THE Thames Advertiser. MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1882.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XIV, Issue 4139, 23 January 1882, Page 2

THE Thames Advertiser. MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1882.

Fou months past our, European and American exchanges have given quito an . inordinate share of their npaco to Irish news, with the result that very niany colonists of Irish descent and most' Englishmen and Scotolitnen have just skipped tho monotonous account of proceedings" in the Emerald Isle without attempting to grasp the bearings of tho details so abundantly givon. But while details have been wearying in their', minuteness lew attempts have' beoii mado to deal practically,with tho whole subject, perhaps on. the principle enunciated by Dundreary, that they were' wich as " no fellah could under stand." The ".Contemporary Review" lately (>avo an article which may probably afford some help to such as may wish to comprehoud the'sub. jeci, by publishing from the pen of W. F. Butler a contribution to some vexed questions in Ireland under the heading of "They were a , great people, Sir:"—the title being tho answer of tho cur-driver to a question as to what had become of the old families, of whoso doings he had, with the garrulity incident to Mf class, been . giving most enthusiastic accounts. The writer traces the history of the sopara- ' tion that had, taken place botwoo'n tho' , '' old owners of tho land and tlie peasantry -j—the former going away from their native land, to " light and fall in the cause, of, every king and country bufc their own," whilst at homo stood " a now race of men alien in nationality, liostilo in faith, opposite in sentiment'' to the-people beneath them' :■' men who felt and lived as a foreign garrison in the laud; men who drank to " the .' glorious, pious, and immortal memory" on tho anniversary of one King's death, with religiouß observance, and eat down to a dinner of calf's head on tho 30th of January, in mockery of another . king's execution." The result beiuga " wild, spasmqdio effort of law to force ■ the people,"—ae■ Ruskin puts it,—tho " ground-delvers," who necessarily remained on the laud throughout the.', troubles ,of the centuries,—"to accept « ' for worse' if they would not • for better' the new order of things, From, this came oscillations of government, ' outbreaks of people's passion, -repression, and j.ho rest of it; bufc of the kinship that comes of common raco; tho , bond of a faith held together, tho union that holds hopes, fears, and dangers past and to come linked in an undivided destiny, there was not to be found one single chord of sympathy vib'-ating through tl.e social structure ; of Ireland. On the one side tho' new interest' would find it«olf year by year forced into more exclusive isola. tion, but growing weaker: through ■ absenteeism, the. spirit of modem' 1 opinion, and the influence of Now ' World ideas. On the other, tho people, ever drifting farther away from the memory of obedience nnd-r.ogard for their old masters, woiild become more estranged from tho classes.above;,them,.more prono to wander after wild experiments, 'to listen to the teaohingof : dangerous doctrines, to catch the echo of distant democracies,'remaining deaf to the , solid sound of sense. that 'also comes from thorn." In a brief compass vfo know of no ■ better exposition iof the Irish'difficulty. Resistance to the payment of all rental can never' bo tolerated under a British Government } the enforcement of an arbitrary standard of. yaluo as fixed by Griffiths years ago'when railroads wero'Unknown and prices of produco entirely 'different is manifestly unjust; separation of lieland from Great Britain 1 after the paltorn of Hungary and Austria, so utterly, opposed ,:t0,,,th0 interests and traditions of the empire,, as only to bo'attained by , ;wading through seas of blood; tho'demand for the establishment, of a, Parliament in ■ Dublin, though apparently plausfblo, yofc owing to tho scandals attendant on •• former Irish assemblies' of ft similar , ' kind so redolent of incompetenoy, fraud, and corruption in its worst forme, as to'bo utterly out of tlie question l ; for the Statq to purchaso' the whole laiid , v of the country,, thus abolishing Individual proprietorship—however, charm- < ing in theory to such as have no free- ; • hold interest in the 'soil—is simply a", delusion, a mockery, and a shard. Joseph, by his statesmanship, once induced the landowner's of Egypt to part with , their , property in that way, but \yo have yet to learn that .any good result followed his cunning: on the contrary. Nemesis .speedily came, and to repeat Mr. Sheehau's quotation, "There, came a king /who know nob ? Joseph;" and the polioy he had in« \ atigurated was reversed. What, then, ; is to be done ? In tho interest?, of Ire-'" land and the Irish tho country /uust bo retained ns an integral part of Great Britain; the , moasurcs taken by tho Government for tho vindication of law must bo, firmly proceeded with, and care taken IJiat tenants aro enabled without intimidation to secure the bonefiis the Land Act of hist session-enables them obtain. The most hopeful picture iu Irish prospects being that in spite of all temptations tlie tenants'aro voiy largely taking. advantage. of the pro-,' •. visions of Gladstone's Act; Ulster, though possessing advantages unknown in other, parts ~of Ireland, setting an r example 'which is being welli followed i elsewhere.- ,'lVue etionglv the original' ' causes of disaffection may roinaiu toy years: to.,come, but oach, ybar"will weaken their force, ; Wo havocoufi-' dence that ungrudging justice will eventually overcome the violence' anil / oppression now taken as tho weapons ot what the " Times" pronorly terms

an "irreconcilable minority." For the rest there is nothing but patience, and it may then well bo that coming generations in reviewing tbe now near future of Ireland and ita inhabitants may with truth repeat " They were a groat people, Sir."