The Irish standard., 1904-03-12
THE IRISH NOT INTERESTED,

the address in reply to the King
speech. The tariff question is impor-
tant enough to shatter the strongest
English party which has existed for
years, but to the Irish parliamentary
party the question is of no Importance
compared with the Irish demand for
self-rulc. Is it not probable that stub
born England will soon recognize the
necessity OF settling the Irish question
once for all? Even England may be
able to learn before the truulle III thu
East is over that the Irish p, uple
whom English misrule has driven
away from Ireland constitute one of
the greatest obstacles to England in
her attempt to enter into Il friendly
alliance With the United States. 1t is
Il Illuminating spectacle to have the
entire Irish party in parliament assert
that the question of free trade or pro-
lection does not interest the Irish peo-
pie. MIR. Redmond pointed out the
fact that at one time Irish industries
fiourished, and that England then by
a protective policy deliberately de-
stroyed those industries and drove the
people to depend entirely upon agri-
culture. He quoted the historian,
Froude, as saying, England governed
for what she deemed her own inter-
est, making her calculations in the
gross balance of her trade ledgers and
leaving her moral obliga tons to accu-
mulate as If right and wrong had
been blotted out of the statute book of
the universe. England determined to
keep Ireland poor and miserable as
the readiest means to prevent her
from being troublesome.
"She destroyed her shipping indus
| try by her trade navigation laws. She
eNtinguished Irish manufactures by
preferential duties. She laid disabili-
ties even upon it's wretched agricul-
ture, for fear Irish importa ton might
injure English farmers. With their
shipping destroyed by fhe navigation
act, their wooden manufactures taken
from them, their trade in all its
branches crippled, the only resource
left to those Irish who cherished
dreams of improving their unfortunate
country was agriculture
Having accomplished the destruction
of Irish industries and made Ireland
entirely an agricultural country, Eng
land then adopted a free trade policy.
The leader of the Irish party said
that he did not question the truth of
the statement that free trade at the
time it was established furthered the
welfare of the people Of Great Britain.
but 'free trade came to Ireland in a
different guise. 1t brought to Ireland
all it's disadvantages and none of it's
boons." Nothing could better prove
that Ireland is not in sympathy at
least with a part of the British empire
than the object lesson presented in
parliament at the present time. The
people of England and Scotland are
stirred with great excitement over the
proposed change in the fiscal policy,
but the people of Ireland are not as
much interested in the subject as we
on this side of the Atlantic are. Mr..
Redmond says that it is the one topic
about which no one in Ireland is talk
ing. Could anything better illustrate
the utter failure of English rule in
Ireland? In interest and sympathy
Ireland is not to-day a part of the
British empire. "When the people of
Ireland talk of protection they have in
their minds protection against Eng
land" They are not afraid of the
United States, Germany or any other
foreign country. They fear and hate
English rule with all the growing hate
of centuries, and the time is at hand
when England must meet the demands
of Ireland. The Irish party will use
the needs and troubles of England as
opportunities for gaining their ends.
Ireland to-day is q source of weakness
to the British empire. The time must
;; be already at hand when even the
stubborn resistance of England will
give way for the good of the empire.
Mr.. Redmond made a clever threat
and at the same time stated the true
policy of the Irish party when he said.
for these reasons my colleagues and
myself refuse to commit ourselves at
this stage on one side or the other
of this controversy. We prefer to hold
ourselves in reserve and await de-
velopments. put this to the House
of Commons: What strange result
it will be Of your refusal of Home
Rule to Ireland if the ultimate deci-
sion of this question:, and if this vast
issue on which so much depends for
you. should in the end be dominated
by the votes of body of men who
are in this house, but not of it. and
who, in casting their votes, in all
human probability in deciding this
issue in the future, will refuse to
think imperially," but will be guided
by one consideration alone, and that
is: What course will conduce most
speedily to. the freedom and happiness
of Ireland?"