The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1886. IRISH AFFAIRS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1350, 24 September 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1886. IRISH AFFAIRS.

If prosperity is to be restored to Ireland, the first and foremost thing to be done is to reassert the authority of the law in the disturbed districts; to protect loyal men in the exercise of their social and political rights; and to suppress those monstrous outrages upon life and properly which, during the last few years, have prevailed, in certain parts of the country, to such an extent as to shock the civil.sed world. If the Home Rule agitation be a constitutional movement, and not a treasonable conspiracy, its leaders ! must needs assist the Government of the day, of whatever political party it may be composed, in upholding the supremacy of the raw, in suppressing crime and violations of private rights of every description; but it is one of the strongest arguments which have been used against acceding to the demands of the Nati mal League that that organisation, like its progeni ft the Land League—has habitually employed violence as its instrument, and has never uttered a word of condema ion against thi foul'es" of the crimes which have been committed ostensibly in furtherance of its objects. Such being its principle of action, the question has na'urally been asked: “Would it not be the height of folly to place all the property and intelligence of Ireland helplessly at t ie feel of such an organisation ? The most ordinary prudence has taught the Nationalist leaders, within the last few months, indeed, to moderate their language, and show less marked approval of outrrges than they did of yore; but either they have evoked a Frankenstein which they are unable to control, or the ignorant peasants who form the majority of their followers prefer to regard their past utterances as more truly indicative of their real sentiments than their present honeyed words, and act accordingly ; for we find that, as a kind of response to the mission of Sir Redvers Buffer, a fresh outbreak of agrarian violence has occurred in the more disturbed parts of the country. What a mischievous effect these incessant outrages must have upon trade and industry can easily be guessed. The nature of the outrages also deserves condemnation. In a newspaper just to hand by the last mail we meet with the following paragraph ; “ A cruel and cowardly outrage was committed near Newry early on Monday, Two horses, belonging to men named Rafferty and McDonald, were grazing in a field, when their tails were rut off, and the poor animals bled pro fusely. In the next field two valuable cows, belonging to Mr Toseph Carviff, had portions of their tails cut off; and a goat was cut into pieces, which were scattered over the field.”

In the same paper a different development of the same spirit is recorded : “A Castleblayney correspondent slates that the new branch of the Great Northern Railway from Inniskeen to Carrickmacross, which was opened on Sa uidiy, has been boycotted at the instance of the local branch of the National League, in consequence of their nominee not having been appointed stationmaster. '1 he present stationmaster has received a threatening letter, and the workmen on the new line have also been threatened, and are afraid to resume work.”

We are told by competent observers that in certain districts the people seem to have lost all regard for the law, and long impunity has rendered them careless of consequences. Large numbers of tenants have refused to pay a penny of rent for years ; and when we are invited to stand horrified at evictions, the question naturally occurs, “ If a tenant refuses to puy any rent at all, what is the landlord to do ? ” When the Land League was first started its avowed object was to bring about a reduction of excessive rents to reason-

able sums, and, as there can be no doubt that in some places lents were too high, the movement was calculated to attract sympathy. It was the feeling that the movement, however objectionable in itself, was based on a real grievance, which induced the Imperial Parliament to pass the Act I for the of Courts for the regulation of rents, a measure 1 which struck at the root of all English ideas as to the relation of landlord and tenant ; but the only effect of this well-meant statute was to give life and vigour to the anti-rent movement, which speedily developed into a refusal to pay fny rent whatever. Many landlords have thus been reduced to beggary; some have sought parish relief; and well-born ladies, born and brought up in comfort, have been cast upon the charily of their friends, or compelled to seek a livelihood by their needle. It has also been conclusively proved that the National League has compelled tenants, who were able and willing to pay their rent, to suffer themselves to be evicted from their holdings, so that the fact of eviction might be used to excite indignation against the landlords. It was originally proposed by Mr Parnell and his followers that the landlords should bebought outby the Government at reasonable rates; but now Mr Parnell demands that the landlords should only receive “ prairie value,” or at most two or three years’ rent, as compensation for their rights, notwithstanding that many of the landlords bought their estates at sales held under the Encumbered Estates Act, paid high prices for them, and have got Parliamentary titles for their land. The illegitimate character of the land agitation is shown by the fact that although Lord Silisbury’s Government passed an Act of Parliament in 1885 setting aside a sum of five millions sterling to be lent to Irish tenants for the pu 1 chase of their holdings at a very low rate of interest, yet Mr Parnell interfered to prevent the Irish tenants taking advantage of its provisions, and the Act has consequently become almost a dead-letter. How is it possible for Ireland to prosper so long as this wretched antagonism to property exists; so long as the mass of the people are taught to boycott and ruin those who differ from them in political opinions; so long as men endeavor to enforce their views on land tenures and the respective rights of landlord and tenant by murdering and wounding human beings and mutilating dumb animals? What Ireland wants is peace and order, the enforcement of the law, and the preservation of personal liberty. Until this is assured, capital will not flow into the country, nor industry flourish : no matter what may be the particular form of government under which the affairs of Ireland are administered. The educated and mercantile classes of Ireland discern this fact : hence they stand aloof from the Home Rule movement, while the ignorant masses, with their passions inflamed by the orations of professional agitators who gain a dishonest livelihood from the contributions of the Irish-Americans, clamor for Home Rule in the bt iicf that it will bring them that prosperity which can only be attained by ihe peaceful industry of a loyal and law-abiding community.