MR FORSTER IN IRELAND.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2515, 29 April 1882, Page 3

MR FORSTER IN IRELAND.

Referring to Mr Forster's tour of inspection in the disturbed districts of Ireland, the correspondent of the “Argus” says :—At Tullamore, on his way home, Mr Forster delivered a speech from the window of the hotel to a crowd which had gathered in the street. He seized the opportunity with a courage which all have commended to speak some plain truths to the Irish people. He said he had come down from Dublin—[“And wo admire your pluck!” cried one of his audience] —to see if personal observation would enable him to do his work better, and to ascertain if the stories of outrage which reached him were exaggerated. His conclusion was that they were in the main true. The people themselves were largely responsible for this state of things.' He appealed to them so stop these iniquities, which were a disgrace to the name of Ireland. There were no more courageous men in battle than Irishmen, but the Irish people wanted moral courage now to stand against a noisy and tyrannous minority. “It is not,” said the Chief Secretary, “that the people who would commit these outrages are in very large numbers. They are small in number ; they are broken down men and violent and reckless boys who do it. This state of things would cease directly if you were to set to work yourselves, and say not merely that wo will do our duty and keep the law and order, but we will not allow ourselves to be ill-treated. The question really is, Do you yourselves wish to put it down ? Do you like men to break in in the middle of the night to pull innocent men out of their beds and maim them, shoot them, and kill them ? Do you like men to come and interfere with you, and stand between you and the men to whom you owe money, be they landlords or ehopkeepers, and say you shall not pay your debts ? Ido not believe that you like it. As to a great many of you, I know you feel that it is doing great harm, for it is interfering with your employment, and no good can come out of it. I say, then, if that is the case, help the Government to prevent these outrages j but whether you do or not it s our duty to stop them. It is the duty of tr.e Government, and it is especially my duty, and stop them we will. There may be somebody here—l hope not—who may have looked, at any rate, upon these outrages without disapproval— nay, may possibly have had something to do with approving of them or instigating them. Well, if there are such people present, I want to say to them that the law-breakers, the outrage-mongers, the instigators to outrage, have got several powers to contend with. They have got the Irish Government, perhaps, though they think they can defy that; they have got the Imperial Parliament, they have got the people of entire Britain, who are determined that these outrages shall cease, and they hare got a stronger force against them than the Irish Government, or Parliament, or the . British people. They have got against the force of God’s laws. There may bo bad landlords, but though there may be bad landlords in some places that does not make it a good thing for men to burn down houses, to ruin people in their trade, to torture animals, to break into houses in the night, to maim people, and to kill them.” After alluding to his own early experiences in the famine time, and the convictions then wrought in bis mind, Mr Foster continued, “ I don’t think we have hoard more in Dublin at to outrages—as to terrible ard cruel outrages, than they really are. I have just come back from Clare, and I will tell you what I saw there. It will stick to my memory for the rest of my life—es an eviction which I saw thirty years back will slick to my memory for the rest of my life. I went, when I was at Tulla, to the workhouee, and there I saw a poor fellow lying in bed, the doctors round him, with a blue light over his face that made me feel that the doctors were not right when they told me that he might get over it. I felt sure that he most die, and I see that this morning he has died; but why did thot man die ? He was a poor lone farmer. I believe he had paid his rent. I believe he had committed that crime. He thought it hie duty to pay. Fifteen or sixteen men broke into his house in the middle of the night, pulled him out of his bed, and told him that they would punish him. He himself, lying in his death agony as it were, told me tho story. He said, ‘ My wife went down on her knees, and said, “ Here are five helpless children, will you kill their father ?” ’ They took him out, they discharged a gun filled with shot into hie leg, so closely that it shattered his leg. Perhaps they did not mean to kill him ; they must have known that they meant to maim him for life; they must have known that they meant to make it impossible for him to earn his living, and to give him days or weeks of agony. I may charitably hope that they did not quite know that they would kill him. If I can do anything to prevent these things happening, whatever hard opinion you may think of mo or say of me, the tine will come when the Irish people will be thankful that they wero stopped. But I call upon you to do what you can to stop these things. Join any constitutional agitation for any change you like, but do try, for tho honor of Ireland, for that feeling of patriotism which I believe you have strong within you, to wipe off this disgrace from her name. Let me tell you one word abont the English people. There is no ill-feeling in England towards Ireland ; wo knew well that you have been a miserable country ; that you have been a badly-governed country j that the English Government in past days has done many very cruel and very unjust things in Ireland—[hear, hear ) —and allowed many things to be done. We wish to undo that; we wish to make you prosper. We wish to make you as rich and as powerful as we are ourselves. But when we have these terrible outragce coming before us, we hard ! y know what to do; we hardly know how we can carry out our good feelings and our good wishes to you.” Mr Forster, as ho spoke, was subjected to a series of slight interruptions, but chiefly from one voice. “ God save Ireland,” he said in conclusion, “ from enemies outside her borders, and from those within. God save Irelond from cruel men of whatever class be they—and I trust there are very few—grasping landlords and rack-renting landlords, or be they dishonest tenants or midnight marauders, God save Ireland from the pestilence that walketh at noon, and the terror that stealeth at night; and I believe that God will save Ireland, for with all her faults there is that amount of virtue amongst the Irish people, there is that love of their country, that love and devotion of men to their families, that willingness to sacrifice for them, which are abiding and homely virtues, that do much to save a country, and to enable God's laws to bo respected ; and with the earnest desire that God may save Ireland, I thank you for having heard mr." (There was applause and a voice—- “ What about the prisoners ? Let out the suspects ”) Mr Forster —“ Well now, you ask about the suspects. (Hear, hear.) As soon az we can fairly say that outrages have ceased in Ireland, and that men ore not ruined, arc not maimed, and are not murdered for doing their duty, or doing what they have a legal right to do, the suspects will bo released.” Mr Forster thou retired, and tho people dispersed.