The Irish standard., 1903-11-28

Of the league, is that more than half
the f5,OOO,OOO allocated for purchase
within the next twelve months Is al
ready absorbed by few wealthy es-
tates in Leinster; that the lard agents
and fire-eaters, who run the landown-
er's convention, and who are quite as
keen as the Freeman for the frustra-
ton of the act, have been encouraged
to put forward the most 1aonstrous
and intolerable claims; that the evict-
ed tenants hopes have been wholly
blocked, and the work of stimulating
the congested districts board and the
estates commissioners to action in the
poorer half Of the country abandoned
for the more congenial toll Of girding
at the advocates of the policy Of con-
ciliation; and that, finally, On the day
on which the act comes into force the
Freeman is entitled to boast that 1.-THE
fair promises of nine months ago are
already dispelled."
Worse than all, the members of the
Irish party have been invited to pub
lie contention with one another in the
newspapers and on public platforms,
and the public boards have been ex-
posed to the frightful danger of being
turned into so many committee rooms
No. Is by the bandying about Of reso-
lutions conveying direct votes of CEN
sure upon the national policy, and con-
sequently upon all who propounded it.
1t is true, that up to the present the
spirit Of dissension is confined almost
entirely to the province of Lcinster,
where the league has never been solid
ly established, and where the disor-
ganized tenantry are altogether de-
pendent on the Freeman for informa-
ton; but within the past week IL de-
termined and apparently organized at.
tempt has been made to enlist the en-
tire country in the revolt. Every day
that passes, the scandal grows worse
The almost boundless resources of a
great daily newspaper for creating
and spreading false Impressions make
it seem to the landlords as If members
of Parliament and representative
bodies were fast being ranged in op-
posite camps. And while this process
of Generalization goes on week after
week no voice Of public opinion is
heard in reprobation.
There are three ways, and, so far
as know, three ways only, in which
state of things which thus places
the unity of the party and of the coun-
try in deadly peril, might be met. One
would be to affect to ignore all that is
happening and remain silent. That
was the course taken in the former
Irish party, when similar attempts at
disruption began, and the result was
that the party slowly decayed and
rotted, and the country was suffered
to sink into despair. Sinking the
painful truth is not remedy.
The second course would be to take
the public platform and rouse the
country to the danger, of which nine
ty-nine men in the country out Of
every hundred, who are heart and
soul for the unity of the party and
the league, are pathetically ignorant.
But, in the first place, am physically
disabled from addressing public meet
ings. In the next place, when it was
otherwise, such a campaign at this
stage, when sides have been more or
less taken, could only result in an
other split, with all its revolving con-
sequences for the country. Upon such
a struggle no human consideration
will induce me to embark. I intend
never again to live through the hor-
rors of conflict with old colleagues
and ruin for the country which, under
sense of detestable necessity, we
had all on both sides to submit to
twelve years ago. But neither can I,
for one, consent to retain load of un.
endurable responsibility under cir.
cumstances where all sorts of people
bad and (what is much more serious)
good, are free to revile and thwart
while the public opinion that alone
can make Irish public life tolerable
or even in the least degree useful, has
(no doubt from the most natural ha
tired Of contention almost wholly fail
ed to express itself.
A train of peculiar circumstances ir
our recent history has concentrated
upon myself-one of the rank and file
of the Irish party and of the league
and most assuredly one without q
spark of conscious ambition ut any
hour of my life to be anything more
"A weight of responsibility which ha:
caused me to be pursued from many
quarters and by many interests will
ferocity Of hatred beyond that in
Cured by any Irishman of this gener
alton. Defamation, SO long as it only
came from the enemies of the move
ment, gave me no concern whatever
1t is the penalty of all men who taxi
the laboring oar and are compelled t,
contend against powerful interests
and to endeavor to maintain tina
stern discin1ino which ia to Iral0 nd n