The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-05-18
PROSPEROUS IRELAND!
LETTER FROM THE CHIEF OWNER
OF THE LONDON TIMES,
In Which the Condition of ireland Is
Painted in Brighter Colors Than Usual
No Poverty Except in Few Places,
and Begging Nowhere.

In Which the Condition of Ireland Is
Painted in Brighter Colors Than Usual
No Poverty Except in a Few Places,
and Begging Nowhere
LONDON, May ls.--John Walter, chief
proprietor of The Times, has written a fol-
lows in answer to a query by Mr.. VIM Ii.
Hurlbert, the American journalist, whether
the nnquestonable sympathy OF many
leading Americans with tie Irish home
rule movement is sufficiently understood in
England:
DEAR Mr.. HURiBERT / fancy that the
real value of american sympathy with Mr..
6ladStone's home rule bill as displayed at
public meetings and in other forms is
greatly overrated in this country. Those
who have seen as much of Amer
lea as | have will, Of course, discount it very
carefully. They are not likely To mistake
the noisy demonstrations of the purely irish
element in the population OF your great
cities for the expressions, after calm iddg
ment, of the American people of people
who . every watchwords are union, law and
liberty, and who have on some memorable
occasions been compelled to impress these
maxims upon their Irish fellow citizens by
arguments more forcible than pleasant The
fact is that the Irish both here and in the
United States are in the habit of exagger-
ating their numbers and influence
until they really believe in their
own fiction. Last year, when travelling in
Ireland, | was graveiy informed by
Nationalist reporter that the Irish home
ru 'ers hal 10000, 900 of Irish in America tc
back them. ! see by the report of Satur
day nights debate that Mr.. John Dillon re
duces this number to 100000; but this ]
take to he a gross exaggeration, and | wish
that some competent authority on the other
side of the ocean would be good enough tc
enlighten our statesmen and the public as
to the correct figures at which the really
Irish home rule element in the nitod
States, including women and children, may
be reckoned
with regard to the present condition Of
Ireland, which Mr.. Gladstone processes him
self unable to deal with except by conced-
ing home rule and virtually repeating the
union, all | can say is that your govern
ment would not allow such state of things
TO exist for six months as We have tolerated
for twice as many years or for a much
longer period. If any intelligent American
were to visit Ireland he would lind it dill
cult to discover any outward and visible
signs of that poverty and misery which WIS
are so often reproached with | except OF
course, such places as Aci.ilI island and other
districts in the west, where The
population havc been accustomed to depend
upon the potato or on casual employ
far away from home, and when these fai,
have no means of subsistence For such
districts special treatment is required
which none but the government can ade-
guately supply. But | can assure You from
vivid recollection of what ireland was
fifty years ago, AMI after comparing notes
with friends who have known is almost rs
long. that, with the exception Of such dis
| tricts as those above mentioned, she
whole country has enormously improved,
Is land is better TILED, the people
are better housed, fed and dressed: the
besgars have disappeared, and their coun-
try requires nothing but the maintenance
OF law and order, not by the ftful exercise
of what is called coercion, but by the ad
| ministration of n firm and steady govern
| rlent to insure the development of its lie
| sources TO any extent that may be mIa!i
| BILE with the laws of nature and with the
general commercial policy of this country.
| That the present local administration stands
in need OF reform l have no doubt, but
every necessary reform may lie obtained
| without such a disc alton of the greai
| forces OF the constitution as Is now proposed
| am, dear Mr. HurberS, your sincerely,
-. WALTER