The Irish standard., 1907-04-27

from the first, which we see working
in Ireland today. On the Dillon estate
there was the further We'll known
phenomenon of diseased land condi-
tons; there was abundant conspiracy;
and now and then there We're dark
and bloody crimes. The estate was
bought by the Congested Districts
Board; the land was transferred to the
tenants; their holdings were increased;
and the result is that in two or three
years time there has grown upon this
hopeless region a new spirit,-a revo-
luton and a renaissance, to use again
Lady Gregory's words.--and that in
broad and fine new roads. in clean and
handsome new cottages, in better
clothes, above all in the look of defiant
manhood, you see the work of liberty
and regeneration.
This same process is going on nearly
all over Ireland now; with the same
results of greater comfort, greater in
dependence, a freer spirit. The pro-
cess is not yet completed. Some of the
landlords, and some of the worst of
them, too, are holding out through
feelings of either greed or vengeance.
1 may mention as the most shocking
,o1o =, Sc
Clanricarde; but this will not be all
lowed to go on in perpetuity. Mr.. Bir-
rell has already given notice that if
Lord Clanricarde does not mend his
way, special legislation will be directed
against him; and some form of COM
pulsory sale will in all probability be
found necessary before the Irish land
problem can be finally solved.
And meantime, the solution of that
other great problem of Irish life and
Irish regeneration is going on ahead.
Do not think that the movement of
Irish reform, any more than other
of the like kind, stands still
while you hear little about it, or while
its enemies are apparently omnipotent
These reform movements have knack
OF growing while they seem to be
asleep: and of advancing even at the
when they seem to have got
a great setback. And SO it is with the
for Irish government.
all these years, when a
Tory government seemed to stand be-
tween it and every inch Of progress.
1t was advancing all the time, Today
1t would he impossible to rouse against
Ireland the passion of hatred and ter
ror which the proposals Of Gladstone
in the sos and the '90's.
Mr.. Balfour and Mr.. Chamberlain did
their best to raise the cry again at
the last general election: and the
gigantic majority which the Liberal
We are not going to get Gladstone's
Home Rule all at once. The present
consists mainly Of warm
friends. convinced Home, Rulers; but
most Of them believe that the British
will best be won to
Home Rule by the instalment system.
l ann inclined to think they are right
at least for the moment: and If the
proposes a good Home Rule
scheme we will support it, though it
does stop short of the final solution.
And 1 may say that in my opinion,
after the undoubted result
of the late elections. the ministry will
propose a good instalment. don't
think. for one thing. that Mr.. Birrell
would advocate any other kind Of
scheme.
Meantime. let me return to the theme
on which I started,-the signs Of I'M
rest, movement. new life. which you
find everywhere in Ireland. 1t would
take some time and some space even
to enumerate the various organizations
which have sprung up in the last few
years The foremost of them, Of course,
is the Gaelic League. That body has
brought into it's ranks. and by its APP
peal to literary and racial and not to
political instincts, an extraordinary
combination of forces. One of its
greatest works has been the breaking
down of the old religious divisions.
DR.. Douglas Hyde, its president and
guiding spirit. is Il Protestant: the
Rev. Mr.. Hanna, author of The Seeth-
ing Pot" a brilliant Irish novel, is an
other of it's foremost figures and he
is a Protestant clergyman. Elsewhere
you find the new generation of Irish
Professionalism throwing off the old ar
rogant and ignoble contempt for their
own people and their own land, and
joining in every movement for the well
fare of her people and the cultivation
of her intellect and her self-confldence.
The Irish National Theater is another
Of this same conming-