The Irish standard., 1903-08-22

industry and progress We're stitled. For
it was of no benefit to be Industrious.
The result Of this system was an i'm
poverished tenantry. This led to {,
large and constant emigration from
Ireland For more than fifty years
Ireland has been sending large masses
of her people to this country, so that
now the population of Ireland is only
about one-third cf what it was seven
ty-tive years ago. If the Irish people
are to be enabled to prolong the strug
gle for an independent parliament it
is apparent that the emigration must
lie stopped. Ii the emigration con-
tinues, the Irish people will soon be
like tlle Jews, without any home land
Then the struggle for the recognition
of the nationality would indeed be
hopeless. 1t is believed that the
measure just enacted will settle the
land question. The Irish will now be
enabled to get permanent holdings
where the result of their industry and
economy will accrue to themselves. y
most happy condition attached to this
legislation is that both landlords and
tenants agreed in the main to the
terms embodied in the act before it
was introduced in parliament. This
augurs we'll for the enforcing of III,
new scheme.
| The result of the settlement of the
land question will be. that the Irish
people will stay at home. The devas-
| ttiil% influence of emigration will be
| stopped, they will thus be the better
able to continue the struggle. Home
rule is sure to come. The fond de-
| sires of such Il gallant perseverng and
loyal people as the Irish cannot be
much longer successfully denied. Eng
| liSll statesmen fully realize that Ire
| land is bound to have home rule. But
| the Unionists with an obstinacy char
| actrristic of England's past policy to-
ward Ireland, are bound to resist to
the last. No doubt Englishmen have
! in the past thought that the limit of
Irish endurance would sooner or later
| be reached and that the Irish would
eventually yield and become loyal Brit
ish subjects. ALI thought of that idea
| is now past. The last dissenting
| voice in Ireland against home rule has
| been removed With the passing of the
landlords. They have been the strong
cause. They thought home rule
would result in the contiscation of their
| lands The religious question is no
| longer such a strong obstacle as it has
been in the past. Irish Protestants
have full faith in the tolerance and
| fairness of their Catholic countrymen.
Home rule today is not nearly as far a
| cry as such a land bill as has just
passed was a dozen years ago.
| An implacable Unionist writing in
| the Fortnightly Review says: Il
may be told that home rule is dead
| owing to the fact that the Irish Nation
| alistS are convinced it is unattainable.
Ii they are so convinced they must be
! the simplest of mankind. The Irish
| land bill. which in all human likelihood
| will become law before the close of the
| session, is i'm itself proof that the cause
| of home rule is not dead or dying
Whether the bill in question is wise or
| unwise is a matter of opinion. But
| there can be no doubt that it will he
| regarded in Ireland as Il British con-
cession to Irish importantly. Eng
land. so it naturally seems to the Irish
mind. has consented to pay out of her
own pocket Il sum of over Il hundred
millions in order to avoid the recrud-
essence Of the Land League, and to
spare herself the necessity of again
resOrting to coercion. Nobody out
of Redlam supIoses our lavish gift will
he received with gratitude by the re-
cipientS. Nobody not in E;lrlswood
can doubt it will prove stimulus for
further importantly. The one certain
effect of the bill will be to destroy the
landlords. who are the last remaining
supporters of British rule in Ireland.
Helrceforth the country will be COM
pletely under the control, in as far as
politics are concerned. of the peasant
farmers and the priests, and even if
these classes We're disposed to ''rest
and lie thankful the Nationalist lead
ers would be Forthcoming to keep alive
the agitation without which their oc-
cupatiOn would be gone. If this is so,
1t seems to me we are living in a fools
paradise so long as we imagine that
home rule is dead.'
Such is the opinion of an enemy of
home rule and he goes OH to lament the
tariff discussion which he fears will
cause the return to power of party
pledged by the logic of facts in favor
of home rule for Ireland" If Cham
berlain's tariff ideas should result in
a split in his party and return the LID
eral party to power and that party
should grant home rule. more good will
have been done by Chamberlain than
any one ever dreamed him capable OF.
But of course in such a series of events
he would he the unconscious agent in
doing good. We have an unalterable
f1itl, il, tl,n xvicf1nno ond no +r; o+;e,,, 90