UNREST IN IRELAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13670, 8 April 1908, Page 5

UNREST IN IRELAND.

A CATTLE-DRIVING RAID. CONFLICT WITH POLICE. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, April 7. Several hundred cattle were driven from Elphin to Roscommon through the ranks of the Constabulary after a desperate conflict between the mob and ■ the police. [The Spectator says that the "cattledriving'' movement in Ireland is two- | fold in its objects— it is predatory and ! it iss political. After dealing with the former aspect, it saysi—^The political ■ object ii equally clear. The Irish Na- , ijionalists are in danger of losing their hold upon the people owing the ' rivalry of the Sinn- Fein party and other causes. They also believe ..that there is a danger of the Liberal party forgetting them unless they make themselves unpleasant. In order, [ then, to keep, things moving, they have f. deliberately fanned and encouraged the desire of the peasants to get possession of the grazing lands. \ That is the last f>iece of agrarian agitation which i«T eft to them as a motive force for i drawing /the Home-rule car. In view | of these circumstances, it is surely nothing short of madness for the Liberals to tolerate the present disorders in Ireland. The Nemesis of their paradoxes confronts them, and the only way to escape is frankly to admit that i-they were wAong when jihey made their previous distinctions between coercion and* the ordinary law. All enforcement of the law jnvolve's coercion, and to pretend that there is any way of ensuring obedience to the law save by coercion — i.e., the punishment to come —^is nonsense, and • mischievous , nonsense."] I