The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-11-14
Those BLOODY SAN0NS
A Terrible Arraignntent of Eng
land by a thoughtful
Ftenchman.
Before She Pfates About Armenia
She Should Glance at
Ireland.
British Policy Rapidly Extermin-
ates q Noble Race of
1en.

lien.
"A wellkuown French writer-Marcel
prevost--has recently made trip
through Ireland of a months duration
and for giving the result of his obse1va~
tians the London Standard took UP the
defense of England and roundly abused
the Frenchman. To this attack the
FrenchmaE replied in an able article
which appeared in the New York Herald,
and from which the following portions OF
the article are taken:
The English do not like to be reminded
of this incontestible truth Chat they are
hated in IrelanD, but it should be cried
incessantly into their ears, for Ireland
under British rule is blot upon the map
Of Europe. and before making such g.
noise about the wretched Armenians, the
English ought to consider what is done at
home-sixty miles from Hoiyhead. The
sadness of Ireland, | said in the article
which evoked the bitter reply from the
"Standard," lies in the fact that 1t is
q vast cemetery Of ruined peasant homes.
Especially toward The west the country
is studded with ruins. You know the Oft
told story Of the eviction Of tenants, OF
policemen summoned by the landlord, how
the barricaded door Of the hut is broken
down how the miserable furniture is
seized, how the inmates are driven forth.
and then in order that these unhappy
persons may not be tempted TO reinstate
themselves in the empty home, how the
roof and even the widows are taken away
until finally all that remains are the four
stone walls and the gable ends SAele-
tons of such novels seen everywhere
throughout Ireland, have satisfied me
that eyicticns are not a legend but
iamentabla daily occurrence. Sometimes
there Is an entire group of such stone
skeletons, already half = covered witt,
moss In the outskirts Of some apparent
ly flourishing towns such as Sligo, there
are many ruins Of this kind.
Now, in the face Of the ruins. which
tell such a wonderful history one nat
urally asks what rent could be legiti-
Snateiy demanded from the unfortunates
who lived here in these .dens as long as
there were roofs ON them? Ore asks
this question with oityEin%his heart as he
traverees the unfertile and picturesque
country of Cnnhaught. Short heather
covers a soil which is composed of thick
turf No crop can be cultivated until the
turf has been removed. In those few
places where a happy accident enables
small crop to grow the growth is amaze
mic and damp, and it rots away before
harvest time. Imagine what q spirit Of
revolt there must be in those unfOitu-
mates who are evicted from their homes
because they did moi pay rent which
they could not possibly gain out of tnc
land.
Now, what moral policy ought the con-
,GuerOr to have adopted in the case Of
such q country and such a people? He
ought to have become a protector, using
the word in the strongest sense; in other
words, being the richer and stronger Of
the two, it was mis- duty, as soon as he
had achieved the conquest, to help the
poor and conquered people, so that they
might enrich themselves under his pro-
lection. France adopted this policy---a
Frenchman may be permitted to cite
these exanlples-when she conquered AL
saca Alsace was not poor country
but the interminable wars had ravaged
and reduced her to condition worse
than that OF ireland. After She became
French she received so much love and
sustenance from her new master that
forty years after the conquest there were
few provinces more patriotic than she
was England, on the other hand--and
this is the secret Of all the Political blum
ders that sire has committed in regard to
the sister isle.has never loved Ireland.
Sne has treated her with violence, and
she insults her even to the present day.
tt was through dread of q revolution
that England finally granted some tardy
concessions Gland Act. l8S1), which
many persons still think insufficient. For
now it is too late to win Ireland by gem
tie treatment. The two races are more
hostile than ever and ii temporary pa
eification is the nlomentary result of the
division Of the Irish parties. we are con-
adent that the Irish question still re-
mains an unsolved problem.
The English journals and the loyal
Irish journals seem TO forget this fact.
They would fain believe and make believe
that there is no longer any Irish
question, and that the who,e irish asi-
tation is dead and buried, Nothing is
more false AS long as ireland is sup
posed to be a country in which the ma
tives cannot find homes which is the
case today-so long there will be an
Irish question. 1t will come to the front
unexpectedly on the day when England
finds herself engaged in some colonial
complication, and this day cannot fail to
come. Oniy--weM there is a very serious
only.
Only there will, perhaps be no more Irish
to bring forward the Irish question, if
there is too long delay-aye, if the day Of
awakening should not come until that in
eyitab,e day when England VIII crumb,e to
pieces under the weight Of her huge en-.
Spire. And perhaps this is the solution on
! which the energetic fatalisln Of john Bull
Is counting. Tie native population of Ire
D land is decreasing in frightful manner.
4 Iaere were eiglt million Inhabitants in
{ 1881. In 1894 the number had fallen of
4 70 tour millions and a half Now, if the
3ethnic evolution goes on without being ar;
( rested by. a revolution, violent political
uplleaval it is easy to fix by mathematical
\ calculation the epoch at which Ireland will
Il be wholly British. Is i5ya i
isl The Standard seems astonisaed that this
4 peTsp pectiye OF British Ireland does not
B please q Frenclman And yet nothing is
more nsttlra.. France has always had SYM
4 Tor Ireland, and this perhaps is not
/ / least of the reasons VII. .eh# ma kesst the
n 50 verse TO grant them home rule
/ Scharact ter we lanyl
" ! iclhar Il 81