New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-04-12
THE NEW IRELAND.

Tho Irish revolution is completed. 1t was ne
Gun three months ago and was ended last week
There has been little disturbance or excitement
IN Ireland itself probably less than we nave
here in a Presidential campaign There mas
been little attention paid to it by the OUTSIDE
world even by Great Britain. Yet the revoiu'
tion is In its immediate effects and In IT'S prom
se Of lasting results, by far the greatest sociai
and political change the island has known since
the Union. and one of the most noteworthy ever
accomplished by peaceful methods IN any couh-
trv in the world. Three months ago the thirty
two counties of Ireland were governed by
close corporation of landlords, unionists anu
Protestants. To-day they, or nine-tenths oi
them. are governed by a popular body or ten
ants and peasant proprietors. Nationalist ana
Catholics There were, Of course, excepuons |"
the rule, and there now are. But the para
mount fact Is that considerably more than three
fourths of the new County Councillors belong 10
one or another of the various Nationalist rae
tons. It is true that Lord Dunraven was elected
at Limerick. but DAILY the dynamiter was in
January chosen Mayor of that city.
We have said that even the British show little
concern at this sweeping revolution. For that
there are several reasons. One is that England
herself adopted County Councils ten years ago.
and is now so accustomed 10 them that the
extension Of the system 10 Ireland seems
matter of course Another is that the change Is
made by the decree of Conservative Unionist
Government If Gladstone had done exactly
what Mr.. Balfour has done there would have
been time, third reason, and the strongest
of all. is that the temper and condition OF Ire
land have greatly changed, not only since tho
DAYS Of the Land League, but since those OF the
Home Rule campaigns. There is peace, there is
prosperity and there is above ALL steadily
and swiftly increasing peasant proprietorship.
This last is the circumstance that most allays
British fears and that most aUgurs well for the
new era AS a result of the operation of the
Ashbourne act of fourteen years ago, and OF the
supplementary land acts that have since been
made the Irish people, the peasants, are becom-
ing the owners in freehold of the land they oc-
cupy. At the present rate of progress this gen
Grafton will the great majority Of Irish coun-
trymen owners of the land, and the bulk Of
Irish land owned by the people in small farms.
Such n state of affairs invariably makes for con-
seryatism and is one Of the best guarantees OF
good government
In nearly all respects, indeed, there Is to-day a
new Ireland Scarcely another country IN the
world las changed so much in eighteen years.
Political and agrarian crime, which reached IFS
worst in Gladstone's coercion days, has practi-
cally disappeared; it is now less than in Eng
land itself Emigration has almost ceased, the
birth rate has risen. the death rate has fallen,
and the population Of the country is increasing
nj goodly ratio. The industrial revival. fos-
tered partly by the converts partly by Mr.
Plunkett and his associates and partly by the
British Government. has attained gratifying pro-
portions and is now on a most substantial basis
Railroads and other public works are being ex-
tended on every hand banks are hourishiDg, and