The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-19

British public were losing interest in
this case, and that ODonnells pros
now once more the tide has set against
him. His jury must be composed of average
Englishmen, and average Englishmen are
terribly out of patience just now. The au-
thorities, also, are newly aroused, as well
they might be, for the memory of former
outrages is called back. whole series OF
diaboical plots comes into view, and it is
almost impossible for the English mind to
look upon this black panorama without re-
garding the killing of Carey as a part OF IT.
Such a conclusion may be wrong; it may be
contrary to the testimony in the case it may
SAVIOR less of justice than of prejudice and
passion; but it is nevertheless the settled
conviction to-day of all England, and o Don
nell, guilty or innocent must bear the brunt
of it. The effect will be, OF course, to slim
ulate the prosecution and to discourage in
proportionate degree those engaged to defend
him. l can even imagine that it may cause
something of an abatement in the flow OF
the feeling will be that these gen.
tlemen are hired by the very par
ties who applaud, if they do not instigate,
these cowardly attacks upon life and prop
ertySand that their selection by such people
for a service of this kind could not have
been wholly on the ground of superior ability
in their profession, but was most probably
due in some degree to previous manifesto
tons of sympathy for the Irish cause. do
not justify such an inference; l merely call
attention to it as one to which the present
mood of the English people is sure to lead
them, and your readers will readily see how
this. with the other facts alluded to, must
bear unfavorably against the man these gen
tlemen have been sent to defend.
AN UNHAPPY COINCIDENCE.
By singular coincidence, on the very
night and at the very hour when this city
was being assaulted in two places by destruc-
tive explosive, Michael Davitt was lecturing
in st. James Hall on the English land laws.
This unfortunate circumstance will be re-
GREETED by no one, it may be presumed, more
than by that gentleman himself. There is
nothing in it, of course, though it is worthy
of note. Thin, dark. gaunt, and terribly in
earnest Mr.. Davitt makes a striking platform
figure and though by no means eloquent, he
is clear speaker and has great power over
sympathizing audience. Three thousand
well-dressed people listened to him on Tues
day evening" and he could scarcely have re-
ceived a more enthusiastic welcome even in
the city of Dublin This will appear all
the more remarkable when it is remem-
bered that the meeting was open
one would have expected in so vast an as
semblage, some elements of discord. In
stead OF this, however, there appeared to be
perfect harmony. So far as the most careful
observer could tell, all present were in en-
thusastic agreement with both the object of
the gathering and the chief speaker. That
clergyman of the Church of England should
preside at this meeting, and that prominent
parts should be taken by leading local work
ers in the political party whose chief is MIR.
Gladstone, are additional facts that may sur
prise those not Conversant with the recent
drift of sentiment in this country. But the
truth is that on questions affecting the bread
and butter interests of the working classes
the past few years have witnessed great
awakening here. Thinking people stand
aghast at the abject poverty to which so
many are doomed in this land, and they are
inquiring the cause of it, They are wonder
ing why it is that the rich grow richer and
the poor so much poorer, and are beginning
| to ask themselves whether the prevailing
tendency to national degradation cannot in
some way be alleviated. The remedy agreed
upon at Tuesday nights meeting was the
naturalization of the land, which means
that the government should take it and
hold it in trust for the people. Mr..
Davitt IN advocating this plan, dealt
largely with statistics. In England, Ireland
and Scotland there were, he said, 8, 142 per-
sons called landlords who owned 46 500 900
acres of land, 100000 acres more than the
entire area and extent of England and
Wales. Placing the value of the land at
fifteen shillings per acre, which, he said. was
an underestimate, it would be seen, he OBJ
served that that small group of persons re-
ceived in round figures every year f35 000,-
900 without doing any work for it or putting
themselves to any trouble whatever. except
the trouble of collecting the money. If the
land of England, he added, were cultivated
with the same skill and with the same Sc
curity as the land of Jersey there would be
sufficient food produced at home to sustain,
not only the present population, but So 000,-
900 more, and yet in the existing state of
affairs 100, 100000 sterlings worth of food had
to be imported into England every year to
supplement insufficient production and to
keep the people from starvation. TWAS pro-
| posed, he said, to send the workingmen of
London to other countries to seek liveli-
hood, whilst within the shores of England
there were in landlords parks in shooting
grounds in game preservers and in common
and waste lands more acres subscribing no
purpose to the people than were comprised
in the entire kingdom of Belgium. These
facts, which have been made prominent lat
terly by others besides Mr.. Davtt, have, it
must be admitted, an obvious force in them,
and there is large party rising up in Eng
land whose cardinal creed is that the anon
allies to which they refer should be wiped
out H. T.