The Irish standard., 1897-02-06

| bers be found willing to set aside a.
compensation to the landlords" any of
the money which the people and not tn,
landlords have had extorted from them
through crushing taxation upon articles
I of consumption? would like to see the
Home Rule member who would so speak
7 or vote stand before his constituents
afterward, and attempt to find approval
| for his action. The money due Ire
land on the showing of the = lnancial Re
lations Commission Report is money
that has come out of the slender earn
ings Of the Irish peasantry and those of
| our urban workers-farmers, laborers,
| artisans and mechanics-and any act of
restitution that may be made by Parlia-
| ment must have in view mainly, If not
| entirely, the interests of these nine
tenths of our Irish population. Unless
therefore, Mr.. O'Grady's new movement
is to equip itself with sufficient political
power to compel Lord Salisbury and MIR.
Chamberlain to pay back to Ireland the
whole or part Of what the English legis-
lature has robbed us of, and unless the
Irish landlords are going to labor dis
1nterestedly for the exclusive benefit of
the peasantry of Ireland in an agitation
to achieve this end, the only effect the
agitation is likely to have is that SO can.
didly limited at by Mr.. O'Grady--to di-
rect popular wrath in Ireland from the
rentmongers and evictors to the British
Treasury. Possibly-for nothing is even
improbable in political warfare-the
Irish tenant and the taxpaying Briton
may both find some ccmpensating pleas
ure In mutually consenting to be thus
exploited for the profit or sport Of the
Irish as far, at least, as the Irish tenant
is concerned. He, at any rate, knows
his Irish landlord only too we'll, and Mr..
O'Grady has been complacent enough to
explain all about the little game which
the Irish aristocracy are up to in trying
to play landlords; but seriously doubt
1t, so the part O. patriots for the Irish
people ROW that coercion and evictions
no longer make the payment of rents
easy or cheerful In Ireland
There is one chance, and only one for
the Irish landlords to save themselves
from the ultimate and certain destruc-
tion between the devil Of bill-passing
House Of Commons and the deep sea Of
Irish Land Leagueism; and this is a
chance which MI. O'Grady does not
point out in his able article. Let them
stand with the Irish people not for the
selfish or cynical purposes SO openly
avowed, but on wide national grounds;
for honest and truly beneficial national
objects, which can be claimed with ire
sistible force if Irish Unionists unite
with Irish Nationalists in making the de-
mand upon the Imperial Parliament. Let
this demand have logical bearing upon
the great grievance laid bare in the SEN
sational finding OF the Financial Rela-
tions Commission. Summed up in sen-
tence, this finding means that the Irish
people have got no value for, but actual
injury to, their interests in return for
taxes out of all proportion to their taxa
bic capacity. Better value for our money
would have meant a more sympathetic
and better administration of Irish affairs
municipal and national, than is seen to-
day in the ruinously expensive systems
and boards which have deadly hold up
on the Industrial and commercial life of
Ireland, and explain the anomaly Of in
creasing taxes and decreasing popula-
ton, more police for less crime, with
growing agricultural depression side by
side with lower rents and remedial land
legislation.
The Irish Unionists can change all this
if they are really wishful to benefit the
whole of Ireland, as we'll as to advance
their own interests. They, and they on
ly, are the obstacle in the way Of better
government for Ireland. Mr. O'Grady
says the Irish landlords have little to
fear at the hands of the Irish people.
This being 80, why not throw in their lot
with the nation and help to change all
this decay and discomfort into the pros
perity and satisfaction which invariably
follow from the stimulus of real national
life? If, instead of trying to use this new
movement for sectional aims, they will
make it means to national end, they
will be doing the wisest and best thing
for themselves that they have ever at
tempted to do in Ireland or in Westmin
ster.
There are two reforms which they are
powerless to arrest, though they may de
lay them; the downfall Of dual ownership
in Irish land, and the concession of self
government of some kind to Ireland.
These reforms are as certain to come as
that to-morrow's sun will shine some
where. Why cannot Mr.. Standish
O'Grady's Irish aristocracy see the pal
pable advantage to themselves of hav-
ing these reforms framed and carried out
by Irishmen In Ireland who are no lon
ger feared, instead Of being measured
out according to the views of some Eng
lishmen, ignorant Of Ireland and its
wants, who may chance to be the Chief
&c ~. oo,,;c11 rrho I,,,rn 6o1,f