IRELAND.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 253, 18 July 1908, Page 5

IRELAND.

—■ » -— MR. JDSTICE ROSS ON CATT^-DRIYING. CRIMES ACT NEEDED. "IMBECILITY, COWARDICE, 'AND connivance." B* TELEGRAPH —PEESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) London, July. 16. Mr. Justice Ross, in the Land Judges 3ourt in Dublin, said the widespread pfficia leglcct of precaution prevpnt cattlo-dny ng was po mprked that the offenders themselves, li|ie the sufferers, believed, that driv ng had official approval, Leniency beyond all reason had been at xmipted, arid this was interpreted as impe jility, cowardice, and connivance. The report: officials throughout the country showo: that the spirit of violenoe .and lawlejsnos: tvas increasing daily. Mr. Justice Ross added that a plain re medy under statute law was in, the hands o: the authorities, and must be applied.. MR. JUSTICE ROSS'S CENSURE, The Eight Hon. John Boss (P.C., Ireland was in 1892 elected as 'Conservative member, foi Londonderry by a majority of '26, wliiph il 1805 was changed into'a minority of 40. Thi following year the Unionist Government ap pointed him Judge of the High Court of Jus tice in Ireland, Chancery Division. Purine thi last year his judicial comments on the presen administrative methods employed in : . Irelani have ,been verycaustic. When JI Ginnell, Nationalist M.P. for Nortl Westmeath was going " round ' Irelani inciting the people to cattle - driving the Secretary for Ireland (Mr Birrell) eaid "My lingers are itching to prosecute linn, on it is my business to put some iiiw myself. . . The passion of Mr Ginnell's lif is to go to prison, and if he were tuere lo l'our or six weeks he would come out all th more powerful and influential to engage i: this kind of work." Mr.- Justice Ross speedily—and, it seems, 'o: his own initiative—adopted the ojinnsilo pnlioj Mr. Ginnell is alleged to have advocated cal tie-driving on an escate wnieli was uuuer til control of the Land Court; and that cii cumstajice was sufficient to bring him withi; the reach.of Mr. Justice Ross, who' ordore a warrant to issue for his arrest. After eluc ing.tho police a little, Mr. Ginnell was ai rested, and was sentenced to six months', in prisonment. For this method of dealing wit the matter, Mr. Justice Boss won muo Unionist praise. A sample- of the Liberr Ministry's reply is found in a speech mad by Sir Edward Grey (Secretary for Foreig Affairs) to his constituents in December. B declared that. Mr. 'Birrell, in attempting f govern Ireland , without resortiivr tional 'measures of coercion, was carrying or a'policy which had the sympatuy anil a'ppruvi of the Cabinet and his colleagues. "Those wh ask us to resort the moment there are difficu 'ties iu Ireland to the policy of the Crime Act. and to coercion overlook the ..fact, the though at a given moment you may by coprciv measures preserve order and repress, crime, yt ovory time you resort I 'to those, coercive' mei sures you aro not bripging the solution of/ t}i Irish disorder any hearer; op the contrar; you are weakening tho sense of responsibillt in the people themselves." On March 20 last Mr. Justice Ross, sittni in the' Land Judge's' Court, condemned tho pi'i sent agrarian policy in Ireland, r The' caw wi that of the mansion house-and demesne-lane of Drisbane Castle) County Cork; for which a Irish-American, Mr. Philip Lynch, . offere ,£7OOO, .' while the Estates Commissioners o fered .<67500. Mr. Justice" Ross said; that ': was perfectly appalling to see a beautiful plat like this, one cf tho.'finest in Ireland, beir disposed of in this way, and being sold for tli sake of realising the valuo of tho timber, an for the purpose of breaking up the demesr lands and dividing them into .small .holding He was bound by the law, of course, to d what was best'in the interests of the ownei and others concerned, but lie could; not assei to.the proposed sale in pursnanpo of the pr sent agrarian policy without protest, 1 thought that such a state of thiugs could on! be attributed to mismanagement of tho affaii of the country. If ovory fine place of this sor which might bo described as a national asse was to be closed up, ?n(l if they were all to 1 roduced to the dead level of small farmer he did not know what • to. become of tl country. Ha was dissatisfied with, ootli offer and he would send down an .inspector of lug rank to ascertain the-value, of tho estate. ,