he Hawke's Bay Herald. FRIDAY, DECEMBER A FRENCH VIEW, OF, THE IRISH QUESTION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7915, 2 December 1887, Page 2

he Hawke's Bay Herald. FRIDAY, DECEMBER A FRENCH VIEW, OF, THE IRISH QUESTION.

The other day we gave the view of a German observer, Herr Theodor von Bunsen, on the Irish question. He remarked that, until recently, continental opinion was strongly condemnatory of England's government of Ireland, ' but that since the question had been more discussed and understood there had been an entire reversal of feeling, in Germany at least, and sympathy witli the Irish as a down-trodden people had given place to irritation at England's leniency towards revolutionists anxious to weaken Kn^l\».l by disintegrating the Empire. Since then we have come across a t:ai.-lation of an article by the London cm-rujpomlent of Le Temps, who was sent on a .^n-cial mission to Ireland. He, like most of his countrymen, is not; a great admirer of the English, but, after an extended visit, he write in terras of surprise at the discontent prevailing. Speaking of North Kerry, ho remarks upon the badly-tilled fields and ill kept gardens, which, lie says, " give the idea of a conspiracy to waste the Sifts of nature." The peasants affect inability to pay their rents; bnt tfiey eat and dress well, and, though agricultural produce has fallen 15 or 20 per cent, in price, their comfort has not diminished. In any case, there is no famine. " The malady is quite different," he says. "Ie is that of people who have been constantly told for half a century that the land on which they live lias been stolen by foreigners, who rightly or wrongly believe it, who under the lead of a central committee of politicians, have entered upon a deliberate struggle with the landlords, and who take advantage of every economic incident, especially the fall of prices, if not to terminate leases, at any rate to refuse to carry them out." The correspondent next describes au evidently nourishing dairy-farmer, whose rent was £88, who said, " I don't think I will pay thia time ;" who had been offered eighteen years' purchase, but refused it, remarking with a wink, " I shall have it for nothing within two or three years." On a smart ilogcait passing containing a farmer anl his two well-dressed daughters, his guide remarked, " There is what incenses the landlords— to sco their farmers drive in that style to Tralee races, coolly loose 20 guineas on a horse, and then on rent-day quietly ask 40 per cent, reduction on the half-year. No wonder they are angry ; but after all they might be content with the remaining 60 per cent. It is a large interest on land gained by confiscation." The general conclusion drawn by the ■writer is that though there are exceptional cases of rack-renting, on the whole the tenants are comfortably off, and well able to pay their rents. Morever, he helieves that the great majority would prefer to pay their rents and live in peace, but are deterred from doing so by the terrorism of the National League. As an example he mention? the case of Maurice Macnamara, of Shinnagh, who, with seventeen cows, live pigs, two horses, and a, donkey, was quite able to pay £24, the half year's rent, but was ordered by the league not to pay, and the landlord had to distrain. " His neighbors offered to assist him in resisting the distraint. He begged them to leave him alone, and at the sale he bought back his stock to the amount due. The net result of the operation was that £1 1 costs were added to the half-year's rent ; but the private opinion of Maurice Macnamara was that £11 costs are better tbrtn a bullet through the head." Several similar instances arc recorded, and the wide-spread fear of the party of disorder is described in forcible language. The writer passed at Molahiffe the house,of Mr Uurtin, who was shot because }r6 would not deliver up arms to a part}' of Moonlighters. '•'Since then," he ,says, " Nobody liijb resisted the Moonlighters." Of the fund ions and actions of this organisation he thus hpeaks :— " Proiferly they should only search for ami remove weapons ; but everything tends to degenerate ; and the employment of force very soon leads to abuses. The knights of tho moon frequently go tlic length of demanding a supper, a sum of money, even the gnod graces of a girl employed on the farm they find to their liking. These violations of domicileXami other acts might get them into trouble if thoy ■were not sure of the discretion, of the victims ; Imt the terror they \nspiro secures them impunity. Although everyone knows very well in a district \V\m> they arc, and although they have ofteit-* heeii personally recognised at work in spite of their masks, no one dares to name them. It. is too well known that if information were given against them a nocturnal bullet would soon striko down tho indiscreet informer. A sort of poetry and political inviolability becomes at-

