THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1902. THE HOME-RULE OUTLOOK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 28, 10 July 1902, Page 16

THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1902. THE HOME-RULE OUTLOOK.

HERE is something not only encouraging bat fckL i! pp positively exhilarating and inspiring in the £f I-k present position of the great national moves*~^*Ji ment in Ireland. As he sees the splendid :Jtil^*%. un^y> gl° w i n g enthusiasm, the immense Iflvafej^ 1 ability, and the ' unconqnered and unconquer*«r able ' courage with which the movement is * now being directed, the lover of Ireland feels himself strangely stirred. His first emotion is a feeling of thankfulness that is almost too deep for words ; then long pent-up hopes break forth, and he feels his blood move faster and his heart beat quicker at the prospect — the by no means remote prospect— of success at last for the grand old cause. For never since the death of Parnell has the outlook for Ireland been so hopeful as it is to-day. Under the magic unifying influence of the United Irish League — the happy inspiration of Mr. William O'Brien — the deplorable divisions of the past have been healed, the party are able to present in the Parliamentary battles a solid and united front, and they are now being led by Mr. Redmond with a skill and masterfulness that have exceeded the anticipations of even his most sanguine friends. In these circumstances, it is not surprising that the old national spirit — which slumbered indeed, but was never really dead — has been quickened into fresh life, and a great wave of sympathy ai)d enthusiasm is sweeping over every country under the sun where the sea-divided Gael has made his home. In America, in answer to the impassioned appeals of Messrs. W. Redmond and Devlin, the whole country is ablaze, and the ebullition evoked by their mission is without a parallel even in the early days of the Land League. In Australia the Irishmen have, as usual f risen to the occasion, and the nu etings which have been already held in Sydney and Melbourne give evidence of unbounded enthusiasm. In New Zealand, too, the hearts of Irishmen beat high with hope and joy, and though the geographical circumstances of the Colony render a grand united demonstration impracticable, the Irish organisations in the various centres will assuredly join in the great colonial protest against the Coercion curse, and will do their part to help the cause in every possible and practical way.

In addition to the added strength and influence gained by the long-desired restoration of unity amongst the Irish Party, theic are other special Circumstances which have contributed to make the Irish question assume a position of more than usual importance, and which make a general colonial expression of opinion specially valuable and appropriate at the present time. The first of these is the course which events have taken in South Africa from the beginning to the end of the late war. It is admitted on all hands that in that struggle the Irish soldiers behaved with a dash and gallantry that were simply brilliant, and the part they played and the sacrifices they made give Ireland a special claim to a just, to say nothing of a generous, treatment at

England's hands. Then the demands made by the Boers and the terms actually conceded to them give a very special point to Ireland's claim and make it indeed irresistible. As one speaker after another at the recent Sydney meeting aptly put it : ' What we have in Australia, what they have m Canada, what we are giving the Boers should be Ireland's too.' It is a point which must appeal to every fair-minded man, whether Liberal or Conservative, and Mr. Redmond and his colleagues cun be safely trusted to make the most effective use of it.

Another indirect factor in the improved position of Home Rule is the position which the colonies have attained in relation to the Mother Country arising out of this same South African war. It is now notorious that but for the splendid mounted troops supplied so freely by Canada, Australasia, and New Zealand the war would either have still been dragging wearily on, or if it were ended at all it would only have ended by complete and lasting disaster to the British arms. Naturally, therefore, England is in a mood to be particularly civil to the colonies just now. The Colonial Premiers have all been invited to take part in an Imperial Conference, which is now sitting, and though it does not appear likely to have any immediate practical result, Mr. Chamberlain has intimated that if the Colonies desire it the Mother Country will gladly admit them to direct representation in the Councils of the Empire. There is nothing like striking while the iron is hot, and this then is the time when Colonial Irishmen can most opportunely and most usefully make their voices heard on the great quest ion that is nearest to their hearts. As Senator O'Connor eloquently put it at the Sydney meeting :— 1 Now when the end of the strain and stress of a great war leaves the English Parliament free to consider other affairs now is the time when we in Australia, whose voice has been heard, and whose aid has been sought and felt in the building up of the Empire, should be heard and felt when we seek to remove one of the plague-spots in the internal administration of the Empire.'

To the foregoing considerations mast be added the fact that the ordinary chronic grievances of Ireland have been accentuated and aggravated lately in a manner that very forcibly brings out, by way of contrast with the peaceful self-government of the Colonies, the shameful injustice done to Irishmen in their own land. The infamous and outrageous Coercion policy— a policy which is unrelieved by one 'single justifying or redeeming feature— is beins week by week more and more widely and fiercely applfed. <'nly the other day nine fresh districts were declared 'proclaimed,' and, as our Irish readers know, throughout the whole of ' proclaimed ' Ireland new crimes are manufactured, public meetings— meetings that would be entirely lawful in any other part of the Empire— are suppressed at the mere nod oi a police officer, and trial by jury— the great palladium of our liberties— is abolished. Not content with this, the Government are, by the prosecutions directed against Mr P. Mclluni and the editor of the Dublin Fieeman, making a direct attack on (he liberty of the press, while late cables indicate that Dublin Castle, by means of what arc known as the J)e Freyne trials, is cn»a-ed in a determined attempt to cripple and ultimatelj destroy the greatest constitutional weapon the Irish people now have for the rjdressof their grievances, viz., the United Irish League. All this is done too in a country that is admittedly absolutely free from serious crime and in which, as Mr William O'Buikn happily expressed it, ' win c "loves are falling like snov\ flakes on the judges of the County Courts. Tyranny of this kind is, as Mr O'Brien has truly said, an exhibition of weakness and meanness rather than of strength, and its only effect is to crystallise Irish feeling and to weld Irishmen together into one absolutely solid and united body, more determined than ever to carry on the light until victory is won.

It is apparent then that recent e\cnts have all conspired to solidify the Irish forces and to bring out pi omiuently before the world the glaring injustice which Ireland has so long suffered under, and, as we have said, the outlook tor Irish emancipation is most hopeful. With the restoration of Irish unity the cloud that has so long hung over unhappy

Ireland is fast disappearing, and the dawn of a brighter and better day is near at hand. Only let that union be maintained, let Irishmen stand shoulder to shoulder in the old fight, and there is every reason to hope that before many years are over her claim will be allowed and Ireland will have at last obtained the measure of justice and freedom for which she has so long and so uobly struggled.