HOME RULE

Grey River Argus, 1 July 1914, Page 6

HOME RULE

(To the .Editor.)

Sir. — I am vety g-lad to learn that your correspondent "Home Ruler was not in a violent temper, as I supposed, when he penned the two epistles that appeared lately in your paper, on the subject of FTome Rule for Ireland. On the contrary,' I. am to infer that on both occasions he 'was calm, cool and collected. That beinj? so I have. no desire to meet him when his dander Vs up, as I have been almost, buried alive in his mass of verbiage. What am I t& .expect when he gets warmed up and going- at top speed? I hope he will show me some mercy. lam • a stranger and an orphan. Both narents are dead, and gone. I believe that T am the only Anti-Home Ruler on this side- of the range. The others, if there be any, are all solidly in favour of Home Rule. At least it is so ass-erted by. the local press -and it hardly ever lies. I have told you already that I thoroughly agree with S\lt. Blatchford that it wbud be a grave political crime to drive the men of Ulster out of the' Imperial Parliament and drive them into one to be set. up in Dublin. The Ulster men know now their neighbours too well to make the trial willingly- It is astonishing, how little the average Home Ruler who writes and pTates on the .übject of Home Rule knows of Irish history, or of the present 1 condition of Ireland. There are thousands of otherwise wellinformed people who believe that the Irishmen of to-daiv are. the 'victims of oppression and tyranny, worse thari that endured by exiled Russians in Siberian prisons! and that the Protestant portion of the people have emoluments -and privileges withheld from their Roman " Catholic neighbours. There is not a particle of foundation : or those ideas. ■ The truth is this, rb.at the Irish of to-day are : the best treated and the worst behaved of any nation, tribe or colony in the British Empire, or any other country under heaven. The fact is they have been killed with kindness. Ireland is the spoiled child of the Empire, and has many favours denied to Scotland WWarl r -s and England. The Irish patriots of to-day are always telling their dupes of the suffering endured by their great grandfathers through the operation of the Penal laws. Those grandfathers were all saints, authors, and :he administrotors of these laws were all ruthless tyrants, quite ignoring the fact that conspiracy after conspir■cy followed conspiracy for ages, with as much regularity as the seasons .of the year. We hear a great deal of ;hc prosperity enjoyed by Ireland dur_ •\«? the currency of Grattan's Parlia-/ ment. As a debating society it was \ great success, the speeches deliverd" therein were grand specimens of wit and brilliancy, but I have not heard of a single measure passed by that assembly to enlarge human : libhrty. to increase production or facilinte trade. One thing: I have heard . f it during its currency, an a\<rage of two coercion acts a year -were pass -1. and it finished .up with ,«i raoti disr ..= nstrous civil war. ' How rr.any of the Home Rukrs o 7 f to-day are aware of. he fact that none but adherents of .the State', chjurch -wjefe elicrible for seats.. ,i that Assembly ? Then the. franc'>fsc was narrow. Roman „ Catholics "'^re denied., and , worn enj; rights Ji&d, r>ot been, dreamed of. The .le.FJs.lativ'p •'nion became law in 1800 A.D. .lit,. ->roy ;^.ed' thaat from th at time forward' i-hat- Ireland was -to be goyerne^ a^.-an ; ntnoreral part of th^Fmif re, on?- Par'inment for Scotland. Er> Hand', Wale? ir >.rl Ireland. It put the peor»le of '->otb islands on as fair a footinir at •^he Inwrould fin it. nvA it has r PCl ilt«vl '-> <rr^r>t V»ftn«*fi t 's,.to Ulster,. TTl^trr : •vinri rfniiso , this <fie- nr»V r/»ft'P o t«? i^o\/r» 'Ito imioix. 7!)n,Wip, CorV. W-' 1 * 0 ' 1 " fnrrt nnd Oal^n^-' nre shffnint v>\tu -WVnino- popniatiop. nnrl -indnstpnl paralysis. - No more impudent .pro :

