The DeSmet leader. (DeSmet, Kingsbury Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-10-04
Rushing ON to Their Fate.

The most recent advices regar}
the progress of the Anglo-Irish pd
cal movement, says the st. Paul s
patch, are such as will cause the
TALLY informed American readef
open his eyes in wonder.
The most significant circumstl
affecting the. social and indus
life OF Ireland for many years is
recognized existing fact that
principalfood product of Ireland
been almost an entire failure, 3
that, if not famine, at least genera
destitution and want, confront d
large proportion of the people of Ire
land as their certain lot In the
immediate future. In view ol
this circumstance, recent politi
cal eventsin that country have n grim
and almost ghastly significance. The
most active measures, and indeed the
only active measures, of the govern.
to ment meet the situation which the
failure OF the potato crop must necessa-
rily create, is to arrest the leaders oi
public opinion in Ireland under most
exasperating conditions, and TO pro.
ceed through the agencies OF brute force
to have the trial of the leaders thus
arrested conducted away from ths
publicgaz
1t is a peculiarly timely circum.
stance that Mr.. John Morely should
happen to be in Ireland and i'm the
immediate vicinity of these occurrences
He cannot, of course, be regarded as
an unbiased observer, but he is uni,
versally recognized as one of the dis
tinguished literary and intellectual
characters of his age, discrimi..at,
ing observer of social as well as politl
iCal phenomena; and q leading char.
acter in the public life of his own coun.
try. That he should himself have
been in serious danger of physical vio-
lence from the brutal agents of Mr.,
Balfour's rule is in itself strong ina
dicument of the system which is being
perpetuated in Ireland. n
Such unlicensed brutalityB not &}
all the necessary product OF the md
ture OF the men who enforce penal iaJ
in Ireland; it is the inevitable ou6
come Of the attitude which Mr.. Ban
four, as a leading member of the torl
ministry, has always chosen to bd 4
not only toward the Irish represented
tives in parliment, but toward thf
people OF Ireland themselves, theiI
rights, and their grievances. Asatan
ic and cold-blooded indifference td
any consideration which might be ext
pected to influence the breast OF q hui
name man has been Mr.. Balfour'a
chief characteristic, and properly
enough has infused the minds OF HIS
followers with the doctrine that he
embodies in himself all the essentials
to the reproduction in modern times
of the policy of a Queen Elizabeth or
of Lord Protector Cromwell.
That the paid agents of q nearly
absolute government should have
conducted themselves as they dldX
recently at Tpperary is, we
but the natural outcome of the
ination of such a character as 81
tary Balfour in the subsisting
tions between the two countries.
absolutism, like ambition, is surI
one time or other to o'erleap IL
In the arrest of Messers. O'Brien
Dillon, and in the outrageous assam
perpetrated upon the people ali
their leaders at Tpperary, we belieYA
that the final act has been played iri
the political drama which Is to end
in the downfall OF the Salisbury min-
istry and the return TO power of the
English liberals under Mr.. Gladstone's
leadership.