The Irish standard., 1905-05-13
Liberals and Tories:

have no hesitation in advising my
countrymen to endeavor to end the
present system by armed revolt
That Irish Nationalist utterance,
coming from the Irish Nationalist
leader, the authorized spokesman Of
the vast bulk, the immense majority
of the Irish people, seems to have
much shocked the Tory gentlemen of
the House. Mr.. Redmond's declara-
tion, as the report indicates, was
greeted by ministerial cries of Oh Z"
Prime Minister Balfour and his col
leagues appeared to be surprised as
we'll as indignant at the suggestion, as
if they had never before heard of
such a thing as armed revolt against
a government. But, of course, Mr.
Balfour knows better, and his "Oh"
was but pretense. He knows that
been armed revolts against govern
ments not fraction as bad as his
present government in Ireland, and
| that such revolts are justified in Eng
lish law. He is a student of history
and political philosophy, and he
knows, moreover that revolt, armed
or otherwise, is the right of people
suffering under unjust government, if
the injustice cannot be redressed by
other means. The principles and "self-
evident truths" of the American De-
claration of independence are accep-
ted by the civilized world as the basis
of justice in the domain of govern
ment: "That all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable
rights; that among these are life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness;
that to secure these rights govern
ments are instituted among men, deriv-
ing their just powers form the con-
sent of the governed; that when any
form of government becomes destruc-
tive of these ends, it is the right of the
people to alter or to abolish it"
Upon this last mentioned right with
it's precedent condition John Red
mond might support his declaration in
favor of armed revolt in Ireland were
there chance of success, for of course
it would be easy for him to show, as
in fact he did show, that life, liberty
nd thn nil 0f
rights that under British rule do not
exist for the mass of the population
in that country. Certainly those
rights exist to far less extent in
ireland at the present time than they
did in the American colonies before
the revolt against England. AS for
'life,' there is no living in Ireland
for the young and the strong, and
they are therefore flying from it in
thousands every year, as all the world
sees. AS for liberty, the enjoyment
of it by the Irish people is only at
the will and pleasure of one man, an
Englishnan, who is invested with the
power by British law to suspend in
Ireland all the securities of liberty
afforded by that law to the people of
England. Under such circumstances
the idea of pursuit of happiness" is
90 preposterous to dwell upon or en-
lertain for moment
Now that the circumstances are so
in Ireland nobody not even Hr. Bal,
four nor any of his followers, dares
deny. Mr.. Redmond briefly summar.
ized them, and not man in the House
Of Commons ventured word in con.
tradiction of his statement as thus
presented:
"The present system of rule is un
constitutional, quite apart altogether
from it's tainted origin. 1t is in It's
everyday working and practice uncon
stitutional. The majority of the peo
pie who are ruled have no power in
the government of the country The
country is governed by minority
Irish representation in this House has
been reduced to farce. Five men
from small corner of Ulster have
more power than sc men. We have
not in Ireland the benefit of the Bri
tish system Tin England). We are
suffering under permanent disability
in the form of an exceptional law
which does not exist in any other por
tion of the British Empire under
. which, at the caprice and will of a
single man, trial by jury may be sus
pended and trial by paid servants and
deputies of the Executive Government
is substituted for it. 1t is bad gov
. ernment. 1t is government which
! does not fulfil any single one of the
elementary duties of Government
, 1t does nothing for the industrial de
: velopment of the people. Our indus
i tries were destroyed by act of this
Parliament, and all during the cen
tury since the union the English Gov
t. ernment has done nothing to help II
[ its resuscitation. The population ha.
t gone, down, and is still going down
: our seaport towns are falling int
2 decay because the piers and harbor
2 built by one of your centralized ant
e nominated boards are crumbling int,