COERCION IN IRELAND.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 108, 9 May 1887, Page 3

COERCION IN IRELAND.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir — Your correspondent " Plain Honest Truth" ia very angry with me. He seems to have caught the Erinphobia disorder very bad indeed. I pity him, and pass his frothy rage about " ill-rog'ulated minds," " obliqnities of judgment," " extraordinary rubbish," 4c, as a mere paroxysm of his disease. It relieves him, and does not affect the question in dispute in the least. Ho goos on to assuro me if Ireland were nnder German or Bussian rule that the peasantry would be " shot like dogs, or elae compelled to obey the just demands of the law. A sufficient answer to this, however, is the faot that such barbarities never happen in these countries, because wholesale evictions of the people would not be tolerated by the authorities even for a day. Your correspondent admits that injustice* is practised by tho landlords in Ireland, and as that injustice frequently takes the shape of arson, murder, and brutal oxposure of invalids, infants, and dying people, he wisely ref ruins from going into particulars . Too much plain, honest truth on that side of the question would not suit him. With regard to the Bussian Jews, the faots were as I stated ; and aB to their prosperity in America, perhaps tho less said the better. We have read how the Jews " spoiled " the Egyptians on leaving Egypt ; we can guess to what extent they acted similarly before leaving Russia. And as to their industry, less can be said still. Shent per shent and three yellow balls are its principal products. One stout Irishman with a long-handled shovel is of more value to America or New Zealand, from an industrial point of view, than a whole shipload or city rail of expelled Knssian Jews. In conclusion, Mr. Editor, allow me, as a Scotch* man, to express my firm belief that coercion in Ireland is at its last gasp, and that in a few years we shall hear of a Parliament in Dublin for Ireland, and another in Edinburgh for Scotland, putting an end to evictions in these countries. lam, Ac, Another Voter. to the bdltor. Sir— l have to thank "Plain Honest Truth" for the remarks and explanations re the above subject, and further wish to state and answer why is Ireland so poor and rebellions— First, because of the numerous small holdings, which, in the advanced state of civilisation, makes it impossible for small 1,2, 3, and 4-ac re men to get a living; the time for that kind of thing has gone by, bnt the people of Ireland still cling to it in the vain idea of bojng able to make a living; the thing is impossible, which makes it so hard for them to pay even small rents. Pat with his pig ana a cow is just as far behind the times m a man in armour with a spear and bow and arrows. It is very sad to think this is true, and Irishmen will not believe it is true, and vainly endeavour to cling to the ways of the good old times, and in their struggles to stem the tide distress comes to them, and with poverty and want oomes revolution, deads of violence. Alas, all ep«nt in vain. Progress will only be kept back for a time ; the fittest survive. Bnt why blame the landlords and Government, for if we examine the problem with a calm mind we must be convinced that as sure aa the tide flows so must the ways of living as our ancestors vanish. Bat truth is not always acceptable, and we find those who Jiake a living— and some a good one too— by keeping the people in a state of revolution, and who will not listen to facts, bnt gull their auditors ■iy painting their wrongs, and argue as if truth never existed I in the world. | I am, 4c, A Voter, j