The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-04-06

head this hatred poison, first begotten
in selfshness, in after centuries nurtured
in religious blgotry, so leavened the
English people and their literature that
they are only just beginning to realize
the enormity Of the wrong done.
The following from the Statesman's
Yearbook, 1877, will throw considera-
BILE light upon these laws and their eff
feet: "Proposition of owners to inhab-
tied houses; England and Wales in 4,
Scotland in 8, Ireland ! in Il Land
was easily acquired in Ireland by for
eigners or apostates. Henry Ii. divided
one-third of the island, all he pretended
to govern, among ten barons. After the
revolt Of the earl of Desmond. 100000
acres were coniscated in Munster. in
1886, and 900 of these were given
free to foreign colonists on the single
condition that the Irish should be hunt
ed off. Toward the close of the reign
of Elizabeth, one of her lieutenants
wrote to her majesty that there was
NOTHING LEFT OF THE IRISH
except bones and ashes, and Elizabeth
concluded that at last Ireland was paci
! fed. but the land was there however,
and the English lieutenants received
additional estates Under James [.
the crown took 450. 900 acres, and Straf-
ford seized upon 100000 acres in Con
naught; on the pretence of rebellion,
six northern counties were handed over
to colonists; and, in the seventeenth
century, drought, famine, pillage and
! English law had so ettectually done
their work that there was not water
enough to drown man, wood enough
to hang him, or earth to bury him !!
Cromwell. however. confscated 7,70S,-
237 acres. William Ill. initiated the
example of his predecessors in confis
cation. as IN everything else, and at the
close of his reign the total of the con.
iscated land was 10, $4,000 acres.'
By 1850 the population, by exporta-
ton and every other conceivable means,
the effect of the law
THAT GREW MORE UNBEATABLE
year after year, century after century,
had dvindled down to a fraction over
2, 100000; and this included those with
in the Pale! Spencer, who certainly
cannot De accused Of partially, pic
lures the sight he saw on the former
| possessions of the earl OF Desmond: "a
most beautiful and sweet country as
any under heaven, being stored through
out with many very sweet islands and
goodly fakes like little inland seas, the
soil itself most fertile and the heavens
most mild and temperate. Yet ere one
year and half, this inhabitants were
brought to such wretchedness as that
any stony heart would have rned the
same. Out of every corner Of the woods
and glens they came creeping forth on
their hands, for their legs could not
bear them. They looked like
ANAToM1Es OF DEATH;
they spoke like ghosts crying cut OF
their graves; they ate cartons, happy
where they could find them, yea ,anG one
another soon after. inasmuch as the
very carcasses they spared not to scrape
out Of the graves; and if they found aplot
of water crosses and shamroc!1s there
they flocked is to feast for time; 80
that in short space there were none
left, and a nlosI populous and plentiful
country was suddenly lett void OF man
and beast
Evidence of Irish love for education
might be ANONYMOUSLY multiplied, even
into those centuries when there was no
glixomer of light in any direction but in
the direction leading to the grave, for,
even then they chung to the schoolmas-
ter, and followed him into the hedges
and mountain hooks. But one need not
90 back three centuries. or two centur-
les. nor yet one, in order tc prove that
the Irish prize education and are not
only t'capable" of self government, but
that there is unmistakeable evidence Of
as
HIGH AND MERITORIOUs
,,oo,,+o1 o,,I+ivatian IN their country as