The San Francisco call., 1909-09-20

1uOUBu LHe STATUTE hCtA - S-~oS
advance, it was. on the whole, fall
ure. for it did not give the tenants
fixity OF tenure. For nine years a
ceaseless agitation by constitutional
methods was maintained. looking TO
further legislation for the solving Of
the land problem. All was in vain.
England felt quite satisfied that she
had done all that was necessary BIZ
after bill was introduced. only to meet
ignominious defeat.
Meanwhile parallel movements-one
for land reform. the other for home
rule-were under way. In 1874 the
nationalists. under Isaac Butt, for the
first time won a general election in
Ireland. and four years later lined up
under the powerful leadership or
Charles Stewart Parnell- In 1873.
Michael Davitt. perhaps the best
beloved of the Irish leaders, In
duced Parneil to yoke the move
ments for land reform and home rule
and to accept tacitly the aid OF the
revolutionary faction.
The house of lords in the following
year rejected a bill favorable TO the
tenants. The country, already threat
ened with famine, was in the throes OF
an eviction campaign, and the desper-
ate people. under guidance of the IA
nous Land league, replied with boy
cotting, resistance to eviction and many
forms of violence. 1t was in the midst
of this anarchy that the government
passed the land act Of 1881, and with
it a severe coercion act. Neither was
Immediately effective; both the evic-
tions and the agrarian outrages con-
tinued. The jails were filled with lead
ers of the movement and their follow
ers. Parnell himself was incarcerated.
Finally, in 1882. after two years of
strife, Gladstone entered into nego-
tiations with Parnell, still in prison,
and coercion was abandoned.
Unhappily this great victory was all
but annulled by the brutal murder
of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Under
Secretary Burke, in Phoenix park.
Dublin. Lord Cavendish. just appointed
chief secretary, was regarded as the
bearer of message of conciliation to
ireland. His assassination Gealt a
blow TO agitation by constitutional
methods" from which 1t was slow To
revive.
Gladstone, nevertheless, continued HIS
magnificent efforts to achieve justice
for Ireland In 1856 he Introduced
bill for land purchase-wnich today is
under way-and for home rule. = was>-
summarily rejected by the house OF
commons. Living always close to the
danger line, the people were at the
time suffering want. owing to fall
in the prices of agricultural commod-
tiles Payment of the rents demanded
became an utter impossioiIlty- ParIia-
ment having thrown cut a relief bill
offered by Parnell. the leaders inaug-
urated the famous plan of campaign"
Under this scheme tenants formally re-
quested an abatement in the rents
commensurate with the prevailing de-
preston; upon the landlords refusal.
the tenants agreed to pay into a cam
paign fund the reduced rent offered.
the money to be held for acceptance
of the landlord. or. falling that. to be
used as a war fund to resist evic-
tion.
The government made it's inevitable
reply-coercion-and for three years
a fierce agrarian and political struggle
ragged in the land. Parnell meanwhile
was made the victim OF a viliainous
attack in England. the London Times
accusing him of completely in out
RACES. supporting the charges with
documentary evidence Inquiry forced
a confession from Richard Pigott, for
ger Of the letters, and ParnelI became
a popular hero.
Entering into closer alliance with
Gladstone. the leader was engaged In
helping TO formulate home rule pro-
gram when the O'Shea divorce case
suddenly involved him in political ruin
split the Irish people into warning
camps and started dissensions which
ragged for nearly ten years.
Gladstone in 1898 carried a home
rule bill through the house of COM
mons. but it was killed in the housa
OF lords. Meanwhile additional LAM
acts, each advancing the emancipation.
of the tenants, had been passed. The
terms of them all have been reyiewss,
elsewhere, with the act o. 1903.
This. then, Is the story Of the nine
teenth century in Ireland Lacking the
sanguinary horrors of the centuries
preceding. 1t is still a story of gloom
and failure. Those who forced through
the union Of 1860 by the most despI-
cable corruption affected to believe that
it would solve the problem. AS has
been shown. it simply intensified the
evils OF the system. for 1t robbed the
dominant minority OF responsibility
and saddled upon the country the bur-
den OF government by alien statesmen.
who were ignorant OF the country's
heeds and indifferent to it's demands.
During the entire period Engiands
policy was marked by vacillation and
political cowardice. No intelligent
Englishman now denies the justice OF
emancipation. of church disestablish-
ment or of the land reforms that have
beeu accounDlfshed. vet each an ava~x-