The Irish standard., 1902-05-24

l>e>9NADAA'
most mischievous weapon in the
armory of the League?' to many in
telligent people in the west of Ireland
farmers and trades-people, constabu'
larry officials and clergymen Of all de.
nominations. The answer. always
prompt and always the same. was
What do you suppose? y dynamite
bomb, or, perhaps, Il blunderbus, or
at least q moonlight visit? Not bit
of it. The most terrible weapon of the
League was the publication in certain
newspapers of the proceedings and
resolutions of the local branches" cloud
laughter). That sentence ought to be
printed in letters of gold in the history
Of the United Irish League, because
what does it prove? 1t proves that
after four years agitation by an or
ganization numbering at least couple
of hundred thousand hot-blooded Irish
men, their worst enemy cannot point
to any weapon that they employ more
criminal than a newspaper paragraph
(GheerS). Their worst crime is that
they avail themselves of the local
newspaper to give expression to the
public opinion of the country in mat
tiers of vital interest to the very en-
istence of our people. No crime, no
shooting, no midnight assassin, moth
ing worse than Il resolution of the local
branch published in Il local newspaper,
not preceded by crime and not follow
ed by crime; and observe that the con-
stabulary officials themselves confess
THAT that is the worst they can allege
against the League i'm it's hottest
strongholds QOud checring). Yet. in
the face of that state of things trial
by jury is gone, and now the miserab Bile
hypocriteS who are forever crying out
against the press censorship in Russia
are starting out on Il campaign for the
total destruction of liberty of the press
in Ireland, and Mr.. Wyndham's first
victim. quite worthy of the policy Of
the concentration camps in South At
rica-is Il woman, and Il widow-tlle
widow of one of the most indomitable
Corkmen that ever fought for Ireland,
John O'Mahony, the famous water
ford STAR man Qoud cheers for Mrs.
Public opinion is to he
prevented from expressing itself open-
ly and lawfully in the public press in
order that it may be driven back to
the midnight lodge or behind the
hedges, and so play the game of the
and the LondJnderrys
and the rest of the mlscrGlnts, for |
repeat it is not too strong Il word for
men who have perjured themselves as
privy councillors in order to serve
themselves as landlords and to create
crime in Il country where their COM
plaint and their despair is that agitation
cannot be got to take any more crimi-
nal form than expressions of opinion
in the public newspapers cloud checrs,.
That is where, | hold the real impor-
lance and the nbominable wiclcllness
Of these proclalnations comes in; and,
no doubt, once they begin to yield ut
all, the government will be dragged
further by that egregious donkey, Lord
daughter and checrs),
who is at the bottom of this whole
by the "'rimes," the silly
little goose who talks of his reign in
Dublin Castle as it he were an an
Ointetl sovereign Uaughter. | dare
say he has never forgiven us for call
ing him little Lord Castlereagh long
ago when he was parading his BRAIN
less insiSnific;lnce in Dublin Castle
under the coat-tals of Mr.. Balfour
daughter and grOlns). Well now, there
Is no accounting for taste, and it may
Lord Londonderry to hear
that the only fault l can find with the
Irish people is not that they have done
too much, but that they have not done
enough to bring home to the minds of
Mr.. Wyndham and the landlords the
urgency, the deadly urgency, of this
question of the abolition of landlord
ism and of big grazierism. (Hear,
hear). Mr. Wyndham made it his
boast that his land bill this year was
exactly the same bill he intended to
Introduce last year-that is to say, that
his education on the Irish land ques-
ton has not advanced a single step
within the last twelve months. That
l regard rs somewhat serious mat
ter, and l am afraid it is not alto
gether to our credit (hear, hear. We
see the result in the land bill which
Mr.. Wyndham has had the impudence,
or, perhaps. l should say the limo
cence, to place before the country as
a settlement of the land question.
am not able to go into the details Of
that bill to-day. Mr.. Redmond has
done so very effectively in an impor-
tant speech he made in this city some
weeks ago. Perhaps, indeed. it would
be waste Of time to discuss n bill which
you may never hear of again. If the
government persists in their proposal
to shut the tenants out Of the Land
Courts, unless they place themselves
body and soul at the mercy of Mr..
Wrench, Of the land commission. of
course, there is an end Of the bill
<o,,oo,eA, ,,l g., ,,,,, ..,,, T., A.. .....,.