The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-11-22
Says that if He Made His Speech in Mayo
He Would Get Three Months
With Hard Labor.
Ireland in State of Yelled Rebellion and
Peace Impossible Under
Landlord Tyranny.

On II recent occasion, II. w. Russell
Nj. T., who is wagng Il bitter fight
against landlordism in Ulster, lectured
at Lcith, Scotland, before the Young
Scots Society. Mr.. Arthur Dewur, OK
| M. T.. for South Edinburgh, presided.
and there was Il large attendance
Mr.. Russell, who was cordially re-
ccivcd, said in part:
Mr.. Chairman ana gentlemen,
have accepted your invitation, and
Travelled from Ireland, at this inclcm-
cnt season, because I think the time
is opportunc for something like plain
speaking in regard to Ireland and
Irish affairs. I am not addressing,
and make no appeal to those people
who assert that Coercion, or, as they
prefer to call it. rcsOlute Government,
is the real specific for the Irish dis
case. There are many such people.
And all | have to say in regard to
them and their specific is. that if a
policy has been in operation for at
least one hundred years with the Of
feet of intcnsfyin= the mischief and
rendering the disease more dangerous,
ii is high time. in my opinion, at once
to change the medicine and the doc
tors. The disease may, indeed, prove
in the end to be intractahlc or incur
able. What | wish to maintain nj the
outset is. that the clear ana undcni-
able failure OF Coercion as Il policy
during the hundred years that have
come and gone since the Union opens
the door for the consideration of other
remedies. and for n wholly different
policy. Now, gentlemen, fear that
] shall have to make considerable de-
mand alike upon your time and your
patience. But I am anxious. not only
should be made clear, but that YOU
should thoroughly realize, what, as
regards the Government of Great
Britain and Ireland, the actual facts
really are. Let us begin, then at n
convenient point in Irish history. In
the year 1882 the Parliament Of
Great Britain formally renowned by
statute all Rights or Title to Make
Laws for Ireland. enter into no
argument here as to the state of af-
fairs which produced this great act OF
remuneration. 1t is sufficient for my
purpose that the remuneration was
made The next suggestive finger
post in Irish history is ths-that
eighteen years after this remark
able event Great Britain destroyed
the Irish parliament which then
existed, undid the work of 1882,
and unaskcd, and unbiddcn, took upon
herself, with the aid, Of course. of n
certain number of Irish representa-
tives, the government Of Ireland No
historian of which I have any knowl-
edge has n word to say in defense of
the methods by which the act of union
was carried. Mr.. Lecky, himself n
strong Unionists, and representing in
the Imperial parliament, the most ultra
Tory constituency in the three king
doms, has declared that the act of
union was accomplished by every at
tribute Of moral perfidy. 1t was car
rled by wholesale bribery, either in
coin Of the realm or in honors. 1t was
carried against the vehement protest
of all that was noblest in Irish life.
The act is more than one hundred
years old. 1t has never been accepted
by the great mass of the Irish people.
The perfidy which accompanied 1t has
never been condoned. Here then is
our Pitsanti, or dumping off ground"
The union, once carried by such
means, it might have been thought
that Great Britain would have been
only too anxious to prove to Ireland
that the great change which had taken
place was to her advantage. No such
policy was pursued. For thirty years,
from 1900 to 1929, the record Of Brit
ish government in Ireland was a rec