The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1886-01-30
ENGLAND's NEMESIS
How Her Injustice to ireland is Tracking
and Furnishing Her. ss

i - ssiA duuuG UItok UTaS6uyl w mere
will you find a more tragic situation,
says the Pail Mall Gazette, than that
which confronts us in ireland? The
slow footed deity that dogs the steps
Of the evil doer has almost overtaken
US. and the epentant criminal finds
his very penitence contribute to his
doom. We use the word criminal, and
| we use the word advised ". We have
been guilty Of many crimes in ireland
which are now bearing like fruitage IN
other crimes, and there are many who
regard the crop that has sprung from
our own sowing as sufficient reason for
continuing to scatter the same evil
seed. When we speak of crimes we do.
not mean century old brutahties The
nlassacres OF Drogheda and wv Wexforll
weigh lightly on our soul. Even to The
atrocities that marked the struggle Of
'98 we are comparatively Indifferent.
The crimes of which we have been
guilty, and for which we are suffering
wrong, are less sensational, but more
subtitle. They did not scatter the brains S
OF an individual they weakened the
brains Of the race, They did not sack
q city They merely rack-rented an
estate. Broadly speaking, the Irish
difficulty has two phases. Oneis thatOf
the 81 incurable dishonesty of
the Irish peasant on the
4 stllN
the hopeless impractic cabilityv of tile
Irish people in dealing with problems
Of government. In both cases the dis
ease is Of our own making There is }
not an adult in Ireland to-day but was
born in days when the state. the law,
the judge and the constable instilled
into every Irish heart the great doctrine
that the commandment Thou shalt
not steal did not apply to land. On
the contrary, Englishla law enforced with
all the machinery Of the state the right
sof the landlord to steal bis tenants
property. The right OF the landlord to
evict and confscate the improvements
of his tenant was outside Ulster as llrl-
limited as his right to levy exorbitant
rents upon the capital which the tenant
had invested in his holding. Our Par
lament knew that this was the case
ever since 1845, when the reportof the
Devon Commission recomm ended the
SIMPLE remedy Of honest dealing as the
true solution OF the land question. But
we would not hearken. Lords and
Commons, ministers and people, turned
q deaf ear to the cries Of the plundered
tenant. Not until last Parliament was
any real protection given to the savings
of the peasant. Hence there has been
bred in the peasant mind an absolute
negation Of the moral law in relation to
landed property. Our law has been the
schoolmaster who has brought him to
Mr.. Parnell. As the landlord plundsred
while he was strong, SO shall he be
plundered now that he is weak. AS i
for honesty. the ten commandments,
the moral law and all the rest of it--s
where were they when the present gem
Grafton went TO school in our law courts
to learn that the measure OF alandlcrd's
right to the savings Of his terant was
limited only by the extent Of these saw
ings2 Hence the agrarian difficulty,
with it's almost insolubls problem.
Every addition to the power Of the
Irish people, it is said, is an addition to !
the force in favor Of robbing the land
lord It. is true, and the reason ID that
we have taught the Irish people for
generations that theft is no robbery
when the property stolen is connected
with land. s9
There died IN England few weeks J
.aQO. aged eizhtY-nille. a wealthy Old