Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-04-26
Slippery Statesmanship.

A recent dispatch announces the ar
rival in this country of between six and
seven hundred passengers "most of
them impoverished Irish people sent
over at the expense of the English
government and more are to follow.
1t was Dickens who gave to the world
the character of the Artful Dodger.
From appearances it would seem as if
English statesmen had made this crea-
ton one of the fundamental studies in
their course OF political economy. Ger
tainly, never before was there witnessed
such barefaced and disgraceful at
tempt to palm off on another country the
fruits of mistaken policy, as is found
in this slippery attempt of England to
unload her pauperized peasants upon
America.
For centuries England has pursued
steady and consistent policy of repres-
sion in her dealings with Ireland backed,
until within a year, by an infamous
system of agrarian laws which laid the
pcasantry of that island in chains at the
feet of foreign landlords. There could
be but one ending for such policy,
pauperism; an end against which the
Irish people have futilely struggled year
after year, both by constitutional and
unconstitutional measures. Each year
the island stands on the edge of the
yawning chasm of famine, and twice,
in AZ and again in 70 and 80, it was
only through the active assistance of
this country that it was saved from
being swallowed up in the gaping
abyss.
Upon the advent of the Gladstone
government to power the policy of the
iron hand was changed to one more in
cognizance with the teachings of modern
civilization. But the repression and
outrages of five centuries had changed
human beings into beasts, endowed
with hatred of their oppressors, which
the most humane craftsmanship could
not hope to conciliate, except through
years of consistent justice. The ex-
tended hand was met met with scott,
and the good intentions of the great
English statesman we're nullified by the
dagger of the assassin and the bullet
of the moorland murderer.
In this dilemma the artful lodging
statesman whispers, unload the popu-
lation on some other country and thus
transfer your paupers and weaken the
resistance at one and the same time.
The trap was cleverly baited and the
English government tumbled into it
headforemost To the inhumanity of the
past that nation now adds the humilia-
ton of the present IN virtually acknowl-
edging that in their vocabulary of ex-
pedlents for meeting an agrarian prob
lem they have nothing better to offer
than this beggarly proceeding of asking
another country to incorporate in its
body polite the diseased production of
brutal policy.
1t is humiliating acknowledgement
on the part of England of the superb
ority of American institutions, but,
notwithstanding this acknowledgment,
it is doubtful if il is policy on the part
of this government to quietly acquiese
in this extremely novel way of solving
a national problem. lfEngland thinks
it worth her while to make the transfer
let her furnish the heads of families
with sufficient funds to enable Their, to
go west and grow up with the country,
instead of landing them on these shores
with barely money enough to keep
them over night. In the first case we
could not have too many, in the last
the government cannot call n turn in
the game any too quickly