St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-02-14
IRELAND'S CONDITION
The Possession by Landlords, Their Bru-
tally and England's Legislation to
Uphold the Same.
The Picture Made Forcible by PEEP
Into the Hovels of the Poor
Tenants,
Where Hunger, Rags, Military OPP
preston and Famine Reign
Supreme.

Five-sixths of the people of Ireland are
! connected, directly or Indirectly, with the
land.
1t is certain that the land question is to be
taken up before the home-rule question.
There is good ground for believing that
Parnell will support Gladstone on q land
bill, and that Gladstone is pledged in ex-
change to support Parnell on q home-rule
bill.
1t is of importance, in order clearly to
understand the scope and effect of the prob
able land bill, to understand the conditions
OF land tenure in Ireland as they now exist.
This article claims to set out these condi-
tons briefly, compactly and clearly.
I.
1t would be waste of time to open up
historical vista on question whose living
essence is no longer how alien landlords got
into Ireland, but how TO get them out of it.
Only one word is sufficient historically. 1t
Is nSeparable from the consciousness of
Ireland that they got in by force, fraud and
confscation; that they never had moral
title to the soil of Ireland. and that having
acquired possession immOrally. they have
never faltered in course of brutal, heart
less and scientific administration by which
the original immortality has been deepened
in infamy. Their course has been brutal
and heartleSs because they have employed
all means, legal and physical. to extort
money from the labor and soil of the Irish
without any regard for the rights of the soil
or of the people. 1t has been scientific in
its application of law and force for the de-
struction or exile of the people who were
unwilling TO live solely as makers of money
for them. They have ignored the rights of
the soil by starving it, when it should
have been fed and rested and nursed
into greater usefulness; and they
have slowly reduced its arabic area and ex-
tended its waste, let vast tracts fall into
weeds and barrenneSs and turned other
great sections into pasture, thus again di-
minishing its value to the people. They have
never recognized any rights in the people
themselves, and have been uniformly and
relentlesslY defiant of the law of nature,
| that whatsoever works land snail live off the
proceeds of his industry before any other
person lives OFF it. The entire literature Of
English political economy afirms these say
| ings. Yet the legislation of England for
| Ireland was uniformly in maintenance of
| these wrongs until the Irish people, creep
/ ing out from mud novels, from hunger, rags,
military oppression and prospective famine.
| prison or exile, organized themselves as a
| political power and gave promise and spas
mOdic, if inconsiderable. proof of physical
menace. There have been several chapters
of complicated and Intellectual land legisla-
ton, in despite of whose glowing assurances
the land question is still the question. What
is the actual condition of the land and its
Occupiers?
Look into his eyes and behold the souT'
was the Asiatic pTOyerb. Look into the
dwellings of their tenants and behold tn e
| Irish landlords. In 1851 the census COM
missioners divided the dwellings, into four
| classes. The fourth class comprised mud
cabins of a single room. The third class
| included mud cabins of more than a single
! room. with the extraordinary comfort and
/ decoration of window. In 1S41 the total
! of these two classes of mud novels was
1 1,024. 575. The statistician multipies bv
1 five to obtain the number of human beings
! existing in that sort of house in one of the
most ancient of civilized eountries-a coun-
| try whose civilization is written on the his
tOrical growth of every European nation.
! But five is not a large enough figure for the
average family in Ireland. Ten might be
nearer the truth. 1t is certain that at least
5000, 600 human beings were existing in
mud novels in Ireland in that year: it is GER
tain that they were agriculturists; it is ascer-
taina0le by the government reports that
they annually brought forth from the soil
immense stores of food, of which they con-
sumed mere living portion of the potato
crop; and it is undeniable that the.law the
church, the army, were combined to main
tain this sort of society on that brutal and
Immoral foundation. In 1881 the total of
these mud novels was 425, 40 inclosing at
least more than 1000, 900 human beings
What had wrought the change? The com
ing of soul or heart into the system tbat
had established that sort of societyp Far
from 1t. The novels had declined because
million and a half or more had died of
munger during years when their labor and
their soul 3 had produced food enough to
Ieed Twice the entire population; because
anotner million and half had fled to the
] seaooard and sought new countries to es-