AN OLD LETTER OF GENERAL GORDON'S.

Thames Star, Volume XVI, Issue 5036, 4 March 1885, Page 3

AN OLD LETTER OF GENERAL GORDON'S.

As anything reliting to the late General Gordon will be read ■ vritli interest,- we publish the following letter from him to the editor of The Times in 1880, after h»TJpg p«id» short risit to Ireland. : It mtyalao be mentioned that on leafing Ireland '■ he entertained a Very different opinion ion Irish matters to what he held when he went there. With the omission >of a few introductory sentences, the letter rnni• ■«■' follows : : —-"No half-measured Acti which left the landlords with any say to the tenantry of theie portiong of Ireland will:be of any tiie, They would be fendered—a« past Lapd Acts in Ireland fcate-been—(q[aite abortiTe, for the landlords will in««| clauses; to do aw«fy with, . theirforise. Anyhalf-measiires will only; place the GoTernment face to face with th© people of Ireland as the chimpions jjf tne/ landlord interest. The GoTerament J^ibWd; be bound to enforce their decision, and with a result,; which none cad ftiriiee, but which certainly would be Jisiitroui to the common weal. My idea; ii tnaf, J<?«Dgr-throußh this cause or that* il if.- immatwial to examine—•. • deadlock has wcurrcd between the present: landlords and: the tenants, the Gorernntent should purchase up' the ; tight* of tho landlords^^o^rer the whole or,! the Jlfcater part of Lonßford, Westmeath, Clnre, iCork^ Kerry, limerick; Leitrim, | SligOtMnjo, Catan, end Donegal. The yearly rental of those districts is some four millions; if the Government; giye the landlord 20 years' purchase, it would cost 80 millions, which; at 3| per cent, would tare^ ywly intertst of £2,800,000, of , Thich £2,00,000 cottld \>i i recovered; the i« ndi would be Crown lands; they would; iJ aiminintered by a land commission, _i. o would be Bupplemented by an emigra- ♦; ftn c Qtnmission, which mißht for a short time hi^fd £106,000. This would not iniure ther landlords; and; so far as it is an intertf reD v« with proprietary rights it is as ;now*riu^»r^^^W"^"^ public benefit:./ IwottW^twin'thelMid-; fords from W P 0*6* °^Dt^ in b"e Crown lands dib'tncts; Poor;laws, roads, Whooli, ihouldba under the land commisILi For the rest of Ireland I would pass «, Act:«llowini; fri«; sale of^leaies, fair ; renti. and » GoTernmen^ Taluation. In conclßsibn/I must;|ay, from all •ecounts S ml pwnlobserf 11100, th«tth« state of parts I Bare «r*ed iiwwri* thitrtbmt people m

'hat thtsc people are made as weare;thai they'are: patient boyond belief, loyal but at the same ticnn brolten spirited, and dis perate, living on,'.t*ie verge of starFation in places where we would not kt'op otir '-oattle. "'''■ The Bulgarians, A notoiiaus, Oliinese, and Indians are better off thai) manjf of tlipin are., The priests alone-have any sympathy with their sufferings,, and naturally alone have, a hold over them. In those days, in common justice, if we endow a Protestant -'-University, why -n»t .endow a Catholic University in a Catholic country P It is not as difficult to get a £5 from a Protestant as from a Catholic or Jew ? . . .In 1833 Eni{latid Rare frc» ■<iom to the'■We>t,-'lndian pjaves at n_cost of 20; millions'—worth now eighty millions. This monpy 1 left the country. By an expenditure of 80 millions she..may free her own people. She would have the hold orer the land, and she would cure a eaiw ! per. lam not well off. but I would offer.. —-?-or his agent £1,000 if either of them vrbnldjive' one,-week-in-one of these poor devil's!places.-and feed as tliese people';do.-' ()ur comic printado an infinity of harm by ; their caricfttures. Fitstly the caricatures ire not true; for the crime in Ireland is not greater' than tbat in England ; and, secondly, they exßsperate the people on both sides of the Channel, and they do no e:ood; tt is ill to'.l'au-gh cud scoff at a qaestioii which-affects our existence." -