The Irish standard., 1900-04-21

greater than that OF all ireland, is IN
the same position, the metropolitan pc.
lice force being subject not to the Lon
don county council or to the municipal
ity but to the secretary of state for the
home department.
Every one of these acts of remedial
legislation in behalf OF Ireland
that have become law during the
last three-score years have received the
signature of Queen Victoria, and in
time to come, when Erin's wrongs have
become more remote than they are to-
day, and when the bitterness which still
survives as matter of tradition rather
than for any actual or present cause.
becomes softened, history will place on
record the incontrovertible fact that
Queen Victoria's reign witnessed the
abolition OF all exceptional legislation
against Ireland and the placing of the
Irishman on precisely the same footing
as his Scotch, English, and Welsh fell
low-citizens. In one word, no sover-
eigr of Great Britain and Ireland for
the last Goo years has ever deserved SO
we'll OF Erin as Queen Victoria, who
has therefore strong claim Upon that
particular quality which is so conspicu-
Gus feature of the Irish character
namely: generous gratitude for services
rendered.
1t will be doubtless objected by some
of my readers that if Queen Victoria
endowed Ireland with county, municipal
and parish home rule and placed her
Irish subjects upon identically the same
footing as her lieges in England, Scot
land and Wales, she likewise gave her
sanction to the so-called coercion acts.
1t must be pointed out, however, that
these were merely of an ephemeral ma
ture, devised for the purpose OF dealing
with temporary condition OF affairs
brought about by combination of rent
racling landlords restitution due to
ruined crops and poor harvcsts, and last
but not least, by irresponsible political
agitators of the professional type, who
deliberately fostered the disposition to
Agrarian crime attributable to the
causes just mentioned, realizing that
their most profitable fishing grounds
were in troubled waters, and that the
removal OF Irelands real grievances
against England would leave them
stranded and without any raison d'etre.
Here in the United States as in every
other civilized country, where popular
forms OF government are in existence,
disturbances due to one cause or an
other occasionally occur, which it is
impossible to control or subduc by
means of the ordinary methods OF law
and Of administration. Exceptional
measures have then 10 be instituted,
special legislation OF temporary char
actcr enacted, and perhaps the const-
tutional rights and prerogativcs OF the
people OF the unru1y district suspended.
Ireland is not alone to- have suffered
from brief spells OF cocrcive legislation,
which, while they may have been neces-
sary in order to subduc Agrarian crime
and to restore law and order have been
deplored not only by Queen Victoria
but by English statesmen of every
shade OF political opinion as tending to
revive the old-timc bitterness-a we'll
justified bitterness on the part of the
Irish people against England
But the Irisll1nan having now been
placed on idcntically the same footing
as the Englisllman and endowed with
precisely the same prcrogatives and
privileges, freed in fact from every law
and obligation OF an exceptional char
acter, and that was not equally binding
upon the Englishman, asks for still
more. Hc is not content to be treated
on the same basis as the most favored
nation, but demands through his repre-
sentatiyes at Westminster to be con-
stituted the best favored nation. He in
sists upon the enactment OF exceptional
legislation, not as in former times to
his disadvantage, but on the contrary in
his favor He asks that he should be
exempted from many OF the taxes that
are imposed equally upon all citizens of
the United Kingdom. Thus, when the
other day the chancellor Of the ex-
chcquer announced the intention OF the
government to increase the duty on tea
and on beer, the Irish members imme-
diately put forward demand that Ire
land should be exempted from this in
crease OF taxation, a plea which the
administration refused to entertain,
taking the ground that if there were to
be different rates of duty in Ireland and
England the former would become viz
tually a foreign country, and custom
houses between the two kingdoms
would have to be established. The
Irish members, in putting forward this
plea for the exemption of the Irish
people from the contemplated increase
OF duty upon tea and beer, based their
arguments on the fact that the Emerald
Isle is called upon to furnish an
amount OF revenue to the imperial ex-
chequer which is out of proportion to
its economic condition. This argument
is valid one, but only in a modified
sense. In England, owing to the fact
hat %1,o 4.