The Irish standard., 1898-07-30
TERRIBLE BUT TRUTHFUL PICTURE
OF MlsGOvERNMENT.
As EXERCISED IN THE EMERALD ISLE
BARBARITIES PERPETRATED IN
THE NAME OF LAW.
UNPARALLELED IN THEIR A1RocI1Y
A POLICY OF CRUELTY, RAPACITY
AND INIIUMANITY.

The following arraignment of Eng
lands misgoyernment in Ireland ap-
peared in the June number of the Du-
luth Microcosm, monthly publication
issued by 2. H. Austin:
Tho sufferings of the American COL
onies, the sorrows Of Cuba, the oppres-
sion of Poland are insignificant compared
with the unutterable ruin inflicted by
England upon the Irish people. No ad-
equate conception of 1t can be conveyed
In any brief sketch. Between the fourth
and ninth centuries, ireland was the
most literate, prosperous and enlight-
ened nation of Europe outside the city
of Rome. Her schools and universities
attracted students by the hundreds Of
thousands from England and the conti-
nent. She was known as the "Island of
Sages." Her scholars and diyines car
ried civilization to all parts of Europe
Three hundred years Of Danish inyas-
Ions left her an easy prey to the treach-
cry and avarice of Henry II. (1172), and
his successors. The people were de-
spoiled of their possessions, deprived of
their liberties, their resistance made the
justification for their slaughter. A
glimpse at the prevailing condition may
be obtained from single illustration
furnished by the poet Edmund Spencer
then in the service of the government.
He reported what he saw in the SOUTH
ern counties after raid by the duke of
Ormonde: Il saw in these late wars of
Munster, that Notwithstanding the same
Was most rich and plentiful country.
full OF corn and cattle, that you would
have thought they should have been
able to stand long, yet in one short year
and half they were brought to such
wretchedness as that any stony heart
would have rued the same. Out of every
corner of the woods and glen they came,
creeping forth upon their hands, for
their legs could not carry them: they
looked like anatomies of death: thew
spoke like ghosts crying out of their
graves; they did eat the dead carrion.
happy when they could find them, yea
and one another soon after in so much
as the very carcasses they spared not to
scrapo out of their graves, and if they
found plot of water-cresses or sham
rocks, there they f1ocked as to a feast
for the time; yet not able long to con-
tinue there withal, that in short space
there We're none almost left, and most
populous and plentiful country sudden
ly left void of man and beast"
Each struggle for liberty was crushed
with barbaric force; it's recurrence
sought to be repressed by drastic penal
and commercial laws and Wholesale
conflscations Of property.
Cromwell swept the country with
flaming sword. The population was re-
duced to 100000. Nine thousand women
and girls were sold into slavery in the
Barbados. The Celtic Irish gentry was
forcibly transplanted beyond the Shan
non. Tho lands not hitherto conflscated
and divided among the soldiers, the mis-
tresses and court favorites of the kings
were parceled out among the round
heads and camp-followers of Cromwell.
portion of Ulster was colonized by The
thugs, criminals and cutthroats of the
commonwealth. At the beginning of
the present century only one tenth of
the land was owned by the Celtic Irish
The original gentry or land-owning
class had been converted into a peasant
tenantry, holding the lands at the suf-
ferance of the landlord, under enormous
rental, subject to dispossession without
q moments notice.
The military arm of the government
was reinforced by the legislative branch,
To prevent competition with English in
dustry, laws were passed in restraint of
Irish trade and manufacture. Tho Irish
were prohibited from exporting iron.
sheep, wool, horses, cattle, meat, butter,
cheese. They were prohibited from
manufacturing iron, woolens, or any,
thing else in competition with English
manufacture. Violations of these laws
were punished by confiscaton and trans
portation. These laws were in full and
uninterrupted force from 1860 to 1882: IL
was not necessary to continue them
longer. At the beginning Of that period
there were 5000 iron factories and thou
sands of woolen mills in operation-all
were destroyed.
To utterly crush and degrade the Irish
people, the penal laws were enacted and
enforced. 1t was made felony for a.
"Papist" to teach school, or educate his
children or send them abroad to be cdu-
Gated; and if accused of the crime the
rule of evidence was reversed the bur-
den Of proof was placed upon him to
prove his innocence; he was tried before
the kings magistrate without a jury.
A "Papist" could not act as guardian Of