Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-31
IRELAND AND AMERICA.

IRELAND AND AMERICA. We yesterday in reply to the letter of Scotch correspondent referred briefly to Lord Bramwell's comparison of the Unions of Scotland and Ireland with Great Brit ain; in fulflment of promise we take up to- day his lordship's attempted parallel of the relations of Great Britain and Ireland and those existing between the States of the American Union; and in this the ex-British Judge fares no better in the light of histor- ical truth. The Union of the American States was voluntary Union; Union that came naturally into existence from the necessities and interests of the people of each; Union deliberately entered into un- der the most deliberate sanction of every State concerned, and with guarantees de-
 liberately given for it's perpetuity. Ireland owes it's connection with Great Britain to the stroke of the sword and the use of cor rupting lucre. Lord Bramwell's assertion that Ireland is a part of the United King dom is mere play upon words. AS sub jugated province she is so: politically; but of the unity of sentiment, of natural aspiration, of popular interest which constitute the true bond between countries linked under one government, there is not scintilla, and there never has been. He says that an Irish Parliament would deprive the pres ent owners of their lands (which would be given to the present occupiers"-that "The present tenants would remain in posses sion, rent free-The owners would be plundered of their property" Assuming, for the sake of the argument, that this | supposition is correct, let us consider this result in the light of morality and ethics, of the principles which govern the pros perity of States, of the precedent estab- lished by British legislation, and of the facts declared to be such by the writer.
 1 The first head may be radically disposed of. The land was originally the property of the Irish people, the forefathers of the tenants of whom Lord Bramwell speaks
 These were busted by invaders; and the descendants of the original owners have l been paying rent to the descendants of the 1 invaders ever since. The greater portion of this rent, instead of remaining in Ire : land to maintain it's resources or quicken it's industries. has been spent in Great Britain "r in the dissipations of Continental !. Europe. In the meanwhile persistent course of adverse legislation has discour- aged Irish manufacturers, and left the Irish people the solitary resource of agri- culture. At last the burden has become I ,4O1o T 4lo+
 manship shall restore to him the land which, save for the greed of the strongest, would have been his by inheritance. It seems hardly necessary to argue with 8 lawyer that there is, prima facie, some measure of justice in this demand
 On broad grounds of national policy the results feared by Lord Bramwell would be nothing to be deplored. That country is the most prosperous and most contented in which the land is owned in fee simple by those who turn the furrows of it's fields. It is this that has placed the farmers of the United States among the strongest con
 servators of old established ideas of con- stitutional liberty. It is this which makes the France of to-day more peaceful, more  l productive aIld more prosperous thon slIe ever was under the old regime of large es- tates worked by peasant tenantry. When the tiller of the soil is it's owner, he works with two-fold vigor. If he adds inn provements he knows that the profits thereof are his own. If he increases the fertility of the field, he knows that his is the increase of the harvest. Not so when the fruits of his labor feed the avarice of another, and his own course is guided by by the domination of another's will That the masses of Ireland would be reused to more hopeful, and consequently more pro- ductive effort would of itself be full justif- cation and ample reward for the change which the British jurist regards with fear.
 We shall return to this subject.