The Irish standard., 1902-01-18

THE IRISH
I l1atavaa4,l,0
AS for agitation, it is all right every
where. 1t was agitation brought on
the Revolution that eliminated in the
establishment of the American repub-
lie; it was agitation that led to the
abolition of Negro Slavery in this
country; it was agitation that won
Catholic Emancipation for Ireland in
1929; it was agitation that caused
Gladstone to pass laws for Ireland
recognizing dual ownership in the
soil; and it was agitation compelled
him to champion Home Rule for Ire
land in the days of Charles Stewart
Parnell. Agitation against wrong is
always conducive to liberty. There
are agitators in Ireland to-day who
will never cease until justice and
right prevail in all parts of the island
By the Act of Union, Ireland is en-
titled to 100 members in the London
parliament, and the representation
cannot be reduced without violating
an international agreement. 1t does
not depend on population at ALL
While Ireland has 100, Great Britain
has six times as many members at
Westminster, so that the Irish men,
bers can be outvoted by an over
whelming majority on any measure
under discussion. The writer in the
Dispatch would deprive the Irish of
any representation at all. John E.
Redmond demanded not long ago that
Ireland be governed as a crown col
ony, but England cannot afford to do
that yet. Then there would be ''taxa-
ton without representation" as in the
American colonies.
1t will be observed that the anony-
nous slanderer of Ireland contradicts
himself by saying that England and
the United States are the freest ma
lions on earth, though the Emerald
Isle has liberty of speech and liberty
of the press in super-abundance. He
forgets that Mr.. McHugh, M. P, re-
Gently spent six months in an Irish
prison for condemning jury-packing
in his "Sligo Champion" and that Mr..
O'Conor Kelly, M. P, is now in Jail
for addressing his own constituents at
an open air meeting.
The anonymous ignoramus in the
Dispatch finds fault with a st. Paul
grammar school teacher for requiring
the pupils to change an interrogative
sentence into declarative one, and
shows that he knows as much about
English grammar as he does of Anglo
Irish politics. The sentence given is:
care the miseries in Ireland wholly
attributable to the oppression of
England?" He says that all of the
pupils, except one, made the declara-
tive sentence an affirmative one, and
hence his TRADE. Now, the pupils
could have done nothing else, gramat-
ically speaking, for there is neither
mo-" nor mot" in the sentence pre-
sented to them. He enormously thinks
that the pupils are antagonistic to the
mother country" because they failed
to say: "rhe miseries of England are
not wholly attributable to the oppres-
sion of England" Like Dogberry he
has written himself down an ass.
Perhaps the st. Paul teacher had
been reading Cobbett's grammar, in
which the author pointed out to his
son the many errors made by British
in public speeches and state
papers. Nobody but an ignorant fell
low would have offered such criti-
cism and made such gratuitous at
tack upon the Irish people. He evil
IDENTIFY did not spend many years in the
study Of contemporaneous history Or
English syntax in the ''little red school
house" which he loves so much. He
has followed the tactics of his long
cared brethren in concealing his cog
and has not the courage of his