posal wajipiver put forward than that of- driviniployal industrial farmers of Ulster, arM the artisans of Belfast into a Dublin Parliament. Dublin .-srth its filthy streets, tumble down tenanients its burglaTS, beggars, and it s mobs of sedition mongers. Then . the rural portion of the "population are not a whit better; than the urban. "All are "ngrn the government." Instead of put tmg .their energies into some, form of industry they waste their time ai.tendin«r political meetings during the -day' and at night harass their industrious nevsrhbours by pulling down • fe;ces rattle driving-, burning havric'ks and haggards. If any .person refuse's the above, hints., there is always the appeal a dose pf lead. That is 'a con v'r.c ng argument if put straight Then y* Datnots who are detr r :n?!ied on th^ regeneration of Ireland complain, f the cost of the police oblivious to •h° fart that but for >thje police hundrnns of industrious men wn u ld have — n driven off .or murdpred lorg ajr o ' .->. "o nther country -Christian, Hea•fne-. Tew or Turk: do we *nd the having to: .accompany men ;:iav and night to work, to. market and ; Church. 3 nd live on the nr<mises . "* t^qt is the case in Ireland of the twentieth century, and at this hcur. This s the normal condition, as mcml "? of the medical faculty express the temnerature of them patients." If '•iFh a state of matters ixisted^rn any other country .the .inhabitants wcult be branded as barbarians, and « ghtly so. In the opening decades of ♦ .c f'iic teeth Century, ; the Irish constabulary had not been , organised as we see it today.- I n , there was hardly such, a tliipg.as an efficient police force m any part of. the country. Landlord shooting was the most popular form of amusement, for the patriots of those days. SmaU holders, a class corresponding to. the Lairds of Scotland, and the Squires of England, were exterminated. Those, who escaped shooting closed ' their mansions and left the country. Then the patriots complained of absentee landlords, who $pent the rents (collected from their tenants in London or Paris., The wickedness of those Irish idiots who masquerade .os patriots .is enough to make Angels weep! For half a century they have travelled on a crusade of lying and slander unparalleled in h u man experience. The statements of the first generation- pf. slanderers and hars were so preposterous that no sane person. could ever, believe them, Thi s .vas a mistake. They . hz-ve repeffed the lies and slanders to millions of people in Americo and in every spot where the English language is spoken People^ , believe them.. There was money in it. It was a financial success from the start, but it has- almost ru-.ned Ireland. Yet if the outside con tr.butions were to cease the whole insane proposal would die out m'ltess tnan five And Ireland would only remember it as horrid nightmare, I have heard it stated on good authority that for the year. A.D. iqii ond 12, jthe contributions from resident Irish Home Rulers amounted to only one-seventeenth of a penny per head, which shows that the agitation is kept up from outside, yet we are assured by the agitators that Ireland is in a state [ bordering on hysteria to make; Home Rule ah accomplished fact-Home, Ruler advises me to read up Harold Ucgb^es book on Belfast and Ulster, I beg leave to inform Home Ruler that Mr. Begbies book has been refuted, and Mr. Begbies ran off when offered a large reward if he could prove a particle of .his statements. I would advise "Home Ruler" to read (Mr. McCarthy's book "Priests and People of Ireland," i before .writing again on the subject of Home Rule. He would there find that Ireland has to : endure worse evils than Imperial rule. I may miention Mr. McCarthy is not an Orangeman, nor an Ulsjerman nor any other brand of Heretic' or Schimatic but a Roman Catholic barrister. When 'Home Ruler' favours your readers again I hope that h<*will deal no more in vague generalities, but c* lighten us on what obstacles prevent Ir si men's progress and beeps them far behind Englishmen, ; ScotcaJaeri, at d Ulsterrnen. It is. very sad to think that .with all the improvements" in the means of production, distribution and education that the Ireland outside Ulster is in a state of stagnation and decay. — I am etc., " ■■, ULSTERMAN, Grevmouthj June 30th, IQI4. '