"THE IRISH QUESTION."

Evening Post, Volume XXI, Issue 118, 21 May 1881, Page 2

" THE IRISH QUESTION."

cttaistfindes tenants should be entitled to eompdnßation, bat contained nothing to prevent the landlord from raising the rent if he thought fit. The lee* tarer advocated the establishment o! » Provincial Parliament for Ireland. He be* lioved Irishmen would prove loyfcl enough in their own country under different government. Considering their grievances, they had displayed much patienca and forbearance, and the persona who shot the Boers at the Transtaal were, in Mr. Stout's opinion, to be condemned quite as much as Irish tenants who had shot their landlords. He considered, however, the reports of tha agrarian outrages to have been greatly exaggerated. In conclusion, the leoturer said he considered that if the land in thia colony had been properly managed, we oonld now hare been able to dispense with taxation. He resumed his seat amid much applause, and on the motion of Dr. Grnco was awarded a cordial vote of thanks for the lectors.

+ At the Academy of Music last night Mr. Bobert Stout delivered a lecture, entitled " The Irish Question and its Lessons for Colonists," in aid of the library fund of the Wellington Working Men's Club. Mr. Moor, the president of the club, occupied the chair, and there was an excellent attendance The lecture was of a most interesting character, and was listened to throughout with the most profound attention. After a few prefatory remarks, Mr. Stout referred to the early history of the Irish nation, which he compared with that of Scotland. He pointed out the enormous disadvantages under which the Irish had labored, and the many disabilities placed upon them. From the Irish pension list he quoted names and figures with a view of showing how at one time the revenue of Ireland had beep taken to pension the mistresses and illegitimate children of immoral English monarchs, and to bribe political allies. He contended that it was the British Parliament that had made Ireland Catholic. Subsequently he alluded to the large sums of money paid away in Ireland to absentees, who appointed middle men and agents to doil with, the tenan s pretty much as they liked. The remedial Act, paased by the British Parliament in 1870, tor the purpose of amending the relationship between landlord and tenant provided, he said, that under certain dr-