The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-07-09

conversion of the British Tory party
to the plan of land reform commended
by the Land league in 1880. a plan
based on the assumption that the only
solution of the Irish agrarian question
was to he found in the purchase of the
landlords interest in the land by the
tenants through the means of a state
credit, loaned ut low interest. 1t was
in order to make an experimental an
plication of the last named method of
solving the agrarian problem that the
AShhournc purchase act was passed in
1850. under which loan of S5O. 900 900
Of the governments credit was pro
vided In the same year occurred the
temporary adhesion of influential Tory
lcadcrS-Lord Carnarvon and Lord
Randolph Churchill. for cxample--to
the home rule idea. The first half of
1SSG was rendered memorable by Mr..
Gladstonc's Introduction of Il home
| rule bill into parliament. Lord Sails
bury now returned to power, vet in
1857 his ministry consented to enact
Il bill which nullificd leases, statutory
and others, provided for revising land
court rents, ana carried other Land
league principles into law. 1t was also
a unionst government which, in 1891,
provided an additional state credit to
the extent of $1G5,OOO,0OO for the fur
ther buying out of Irish landlords, and
winch created congestcd districts
board with large powers for the par
tial application of the principle of
state socialism as Il remedy for indus
trial conditions, bcgotten of the worst
evils of landlOrdism, in the west of
Ireland. Next, in 1893 Mr.. Gladstone
meanwhile having resumed tile
premiership for the last time-a bill
proposing to confer a home rule lcgis-
lature upon Ireland was carried
through the house of commons by a
vote of 347 to 3Ol, but was defeated
in the house of lords.
In 1896 Unionist government, once
more regulating the affairs of Ireland.
promoted the elimination of the Eng
lisll rent system from the tenure of
land in Ireland, and two years latter
proceeded to the enactment of moas-
IRE comforting limited "IIome Rule"
upon each Irish county, in the form
of an elective council for the manage
mcnt Of rural concerns; Il measure
looked upon rs q "hafwAy house" to-
ward a central National assembly for
the whole isle. 1t was finally Union
ist government which in 1903 passed
Il bill appropriating the credit of the
state to the extent of $500. 100000 for
the purpose of buying out what pre-
vious purchase acts had left OF the
English landlord system in Ireland.
The book before us sets forth in de-
tail the ways and means by which
revolution, conducted more or less on
the lines of passive resistance, accom-
plishcd these astonishing reforms. 1t
is, in n word. Mr.. Davitt's design, the
painstaking execution of which we
cannot here attempt to follow, to show
how men of the Irish race, scattered
by evictions and the evils of unsym-
pathetic government in Ireland to ali
parts of the earth were "enlisted'' in
a last desperate and decisive struggle
for the soil and rule of the Celtic
fatherland, under Mr.. Parnells superb
leadership. in combative organiza-
tion which, at one period of it's en-
istence, numbered more than half
million of members; how the sinews
of war to the extent of over $5,OOOOOO
were provided by the Irish people ut
home and abroad, during campaign
of quarter of a century. with which
to fight the evils of landlordism in Ire
/ land and the English parties opposed
to Irish claims in the British parlia-
ment; to organize auxiliary movements
in other lands; to sustain the wounded
or evicted in the combat at home; to-
reward deserving service and to pro-
mote the cause of Irish national self
government; how, lastly, upward of
two thousand and five hundred men,
and from twenty to thirty