The Irish standard., 1897-06-26
"TAY PAY" ON THE CARNIVAL.

"TAY PAY" ON THE CARNIVAL.
Last Sundays New York World pub
lished a special communication from r..
P. O'ConnOr, M. P, on the great lingo
carnival, known as the Queens jubilee,
in which he sets forth in a comprehen-
sive manner the reasons why Irishmen
could not consistently join in the cele-
bration. This clever newspaper man Is
Familiarity known as "Tay Pay" from his
initials, the English having given him
that name in ridicule of Irish pronuncia-
ton. OF course, every Irishman knows
that these two letters of the alphabet are
properly pronounced by the Irish
peasantry, and that from Galway to
Dublin and from Belfast to Killarney you
cannot find the most illiterate peasant
guilty of such vulgarity in sounding the
initials of the honorable gentleman's
name. But the Cockney scribe who
sounds ~" for 'w' and says 'orse for
horse must have fling at Mr.. O'Connor
and his prosecuted countrymen. In the
course of his able article T. P. O'Connor
says:
The Irish position is that the reasons
which cause Englishmen to rejoice are
those which compel Irishmen to mourn
over this reign. Wealth, prosperity, COM
fort, liberty. spread of empire-all these
blessings which have so conspicuously
marked this reign for the Englishman-
bring into greater, sadder relief the con-
trast in the effects of that same period
upon the destinies of Ireland.
The most vivid idea of what an unex-
ampled period of material decadence and
tribulation this record reign has been to
Ireland is gained by comparing it's con-
dition with that Of England. These sixty
years have been stupendous advance in
every element of national prosperity; in
Ireland the decline in the same period
has been appalling.
When Englishmen, ever friendly Eng
lishmen, devoted to home rule, ask me
why l refuse to rejoice over the jubilee
l retort:
population has decreased AZ per cent
while England's has increased 20 pei
cent?
"Is it because Ireland. with it's dimin.
ished population, is so pauperized that
two-thirds of its people are dependent on
the potato crop, the failure of which i'm
mediately produces famine, while the
standard general comfort in England is
higher than in any other country?"
Ireland is the fourth meat producer in
the world, Dut it's poverty makes it the
sixteenth meat consuming
Fifty years ago there were only fifty
two paupers in the thousand in Ireland
and fortynine in the thousand in Eng
land. Today the rate has risen in Ire
land to ninety-flve, while it has fallen in
England to twenty-six.
Take manufactures between 1S41 and
1891. The whole Irish population has de-
creased AZ per cent. but it's manufacturing
population has decreased 81 per cent,
while in the same period England's
most immeasurably.
Ireland during this record reign has
been steadily gravitating towards total
dependence on agriculture, the most in
secure support for people, and one that
has suffered most acutely from depres-
sion. while England has been growing
more and more independent af agricul-
ture.
The same dismal, heartrending tale OF
material decay meets you on every side
in Ireland. The incomes of the wage.
earning class are, man for man, barely
half those in Great Britain, and while the
gross income Of Ireland is e7O,oO0,O 900,
that of Great Britain is e. $500 ,OOO, 900.
England's rule has advanced England,
but it has driven Ireland back to con-
dition today to which no civilized country
has been reduced in modern times except
by devastating war.
Worst Of all, while Ireland has had its
life blood steadily drained by English
rule. at the same time the taxation on
per capita of Irishmen is double what 1t
was fifty years ago, while that of Eng
lishmen is actually half what it then
was
The retrospect for England for the last
sixty years is one unbroken vista of
Astounding prosperity and steady broad
ening of the power of democracy, the
retrospect for Ireland is an equally I'M
broken one of material degeneration, bar
barous political oppression, denial Of pop
ular rights, and abrogation by permanent
statute of the constitutional liberties en-
joyed by every Englishman, Scotchman
and Welshman.
No man in Ireland rejoices over this
jubilee except he be a member of the
small ascendency class for whose benefit
a corrupt and partisan system of govern
ment has been maintained there, so that.
while England is governed by the people
Ireland is governed by the landlords for
the landlords.
Under these circumstances, for Irish
men to join in the rejoicing over the reign
would mean that Irishmen rejoiced in the
depopulation, impoverishment, and en-.