THE LAND AGITATION IN IRELAND.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2131, 21 January 1880, Page 3

THE LAND AGITATION IN IRELAND.

:„TH k — n ; [from the Home News.] The land agitation in Ireland has entered upon a now chapter of its history. The,pa.se ,of t the,, landlords is now being placed before the English public. Happily signs are not wanting that the land agitation is begining to be discredited in Ireland. Sir George Bowycr, The O’Connor Don, the Knight of Kerry, and other staunch Home Rulers have disavowed all sympathy with Mr Ram ell’s tactics, have declared that they will not recognise his leadership; and have'protested against the iniquity of the advice which he and his followers are giving the Irish people. The Roman Catholic clergy will not countenance the agitation, and the letters: published'within -the,.last few days from such Irish landlords as Lord Powerscroft, Lord Lifford the Knight of Kerry, and others, make it perfectly clear that the whole movement is the result of a hand of unscrupulous and self-seeking political adventures. Unfortunately there is always.in Ireland, material on which the incendiary and agitator can work, hut the better the facts of the case arc known the worse will the prospects of the agitator’beV- There is no chance of famine and distress repeating themselves in Ireland to anything like the same‘degree that was witnessed in 1817. The charges of .extortion , and - neglect brought against landlords arc entirely disposed of by the statements of the landlords themselves, which show that they have.i spent large sums in the last few years on the draining .and reclamation of land and on the improvement of their holdings. The smaller the holdings the worse the condition in which they arcI—certainly 1 —certainly a sufficiently cogent argument against the peasant proprietorship scheme. There is a general feeling against the institution of relief works of any kind. The real remedy for, the distress is Uyoffold—in the first place rest from agitation ; in the second emigration.