The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-30
The Political Prospects OF Ireland.

Inc PONtlCal prospects OF Ireland.
The friends OF Ireland in the United
States wisely refrained while the Land
Purchase bill was passing through
Parliament from discussing the political
effects of that epoch-making measure.
We observe, also, that even now, when
the bill has become a law Mr. JUSTIN
MCCARTHY, writing in the Fortnighty
Review, avoids indicating in explicit
terms the relation Of Ireland's agrarian
revolution to her demand for Home Rule.
We purpose here to point out the
grounds for believing that the Irish
people are close to the fulflment of their
passionate desire for the virtual repeal
" the Act of Union and the reGstab-
i-hment Of an autonomous Legislature
at Dublin Our grounds for the belief
are two: First, the Land Purchase act
has rendered the Home Rule party in
comparably stronger than it ever was
before; and, secondly, its Unionst OPP
ponents have been irremediably dis
rupted by Mr. CHAMBERLAIN proposal
of preferential tariff
There is no doubt that the Land Pur-
chase act will eliminate the landlords
who for centuries have been regarded
as the British garrison in Ireland, the
sole reliable upholders of the Protestant
religion and of British rule Hereafter
Ulster, as well as the three other prov
inces, will be entirely under the control
of the peasant farmers and the priests.
The former tenants will regard the
transaction by which they are to be
transformed into peasant proprietors
as British concession to Irish impor-
tunity. They will DO perfectly right in
attributing the assent of British tax
payers to u loan of $500 600 900 and
a gratuity of $500 100000, not to mag
nanimity or contrition, but to a wish
TO avert revival Of the incendary
proceedings of the Land League, and
the necessity of resorting continually
to coercion.
The concession, therefore, instead of
being received with lasting gratitude,
is likely presently to act as a stimulus
TO further importantly. Even if the
peasant farmers were disposed to re-
main q,liescent for while, the Nation
alist leaders could easily arouse them
by pointing out how signally the path
had been smoothed to an improvement
of their political position by the dis
appearance Of the landlords who had
been vitality interested in keeping Ire
land under British rule.
We need not say, moreover, that
autonomy will henceforth be clothed
with peculiarly seductive charms, for
the small freeholders about to be created
will be told that a Dublin legislature
could relieve them of the rental i'm
posed upon them by the Land Purchase
act The priests, on their part, would
DO well aware that they could obtain
from Dublin legislature what they
have never yet been able to secure from
the British Parliament, to wit, a great
teaching university for Irish Catholics
and adequate Government aid for their
primary and secondary education In
deed, it is by no means improbable that
a Dublin Legislature could be prevailed
upon to declare Catholicism the State
religion of Ireland. Nor will any rea-
sonabe man deny that Catholicism has
a better claim to be established in Ireland
being the faith professed by a very
large majority Of the mathematician
has Anglicanism TO be established in
England. Such an innovation, startling
as it may SEEM looks less chimercal
to-day than the notion that the present
Land Purchase act might be passed
by Unionist Government would have
looked few years ago.
Not only have the Home Rulers been
made intellectually stronger in Ireland,
but their opponents in Great Britain
are threatened with disintegraton and
collapse. Mr. CHAMBERLAIN has split
the Unioni,t party. His proposal TO
tax food products IN the United King
dom for the purpose of giving prefer
ance to imports from the Colonies has
been denounced by three Unionist Chan
IL II I