The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1903-03-07

lions, and SO the Mansion House Con-
ference scheme of Land Purchase is
said to be in danger of being wrecked.
Will the Irish people ever learn to
take the management of their own at
fairs into their own hands? Will the
tenant-farmers of Ireland ever learn
the first lesson that has to be learned
by the citizens of Il free State, or by
the citizens of Il State rightly strug-
Cling to be free'-that, if they are to
be denied the elementary privilege, or
right, of having Il voice in the selec-
ton of their SO-called ''reprcSenta-
tives" in matters that are of vital
moment to them, they are not to be
denied the right of freedom of speech
i'll criticism of what their so-c;lled
representatives" have committed
them to or have sought to commit
them to?
For weeks past the tenant farmers
of Ireland have been in the pitiful con-
dition of being blindfolded and then
HiSinformed by their self-constituted
Representatives as to the direction
they were being marched in, with the
natural result that they now find
themselves they know not where.
The discovery seems suddenly to
have been made that the British
Treasury is about to dsappoint the
conliding hopes placed in it by the
representatives" of the tenants The
very considerable number of millions
required for the bridging over of the
very considerable gap in question are,
we are told, not forthcoming
SO far as | have been able to see,
there never was the faintest vestigc
OF reason to suppose that those mil
lions would be forthcoming. The pros
poet of them was Il bait sllilfuly
danGlcl before the eyes of the tenants
Representatives. in the Conference by
the far more competent, because far
better informed, representatives of
the landlord interest who met them
there.
All that the representatives of the
landlord interest had to secure was
amply secured by them:
]. That the policy of compulsory sale
was abandoned, in so far us it was
competent for the four representa-
tivcs'' of the interests of the tenants
to set aside Il policy which has been
unanimously adopted as the National
list policy by the only Nationalist Or
ganizntion in Ireland that has under
taken to deal with this matter ut all.
.. \ price amounting to at least
twenty-scven years purchase was
recognized by the tenants "rcprcscnt-
ativcs' as the price to be paid to
landlords who would consent to sell
their lands.
,. An arrangement was come to, I'M
der which, if the Government would
consent to carry it out. the owners of
crease their present income, and in no
incousidcrable number of cases could
even double that income.
Then, who was to pay for all this?
The tenants, | have no doubt, have for
weeks past been reposing in the com
Portable belief tllat-eNcrpt as regards
their own reasonable contribution of
from seventeen to eighteen years
purchase of their holdings''-all the
cost was to be betrayed by the sud
denly developed generosity of the
British Treasury.
For this intensely foolish notion
there never was, so far as l can see
particle of fOuntlat ton.
Then, may he asked, why did the
landlord representatives ut the Con-
ference become parties to an agree
ment which rested upon this as it's
cornerstone?
TO this plain question there are two
plain answers:
1. The question, plain as it may be-
is Il very silly one; there would be
some point in it If. the representatives
in question We're representatives of
the British Treasury. which they were
not; they were representatives only of
Irish landlords.
.. Whatever they were representa-
tivcs of, they never, as Il matter of
fact, agreed to any such proposition as
that which the country-under the
combined influence OF excited oratory,
vigorously denunciatory writing, and
Il dcspotic closure of all public crit-
cism of the terms of the Mansion
House "'rrcaty"-has been led to be-
lievc is the basis upon which the Man
sion House scheme of Land Purchase
rests.
Undctcrrcd by the clamor that has
keen raised with the view of sitting
not only criticism but even inquiry as
to what really was agreed to by the
eight gentlemen who assembled in
the Mansion House under the able
craftsmanship of Lord Dunraven, l
have felt it to be II matter of public
duty, having carefully examined the
terms Of the agreement. to tell the
tenant farmers of Ireland the precise
extent of the burden that it puts upon
them or makes it possible for the Gov.