South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1882.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2895, 6 July 1882, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. THURSDAY, JULY 6, 1882.

The Bill for the “ Prevention of Crime in Ireland V has passed through all its stages. There was some amount of opposition to it on the part of the Irish members of the House of Commons, but, on the whole, the debate was, considering the subject of it, a temperate one. Mr Parnell uttered a very doleful prediction of the failure of all legislation in Ireland ; in fwhich there was enough significance and Sound argument to obtain for it a very attentive hearing. Mr Parnell knows his countrymen well, and when a gentleman of undoubted knowledge of the subject, says he “ believes this Bill will result in a tenfold, nay, a hundredfold, more disastrous failure than the failure they now see before them of the coercive legislation so confidently recommended to the House,” and adds that yet more desperate measures of coercion will have to be resorted to by the English Government in the course of a year or two, in a futile attempt to govern Ireland ; we may safely conclude that indeed things have come to a desperate pass : the more so when the remark that the existing condition things in Ireland fully bears out his utterances. It must be confessed that so far Mr Gladstone’s policy has been a failure, and the issue of this new Bill is very doubtful. The Coercion Act was to do much. It was to compel the people to be peaceful. It has borne no such fruit. Since its enforcement the irritation of the populace has developed into fnry. Outrage of every kind has increased in enormous ratio. That the new Bill will mollify the feelings of the people is more than doubtful. It provides for “ the establishment of special tribunals composed of three Judges, to try, without jury, prisoners charged with treason, murder, or other heinous crimes ; increased police powers to search for. arms and to seize seditious newspapers ; and the levying of compensation upon districts in which murders or murderous outrages occur.” These are very large powers, such as only the most frightful exigency could warrant; such as only the conviction that the case was most critical could ever induce the Parliament of England to entrust the Government with. The mistake appears to have hitherto lain not in want of severe measures, but in the failure of the Government to employ those measures. Behind the mob there is a moving power. One reads of soldiers firing among crowds of poor ignorant creatures and killing and maiming the innocent with grief when one reflects that the demagogues and arch-rebels, and the vile organisations which extort the scanty means of the people and ruthlessly hound ‘ them on to their own destruction, are all this time lying perdus, and go scot free. Such has been this effect of Mr Gladstone’s policy, however. A touch of Bismarckian rigor is what is wanted now. We have no doubt whatever of the sincerity and excellent intentions of Mr Gladstone. If we mistake not his idea was to suppress any serious outbreak (or rather to render it impossible) by the presence, in the disturbed districts, of an overwhelming force of soldiers, and in the meantime he hoped that rebellion would wear itself out, and that public feeling would gradually veer round to disapproval of it. He also counted upon the many sources of information which he can undoubtedly command, to keep his Government posted up in the doings and designs of the malcontents. In the meantime he addressed himself, with a heartiness and honesty of purpese which cannot be too highly commended, to the redress of Irish grievances. But all his efforts have been unavailing, and there is no saying to-day how soon the knife of the assassin may lay low one of the grandest men that England ever produced. Old, and failing in strength, bis undaunted spirit keeps him at the helm. His gigantic intellect is not greater than his heart. Ireland never had a truer friend. If ever she had her opportunity, it is now, under the government of Mr Gladstone, But the people arc not free to see and own it. Couching hidden behind them, are diabolical directors, whose orders they blindly obey. It is in not seeking out these and consigning them to the ignominious doom for which they are fit, that England has erred. And it would not be out of place for England to suggest to the United States the propriety of aiding her in extirpating from off the face of the earth the ' wretched scoundrels who prey upon ■ this people; (naturally one of the finest : and noblest on earth) and reduce them ' to the pitiable position they are now in, > their industry paralysed, their nobility of nature blurred and hidden by the j vilest passions, and their prospects .

irretrievably ruined. The Land League leaders, Parnell, Davitt, and their friends, who are true and admirable patriots, may well stand aghast at the frightful disorder now prevailing. They, without intending it, have done much to agitate these Celtic minds, and to render them an easy prey to the villainous emissaries of secret organizations. They are frightened at the stprm they have themselves kindled ; they, whose names are synonyms for all that is patriotic and self-denying. Their own countrymen (for whom they have suffered, and would have willingly died) now turn upon them in fury. Where is the power behind, that moves the springs. The problem must be faced. Is Ireland irreconcileable ? Must she over be a “ thorn in England’s side.” In truth the night of suspense is long and dark. There is light' ahead, how. ever, but before it breaks, some terrible scones are yet to be enacted, and it is very doubtful whether the hand of Mr Gladstone is the one that should be at the helm of state in this crisis. This suppression of the people, this dispersing of mobs, is worth nothing. Who have influence among seditious Irishmen ? To find these, and hang or exile them is the plain duty of the Government. When Ireland’s people are free to think for themselves, there will be some hope of regeneration. Until then they willl continue in fatal blindness, and keep ever open the breach between themselves and England.