The Haslingden Gazette. — 1910-05-28 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

IRISH 17NIONLST.)  In a short time the peralyais of public thought on all subjects except one, occasioned by the death of King Edward, must be at an end, and a return made to those concerns in and out of Parliament which were lately so absorbing. Foramcet and most pressing to law-abiding people in Ireland is the continuance of the lawlessness of the United Irish League, and the complete failure of law and police to deal with it The one outstanding striking fact is that there is no punishment for League crime. Only a brief time ago the prosecution of Mr. Farrell, M.P., on a serious charge was made a subject of laughter in the Lobby of the House of Commons by some members of the Redmondite party and Mr. Birrell. The whole scene was typical of the general attitude of the Government in Ireland towards the preservation of the peace. ,•  Cattle-driving is going on, and the police are being laughed at in the course of these forays in the open daylight, for they only accent in their usekssness the perfectly well-understood impotenoe of the law as it is now being directed in Ireland. The lands that are coveted by the Leaguers have no genuine protection from these assaults. and the principles being adopted are those primitive ones in use when "wild in woods the noble savage ran." A schoolmaster was prosecuting some men for land trespass. lie proved before the Judge at Quarter Sessions that the local League published a resolution calling on all the local branches to assist in fighting him, and another resolution addressed to the parents of school children in all the surrounding districts appealing in a similar way. , What protection was this unfortunate victim receiving? Read the further report of the case in the " Freeman's Journal." " ' "  His Honour: It is perfectly scandalous that the like of this would be allowed to go on unchecked. What is the Government doing? Mr. Mannion: A man was nearly murdered the other day in the presence of the police, and no action was taken.  His Honour: I don't know what they are existing for. Witness further stated that he warned the defendants' wives not to put their cattle on the land, and brought two pollee there, but they said they were ordered to put them there by the President of the League. His Honour: Who is he? Mr. Morrin. a new J.P. . .  His Honour: Are these the sort of gentlemen they are appointing J.P.'s? These remarks from a Judge on his seat show the sort of farce that government now has been reduced to in Ireland. .  If one glances over the replies of the Chief Secretary to urgent questions in Parliament of Irish Unionist members, one cannot but be struck with the callousness of these Irish Ministerial replies, and the indication they give of the impotency to which the police have been reduced in the interests of the United Irish League. Here are extracts from the Parliamentary reports of these replies:— " No person has been arrested up to the present , for shooting it (a bullock)." "No one has been I arrested or punished in connection with these drives." " Three persons were arrested and bound to the peace." (Binding to the peace has long been judicially pronounced as no preventive punishment for these disorders.) "I have been informed of the cattle-drives. No persons have been arrested . . . the police will make every effort." " I understand that the dwelt were found dead as stated. The police have not as yet been able to make any arrests, but they are taking every possible precaution to prevent any further outrage." " Cattle have been driven . . . the police have not been able to make any arrests, but they are doing all they can." "Time authors of the outrage have not yet been discovered." (Shooting outrage at house of Mr. Blackall, J.P.. Co. Clare, which the Judge, on claim for compensation, "described as " base and dastardly.") These are only a few specimens of the admissions that are drawn from Irish Ministers by the Irish Unionist Party in Parliament, and that are going on week by week as commonplaces of official reply in Parliament. The scandal of it must surely soon come to an end; and ninny people in Ireland, along with the real victims of this chartered villainy of the Leaeue, are intently praying for the change which shall again see in Ireland the constituted law administered as it should be without fear, favour. cm:- affection, and the Royal Irish Constabulary restored to its once high position in the guardianship of the public peace.  "