The Irish standard., 1886-09-25

the right spirit. When we receive it,
we shall be ready to die.'
A Rochesterian in Ireland.
In a graphic letter to the Rochester
IN. ~ Rural Home, Mr.. George W..
Elliott of that city tells what he has
just seen and heard in Ireland. We
make some extracts:
| ** God knows Ireland and her peo-
pie cannot be satisfactorily quoted as
an instance of successful government.
Her revenues are largely spent away
from home by nonresident landlords,
her farmers are tenants (of rich land
lords) who, when their rent and taxes
are paid, have only the meanest kind Of
living and the poorest kind Of tweed
clothing. Elsewhere give some pic
lures OF life in this land, made beauti
full by God, made desolate Of the fruits
of Gods provision by the hands of an
alien and, in too large a measure, a
lordly and unsympathetic government.
! X X u X
Poor, unhappy, beautiful Ireland!
Fair are thy fields, thy sons stalwart
race, thy daughters pure of skin, with
comely limbs and native grace. These
riots and emeutes, these 5000 police
men and as many 'sred coats" whose
uniforms look like blood clots on thy
verdant fields, tell us, if never word
was spoken nor line written, that
either thy sons and thy daughters are a
wild, uncultivated people, or else that
the iron heel of an oppressor is.galling
and has been CALLING thy neck and fore
ing itself into thy heart. Americans
ought not to have much trouble
in selecting the right alternative.
We have given our sympathy We have
poured out our treasures, we have
outftted great ships with needful food
for these unhappy people, not because
we believed they were at times tenn
pestuous from sheer love eoflawlessness,
but because we believed their struggles
came from the yearnings of an ardent
heart after fuller freedom. And why
should not America, with almighty
power, if she can, breathe Che breath of
being into this infant liberty2 Ah, We
can. and with the power comes the
duty! Our papers, as rule, have given
us the right impression of the condl-
tions which here prevail. We dnd Ire
land 'sused and abused" for English
gain. She has been so used and abused
for many decades Of years, until to use
and abuse her has become second ma
ture with England and so to do seems
to be a ':duty one owes to his country"
"Will the Gladstone measures pass?'
I asked John D. Payne, Of Bantry,
while riding on the cars from Cork to
Glengaritfe.
eff Mr.. Gladstone succeeds, sir, there
will be civil war;
s'On what principle would civil war
be waged,'' I asked.
ssGladstone's measures would cut our
/ incomes down over 50 per cent. at once,
the agitation has already reduced
them,-and we would be despoiled of
our property rights"
| Just then We passed through a sec
Estion of country where the Duke of
Devonshire owns many thousands of
acres.
"From whom got the duke his title?o
asked. He evaded the question. Mr..
Bayley, of the east part OF Ireland,
whom met on the stage from Glen
gariffe to Killarney, said to me in reply
to the same question: ''From whom
got you your titles in America?"
ssBy purchase and by conquest from
an inferior race.''
SAnd that's the way the landlords of
ireland acquired their titles"
Well, let that pass. That is the land
lords side of the question.
Not one of them, however, has been.
able to answer this simple question in
political economy. How long can you
work a piece of land and get profitable
crops from it and give the tenants OF:
the soil substantial livelihood, if the
price of every blade of grass, of every
straw Of grain, and if everything of
every KIND produced on it be sent to the
owner, thousand miles away, who
pays no taxes, makes no roadWays,
maintains no repairs, projects and COM
pletes no improvements: