A FAR-REACHING RESULT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 17, 23 April 1903, Page 17

A FAR-REACHING RESULT

MANUAL on earthquakes tells us that the great tidal wave from the Krakatoa eruption of 1883 rolled twice around the earth. Long after the earth-racking central explosions had died- away, the ever diminishing water-wall they created rocked and lifted ocean-going ships in remote Pacific ports as well as fleets of little catamarans in the nearer harbors of thenSca of Bengal. In an analogous, though more pacific, way- political measures that demolish long-standing public wrotig«— '■such as the Emancipation, Reform, Ballot, and Factory Acts, manhood suffrage, and the legalised reversion to 'tbe" Mediaeval institution of an eight-hours' day-^— are feltj attJordifig to their social results, at a greater or lesser range beyond the immediate centre of their first sphere of operations* Such a measure is the Irish agrarian purchase scheme before the Imperial Parliament in Westminster. It l is a-faintaad -far-off outcome of the land purchase Acts thatjJmve been for many years in beneficent operation in NeW'Zeatafc&r Under- the guidanoe of object-lessons from ourflbttrishiftg land) British legislators have »t last thrown tbei* old quack 1 remedies for 'the Irish business ' aside. The£bave, in DiSBAJBLi's words, penetrated ' the mystery of -gfe.it mismanagement * of a s ster-land and got fairly to kthevteotof the worst of the long-enduring wrongs of the Irish i people. There was more than a mere element of trttt'in ■* Mr. Dooms y's ' sarcastic coronation saying, that his Britannic Majesty is King only 'of that part of Ireland

that lies north of the River Boyne.' When the preaeat measure has received the royal assent it will change Ireland from being a Poland at England's door, and mil bestow upon Edward VII. a new kingdom of contented and loyal people. • The continuation of a good work is commonly 1 of the same complexion as its beginning. Already, the new policy is big with the promise of great things,, not for Ireland" alone, but for the well-being pf the Empire at large^ Captain Shawb^-Taylor recently gave - pui>tic«tioa bahis views— adopted after close and extended observation on the spot-»-a8 to the- pacific effect of the new measure upon Irish sentiment in the great American $e~ - public, and, through it upon the future relations between Great Britain and the United States* The Captain' is a Protestant, a landlord, and was secretary to the memorable conference that took place between the representatives of the tenant-farmers ana of those who own the soil of Ireland. In a later interview he spoke as follows :—: — ' ;• ' Lest the effect of the settlement of the Irish Land Question as affecting Anglo-American relations should be in any way minimised, the following particulars of tlie wrecking of the original Hay-Pauncefote Treaty between England and America by the Irish-American Party may be of interest :—: —

'An Irishman visited Washington and ascertained that the Treaty was on the ppint of being agreed ta by the American Senate, all being agreed that no further controversial matter existed. He then visited 27 members of the American Senate, and pointed out to them that the effect of the Treaty would be most prejudice! to Irish interests in the present juncture, as likely to give an impression on the Continent that England and America had settled their differences. He found that 19 out of the 27 Senators he visited had Irish mothers. Twenty-four Senators were induced to record their vote" against the Bill, three remained absent owing to illness, and the Treaty was thus wrecked.

' This is but. one of mails' incidents, and I mention it that England may see in something like its true proportion the effect on Imperial interesti of an equitable Irish] Land Settlement.'

That coming settlement is already beginning to undo some of the evil results of that cruel class legislation which drova a long stream of Irish emigrants, with anger in their hearts, to foreign flags, and gave other nations the benefit of brawn and brains that, under happier circuit stances, might have been retained for the building-up a&d defence of the British Empire. After the destruction of' Irish industries in the supposed interests of British manufacturers, great numbers of sturdy farmers and artisans were forced to seek beyond the Atlantic the home and the subsis-. . tence that were denied them by legislative enactment ia the land of their birth. The sequel is soon told, They and their descendents composed the half — and the Bturdier half — of Washington's army in the War of Independence. And Lord Mount Joy, addressing the Ministry o*f the day in the British House of Commons, could declare : * Tou have lost America through Ireland I ' In the wars of 1812 and 1814 against Great Britain the Irish element in the United States furnished President Madison with 43,000 picked fighting men and some of his best officers, such as Grogan, Jackson, and Coffey. From 1851 to the close of 1900 no fewer than 3,841,419 emigrants left 4 the green shores of Erin;' from the year of W aterloo to the present time, close on 6,00 »,000. Judicious blood-letting may sometimes serve' a nation as well as an individual. But this was a deadly ' haemorrhage. Over 80 per cent, of this vast tide of human beings went forth, most of them with a rankling sense of wrong, to seek a home or find a grave under the Stare and Stripes. To the land of their adoption they have been, in its day of need, as true and trusty as the- steel of a Toledo blade. When the existence of the Union- was threatened ia the Secession struggle of the -sixties, they gave to their ' country an army of over 300,000 men-r— including ,the most ' dishing and determined regiments that ever fought on the American continent — and such Generals as '; Fighting Bhh« „ Sheridan,* Corcoran, Bubns, Owen* Kearney, Sju^ld^ Mulligan, and 'Meagher of the Sword. 1 American independence was mainly achieved by exiles that Jiad fled" from evil laws in Ireland ; the Union, too, owes much to. them for its preservation, * Sendnway your damped Irish,' -.

said a Southern General to ih& Northerns, 'and we'll whip, you well. 1 And daring the war with Fpain, and to this hoar, nearly forty per cent, of America's fleet, and a big proportion of its army are Irish or of Irish descent. And, under the unhappy circumstances that prevailed in Ireland under the policy of coercion, repression, and * driving discontent beneath the surface,' Irish- American influence in the counsels of the nation would never permit the consummation of that union of friendship between Great Britain and the United States which would be for the benefit of both, and would serve as one of the best guarantees for the peace of (he northern world. * m Wordsworth desribes 'a bold peasantry 1 as 'thei r country's pride.' But they are something more. They are the first, the second, the third, and every line of its defence when the evil day comes, and its rights nave to be guarded by the last argument of peoples and of kings. Ireland has long been, in proportion to its population, by far the best of England's recruiting grounds. According to Mulhall, Scotland in 1896 gave the British* army four soldiers per thousand inhabitants, England five, and Ireland six. The placing of its chief industry — the land — upon a permanent and satisfactory basis may at least staunch the haemorrhage that has been slowly bleeding tfre nation to death : Ireland may retain her peasantry, though she can never recall more than a meagre few of the still living emigrants that have left her shores. We are with Captain in the fervent hope that the approaching — and, we trus f <, final — settlement of the Irish land question will join the sister kingdoms in an unbroken bond of mutual helpfulness and good-will, will bring the two great divisions of Englishspeaking peoples into closer and more friendly touch, and — like the rainbow in Moqbe'B well-known song — for all three, their

' Various tints unite. And form in heaven's sight One arch of peace.'