had lately, with growing
years and experience, abandoned wisely all
ideas of armed insuTectiOn and gone IN for
an agitation within the limits of the law which
should relieve the Irish tenant farmers from their
worst grievances Up to this time Mr. Davitps agi-
tation had not taken a distinct shape with
definite aims. Suddenly that happened which,
whenever il does happen in Ireland, brings about
great political crisis. There had been a succession
of bad harvest5. The potato crop failed to great
extent during three successive autumns. The value
of the crop III 1876 in what may call an average
season. was about twelve millions and half
pounds sterling. In the next year 1t fell TO little
more than five millions and quarter. The year
after it rallied slightly and was somewhat more
than seven millions and half, still, how
ever not being much beyond half the average pro
duct. But IN 1879 il sank to little more than three
millions that TO say to about quarter of an aver
are CROP Here then, we had three bad harvests,
winch ought to have produced about e3S, 100000, in
potatoes really producing much less than half that
sum. Everything depends upon the potato iii Ire
land The country, needy hardly say, is OCCUPIED
mainly by an agricultural population. There are
but few large towns, and there is very little of
manufacturing interest. There are about 600, 900
occupying tenant farmers and rather more than
500 900 laborers These, with their families, it
will be seen, represent tho great bulk of the popu-
4.
something hike destruction.
The third and worst year of these disastrous three
was passing through while the conservative gov