The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-05-23
lreland's Relation to the Coming
British Election

Premier BALFoUR has made no secret
Of his desire to prevent the next general
election, now not distant. from turning
on the question whether tho United
Kingdom shall adopt Mr.. JOSEPH CHAM
BERLAIN's tariff policy. which would
involve the imposition OF tax on Brit
aims food supply. To that end he is try
ing to make opposition to Home Rule the
pivotal issue, as it was in 1885 and In
1895. He seems unlikely to succeed, not
only because the Liberals decline to say
in advance what they will do if charged
with the responsibilities of office, but
because remarkable change has taken
place in the views and sympathies OF
many influential Irish Unionists.
No Irish patriot who reads the pam
phlet just published by Lord DUNRAvRS,
and then recalls the hostile attitude
maintained by the Earl during the DAYS
OF the Land League, can help exclaiining:
is SAUL also among the Prophets.'
Here is a man who bur quarter Of
century ago MAS looked upon rs one OF
the most irreconci'able Of Irish landlords,
yet who now puts forward one OF the
most cogent pleas for fiscal and econom-
ical RELIEF and for a large insta!ment o!
self-government that has been made on
Oehali OF Ireland since she was robbed
OF her independence by the Act Of Union
he does not go SO far indeed, as Mr.. PAR
MILL did. ana try to gain at stroke
complete Legislative separation. perhaps
because he desires 10 avoid that s,ates.
mans failure: but. starting from the
basis OF the Irish Land act of 1903,
he aims TO secure pieceneal for Ireland
the management Of her own affairs. He
does not care, he says. whether the prof.
ect advocated by the body OF landowp-
ers organized by him under the name of
the Irish Reform Association ia called
Home Rule, disguised or undisguised.
he haa no quarrel with the name. He
simply denies that his determination to
obtain for his country the largest possi-
BILE freedom Of action and self-goyern
ing power ia tantam0unt to q repeal of
the Act OF Union, inasmuch az. under
Ms scheme. the House Of Commons mt
Westminster would still hold the purse
strings Of the United Kingdom, and thus
would continue to exercise an ultimate
and effective control
In his powerful appeal for sympatbv
Lord DuNRANEN shows that Ireland il |
SICK almost to death II ever figures
were convincing and pathetic such are
presented in his pamphlet Here ia q
country whose likelihood has for two
generations been draining away. In 1901
the population Of Ireland was $780,. 4ss.
that Is to say. there were 100 persons IA
the square mile, Exactly a century
later it stood at Ass, 775-only 1877 Der.
sons to the square mile, whereas in the
meantime the population of England
ana aies had increased from &. Ss2. $50
>S per square mile to 32,620.O75, or 55S
per square mile. Nor is the DRAINAGE of
vitality that Ireland has suffered DURING
the last sixty years to be measured nv
volume alone, Ii is her best blood mo,
she has lost. Ninety per cent. Of tho
exodus has been composed Of men and
ing it. '"
upon those left behind has fal|en
an appalling mental eclipse. In 1s5, .
Few years after the outpour began. the
number OF lunatics and idiots in Irelana
represented only in e57; in 1891 II had
risen to l in 222. To-day it is in 17s
Ano.ner outcome of the leakage of her
most vigorous blood has been that Ire.
1nds birth rate, which was once excep.