tached to men who sometimes carry lj their zeal a little too far, but who are ai none tlie less, after all, soldiers in the tl good cause. The 'legitimate' industry s\ of the Moonlighters makes people forget t their excesses. A kind of general coin- S plicity screens and protects their expedi- t tions. Tliis complicity often goes a great y Sway — for instance, to tho extent of not 11 allowing the intervention of the police in 1 a house where tho Moonlighters are about ( to do their work. The constables on their '(I round hear cries and shouts of desperation 0 from a farm. They gallop up, leap to the t ground, and knock at the door. Silence 1 at once follows. Fromthc inside they I aro asked what they want. 'We heard t cries. Do you need protection ?' ' What business have you to interfere ?' is the c reply. 'Go away and do not disturb j people in, the use of their own houses.' ( The nnfortunate constables have no resource but to withdraw and continue j their round— often to meet not long after . Moonlighters, who made fun of them, , having peacefully finished their work. In the courts of justice the same thing ' happens. Not a witness will speak And j if l)y chance one does bo, the jury take , care .-tejilisir verdict to correct this serious J brcaclioT etiquette. Witnesses, like jurymen, often receive a warning. Working alone in his field, or going along a footpath, the witness will see coming from a bush twenty yards from him a little white ! smoke, and hear a ball whistle past his ' head. It is a Moonlighter, who tells him ! that if he docs not hold his tongue he is a dead man." The amount of money available for expenditure in drink struck the writer as strange evidence of poverty, and he mentions Castleisland, a small town where the aggregate rent is £14,000, and the annual expenditure on alcohol £20,000. The spread of the conspiracy from what tho writer calls its " legitimate " objects is commented upon, and the following is quoted as the opinion of a prominent doctor in Tralee :— " It is . quite true that there is no longer security either for life or property. The outrages were at first exclusively agrarian, and directed against the country gentlemen accused, rightly or wrongly, of injustice or harshness towards their tenants. But for three or four years the sphere of the ' nocturnal gun lias extended. It is now used in the settlement of personal quarrels, and even of commercial accounts. At I the beginning jurymen drew a distinction at least between motives. Now they always acquit, because they no longer dare not acquit. What else could be expected ? Jurymen are men. They would rather set a scamp free than pay witli their lives for drawing a too nice distinction between agrariamsm and other crimes A leaden bullet is an irresistible argument, if there ever was one. At prespnt it may be asserted that the law is no longer in operation in Kerry. It is brigandage which prevails, scarcely tempered by the decrees of the real, irresponsible, occult ruler— the committee of the National League — and the honesty of the population towards their landlords. Should things proceed as they have been doing for two years more, it will be a return pure and simple to the savage state." The submission of the people to this savage terrorism is spoken of by our French observer in tones of mingled surprise and contempt. On his way to Milltown he met a man without ears driving fonr cows .without tails. At first taciturn, Hie man ultimately .became communicative, and stated that a party of moonlighters had first cut off tho cows' tails, and a week afterwards the narrator's ears, because he had accepted work on boycotted land, against the prohibition of the National League. The "boycott" extended not only to the man, but his belongings, and lie could not sell his cattle— even to speak to him was visited with a fine of two shillings. "Bub," continues the astonished son of Gaul, "he seemed to consider this quite natural, and quite fair — just like the leper of the city of Aosta, or like the convicts you talk with on their situation. ' I have played and lost, so much the worse for me,' his resigned attitude' seemed to say. 'Perhaps they don't know it at Listowel,' he added, with a sigh of hope, as he drove on bis cows." The conclusion arrived at by the author is similar to that of Hcrr Bunsen. He blames the leniency of the Government, and advocates strong repressive measures as the only course of safety. Tliis, he believes, would be secretly welcomed by the mass of the population, for the terrorism at 'first directed ,against the landlords, professedly in the interests of the tenants, has now spread until it is directed against any man claiming liberty of action, or even of speech.