Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-24
IRELAND'S IMPROVEMENT
A CORRESPONDENT DRAWS A
ROSEATE PICTURE.
Better Laws and Flattering Crop Pros

An Alleged Effect of the Executions
Credit Laid at the Door of the Con
| servatives.
PHILADELPHIA, July 23.-The Dublin
correspondent of the Press pictures the
improvement in Ireland in the following
roseate terms
81 have naught but bright picture to
| draw to-day. Ireland has never known a
! better season for the crops. When Tim
Kelly fell through the gallOws trap al
kilmainham, last Saturday week. every
| lover OF peace and good order in Ireland
breathed freer. Men now began to walk
with brisker, even, l think, lighter.
step; stores are opened earlier: mer.
| chants wear more cheerful cOuntenances
! people spend more generously; and L can.
not help fancying the sun shines brighter
'Ihere had been suspense and ten.
! sion of the public nerves that only found
relief in the certainty that the utmost
| penalty of the law had been eXacted and
| paid. The men who assassinated Burke
and Cavendish had, of verify, given al.
most fatal stab to the Goddess of Erin
! but there were signs of sorrow when
grim MarwOOd reaped the harvest of
death. The Irish nature is too tender not
to be sympathetic, pitifnl; and Kelly's
! youth touched the pOpulace very much.
! They would have even pardOned him
not wholly out of ofsympathy with his deed,
| but out of thetenderness of their own
! hearts for his youth; he was but 10. This
! trait, and the Catholic training of praying
! for the dead and dying, led 1000 peO-
! pie to gloomy kilmainham the day OF
| kelly's execution. Precisely at O'Clock
in the morning the black flag was run up
on the staff over the stone tower facing
| the city. AS quick as a flash, that 2. 900
| people, who few minutes before had
been standing, many of them reciting the
prayers for the dying, fell on their knee S
and eagerly and earnestly began the
| prayers, according to the Roman Catholic
ritual, for the dead.
"Five minutes of earnest, solemn PRAYER
and the crowd had dispersed as orderly as
the congregation of the Philadelphia Ca
| thedral after High Mass. COnstabulary,
s0ldiery and ''marines'-that is. detec-
tives from England-in great numbers
were IN attendance. Their presence but
added to the gloom. They were not needed.
| The people who had gathered
there had come out of beautiful
| custom and belief. Peace and
holiness was their mission. L moved
about in the very centre of the crowd.
and thought l heard many pious ejacula-
tiOns, such as "pOOr fellow, may God
have mercy on his SOUL" No single dis
sent to the justice of Kelly's fate reached
my ears. Indeed, l know that a general
respect for the majesty of the law and a
complete concurrence in its vindication
pervaded not only the mOurners at the
jail, but the citizens of Dublin and the
people throughout all Ireland.
"When, therefore, Mr.. Patrick Egan, in
speech which he delivered at Chicago,
eulOgiZed Dan Curley, the invincible who
was hanged the week before Kelly's exc
| cutiOn, and declared that no nobler patriot
ever died for Ireland's cause than Dan
Curley, he committed a serious ImDru-
dence, if not an outrage on Irish sense
of justice; for Mr.. Egan is unfortunately,
and / may as well tell the truth and add
enormously, regarded as an accredited
representative of the Irish people,
and also of the Irish Parliamentary
party. Mr.. Egan's mission in Ameri-
ca is absolutely, entirely, and only
to escape a court of law investigation of
his disbursement of the political fund of
the Land League. 1t is a pity that he
should so misrepresent the position of
Ireland to the generous and sympathiz-
ing Americans. Very many of the best
Irish natiOnalists, some in and some out
of position in the National League, make
no bones of expressing great dissatIsfac-
tion at the conduct in America of Mr..
Egan, and also of others posing as hunted
down Irish patriots. So far has the dis
gust of many gone as to induce Mr.. Alfred
Webb, the Quaker Treasurer of the
National League, who is, in a
certain sense, the successor of
Mr.. Egan, to write to
an American journal declaring
that the position of the people in Ireland
was being very seriously misrepresented
in America by Irishmen. 1t may be in
teresting to know that Mr.. Webb, who is
a conservative Quaker, though most
pronounced hOme-ruler, has never taken
any part in politics until recently. He is
a man of eminent standing in the COM
munity, and his name is a guarantee to
the government, as we'll as to the Irish
people, that the funds of the National
League shall be dispensed of in no ques-
tiOnable quarter or manner.
"A wholesale conservatism is abroad.
Peace, peace at any price, is now the cry.
And there are reasons for this. The peO-
pie are weary of strife and agitation.
The land act has changed hundreds of
thousands Oftenants-at-will subject to that
frightful tyranny of rack rent, into ten
ants in perpetuity-sO long as the rent is
paid-at a rate fixed by the land courts,
and which can only be changed every
fifteen years, and then by the land courts
instead of the landlords. BY the Healy
clause, when the rents are fixed,
under the act, the rack rent cannot
be had, tenants are entitled to the
benefits of all Improvements made by
them, and not the landlords, as was here
tofOre the outrageous case, to borrow an
ancient figure from that great tribune,
Cicero. When the readjustment of rent
shall be made fifteen years hence, the
Healy clause again and forever defeats
the rack rent-the improvements of the
land, or on the land, are not to be taken
into consideration at all in fixing the
rent. The land is to be forever considered
i'll the condition it was when first rented;
that is, so far as the landlord is con-
cerned.
'AlthOugh the act is far from perfect, it
has given that impetus to industry and
to labor that, with most favorable sea-
son, is literally making this lovely green
island laugh with most bOunteOus CROPS
Hundreds of farmers come to Dublin
daily. L have chats with many of them.
all of whom assure me that their prospects
were never better. They are tired of
agitation and excitement. The peaceful
quiet of a prosperous agricultural life is
all the boon they crave. With the present
land act such results are very en-
couraging, especially when 1t is only
question OF a very short time-nOt
more than three years-before Lord
George Hamilton's bill to create peasant
occupying proprietary will have become
law. Mr.. Gladstone has peremptorily de-
clined to allow further legislation on the
Irish land question. The Conservatives
are, therefore, putting it forward as a
measure, campaign issue of their party.
for the next general Parliamentary cleo
tion, which cannot be postponed over a
year longer, and at the present conduct of
the government it will probably occur
sooner.
"a late resume gives the following figures
on Irish taxation, from which it will be
easy to see that Ireland is governed Just
the same and by the exact same laws as
England: Taxation in Ireland in 1851
was gross, f4,0O6, I'll; per head. 12s. ID;
1S61,gross, &c, ,420, 1873; per head f1. IS. Id;
1871, f7,Oo6,5 ,593; per head, 91, IS. I'd.
There are no returns yet whereby
1881 may be estimated, but
there are no circumstances but
that would tend to increase the per capita
amount. 1t is evident from these figures
that the taxation of poor, starving Ire
land has been forced up from 12s. ID. per
head in 1851 to 81 IS. I'd. in 1874, and over
that for 1881. The most astonishing fact
is, however, that for the same periods in
England the per capita has been reduced
Is. 3d."
REGARDING the financial outlook.
New York banker has confided to "Gath''
that there will be no panic among honest
men; that the American wit has covered
every point where money can be made.
our wits being i'll advance of our hands.
and that there might be panic in such
securities as never could pay and which
the wits of the people would not buv.
And" he added, ''the quicker that panic