Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1880-10-02 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE STATE OF IRELAND.  Dumas]) appears to be rapidly going from bad to worse. The shocking murder of Lord Mountmorres in Galway is not to be regarded as the climax of a series of outrages; it is only one of many, more or less deeply blood-stained and atrocious. The condition of the country is indeed frightful to contemplate. In carrying on what is virtually a war of extermination against the existing race of landlords, the tenant farmers are not spared who venture to take the place of others who have been evicted for non-payment of rent. Process-servers also are the objects of blood-thirsty animosity, and the constables who are sent to protect them may be thankful if they are able to discharge their duty without getting broken heads. Deplorable as this state of taairs is, being characterised by a lawless, nese and savagery disgraceful to any country making the slightest pretefictrto civilisation, it is perhaps not so much to be wondered at when we take into account the excitable nature of the Irish people, and the evil influences to which they have been subjected by giving ear to the outrageous harangues of Parnell, Dillon, Finnigan and the other agitators who organised the Land League. But it is Mr. Parnell on whom the heaviest responsibility rests. It was he who first led impecunious tenants to believe that there was a possibility of their being able to retain possession of their farms without paying any rent. "No rent" was the watchword he gave forth several month, before be set out on his abortive American mission, and he still continues to proclaim what can only be considered a faint modification of the same mischievous doctrine. He talks about paying a fair rent for thirty fie years, by the end of which time the tenant. farmers are to become absolute owners of the soil. This scheme means the voluntary or compulsory expropriation of existing landlords, What a 'lair rent" denotes in the mouth of the member for Cork may be readily guessed. It means whatever the tenant thinks proper, or none at all if he finds himself in an impoverished state But the no rent" cry suits the fancy of the class whom Mr. Parnell seeks to influence better than the notion of fair rent. How does the inflammatory declaration that now is the time to deal in a short, sharp, and decisive way with the landlords comport with the thirty-five years' expropriation scheme? Those who listen to Mr, Parnell's harangues cannot bet feel that what he wishes and urges them to do is to get rid of landlords somehow and anyhow, and such terrible deeds as the shooting of Lord 111ountmorres is the inevitable outcome of the pernicious language in which he chooses to indulge. In connection with the crime to which we have just referred, a doubt has been suggested as to whether it really was of an agrarian character. The Freeman's Journal could hardly believe that the Lord of a handful of fifteen ten ants would be selected for typical vengeance. But, looking at the wildness and violence of the laud agitation, was it not enough that Lord Mountmorres held property ip his own right, however small in quantity, and that he had instituted eviction proceed' ings against one of his tenant? The tone of language used at many of the meetings of the Land League would readily enough account for the murder of Lord Mountmorres, though it must be borne in mind at the some time that agrarian outrages are of old standing in Ireland. In a letter to Mr. Parnell, which was read at last Tuesday's weekly meeting of the Land League in Dublin, Mr. O'Shaughnessy entered upon a defence of agitation which he stated, was rendered necessary by the attitude taken up and maintained by the landlords. No one denies the lawfulness of agitation when it is kept within reasonable bounds; but it is because it has transcended those bounds in Ireland and haa encouragement to the perpetration given of all sorts of outrages, including revolting murders, that the Government cannot much longer delay taking special measures to to preserve peace and protect property and life,