LORD LEITRIM'S MURDER AND THE HOME RULE PARTY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 273, 26 July 1878, Page 17

LORD LEITRIM'S MURDER AND THE HOME RULE PARTY.

The terrible crime committed at Milford, Donegal, on Anril 2 last H^T lt *?*??♦? Llei^'imL l ei^' im and two of his a^nTantbst their' all werf h?S v*? W Y e B^ sh Em P ire ' When tbe thoughts of aU were in the East, and our internal complications were forgotten ?l 2f ae> Z' hen , domesti c peace appeared to be assure!; this tragedy like a thunderbolt has fallen upon us, and at a sween has turned the niinds of the people from Stamboul'aml the government of the Bulgarians to Donegal and the la vs of Ireland Cium enc or wPr/ 1 -r« UflU f 1^ n °*f haYe T tr 11 ° lubled1 übled t0 notice tbis outra g e in your columns were it not for its probable political effect, as your readers have as many opportunities of obtaining the particulars and judging ol tS S^fEM" 1 ° f A? C i°t e as mysell Bufc > from tbe vlewSken of i? Knl R r i 0f p E^ sl l th ??gH the influence it may have on no iSTI t e ?y? y m ! >adiameilt > I bought it would perhaps be readers & 6W remarks for the consideration of your i<.~ JJoJ o o h f ?^f e 2T as a cold-blooded and atrocious one, and the particuw^L° ld + b / thevalet of tbe murdered Earl exhibit a decree of can h^ 0 V h tF^ fc . 0 !u the , murderersthat filli us "«h °TWe can be no doubt that the deceased nobleman possessed ideas which were more suitable for a Pasha of the Turkish Empire, or more in consonance with the usages of the days of feudalism, than adapted to tho position of an Irish landlord. He wished to be « monarch of Lwm^LTJTT onbi ? o.^0 .^ estates, absolute ruler of his tenantry, law-maker and law administrator, controller, in fact of the lives liberties, and destinies of the people occupying his land. He wS 2 ono T «i d mitable ' and would not tolerate the slightest opposition to his own arbitrary will. He was in spirit a Greek oligarchs, despising the people as mere animated objects, created S^ PP f P?P ?f e0 L milli . sfcering to tbe g^atness and increasing the wealth of a haughty aristocracy. That the people, socially bmeath him, but morally so infinite]/ his superiors, could be iosed to possess any right to or interest in the soil of which he w^suoreme was a presumption that he treated with contemptuous riSe. His private character has been demonstrated to have been any thinbut that which we should expnet a peer of the realm to possess A £2^*?°?^ W* tWelve months he was superintendentof aS£o7^J° L . ord .Leitrim writes a long letter to the Times in defence of the principles the deceased nobleman had in view, but not temSr''? 6 tr f°? ble <° P ° iat ? Ut) - ° f his " whimsicalities of wUI and JXf ' *w T° f *?% . ec . ceiltll icities of his iron will." He endeavours entt?T ?• •°w L - ltnmWaSamost exemplary landlord, with an enthusiastic wish to increase the comforts and raise the social status of his tenantry. This sounds like grim irony, when we read the accounts of bis life in the Irish joumfls of all shades of Opinion He ever felt an unbounded delight in evicting even the most helplSs ShiE-« th0 HSaildSofH SaildSof ?° Un . ds t0 defeat the law of Q* land PaS exhibit his petty power for the purpose of terrorising over his unfornate vassals. Behold, for instance, this case :-« A widow in Fanet having incurred his lordship's displeasure, was ejected, a pSge being given that she should get her crops. His lordship however sent his men and carried off her corn, potatoes, &c., thuslelvlnTh™^ family 11 JlotonlywithoutabomeJ 10t0nlywith0utab0me bufc also without food." ma^f +n C °S d so . arou ff the indignation of a Presbyterian clergySSS rf g ?S gllttenillOe S la i agUage Suffic^ eat to condemn the found LL h ffl PPr « SSOr> tla % a ?S ua Se of God's word will be touud to be sufficiently powerful." Another minister said • "He Sll ß^* o^ lllls6^" I^^^ back to back a^d shouider to shoulder to put down tyranny there in Milford. and, if they did so SK° a t 1 d?r T pl6themonster ovcrthe Province. Let them con! centrate their forces on that Redan of tyranny and the Sebastooof of oppression would crumble before them. There was T nothhS l°ke a Leftrim tS l^ t0 lt ' f aM MS text Was the ullage below aud Lord «S+^? «, v- ger ° £ SCOrn would y efc be P° inted afc ttm from every LS ? v 6v 6 klQ S d om, and it would be said 'There is the nobte S M ? feet ssa s t^g** house, upon which he had expended seven hundred pounds ink Ta feom eft uTll *?** ?S Wh ° raised the P^ wSoWs sh \J?S? '< T^u- 7 Q, p £ r week> and the P oor working man's from wou^piy E&V* add itional^ H? llf? n IX I wh S h A lu S l been Placedb^ anaccSentoTth7cradt of tWi tf beh p n £ the age ' and com P le tely deaf to the demand thif v ircums , tances of tfa e present time. But, notwithstanding all this, hISh 1S murder was none the less atrocious and horrifyinJ -and SSr^^ 111611 ' t0 tbe Irisb cause in pSament fnvt b 6e v left for tbe of God's Sin* finger, and the time by no means distant when in the ordinary couSe T^ bb ° th C °?T et T d esfcate would bave fall^ from Ms 7 grSp wnJSS! f nn °* b ! a doubt but tbat the murder was the outeoWS SoffXvinr*?^ oll^*^ 110^ 8 tbe Ea ff lißb Press seeks to prove, the result of a wide-spread conspiracy because of Lord S? 7 Zealand, if because a murder had been committed in a clrtain place, the inhabitants of the whole district had been Lme&atetf

presumed to be murderers, and a cordon of police interrupted the communications, and prevented, under pain of arrest, the exit of any one from the locality? Yet such is now the .state of things in Donegal. In the House of Commons several Irish members Expostulated with the Government for the severe measures they had adopted in the district in which the murder liad. been committed, by which thousands were compelled to endure indignities because of a crime in which they were totally innocent of a-iy complicity. Mr. O'JDonnell pi oposed a motion condemning the action of the Executive, and in support of his argument that the murder was the result of an ebullition of private vengeance, began to speak of the character of Lord Leitrim, and to adduce circumstances or that nobleman s oppression and debauchery which had been proved to be true. The small batch of Conservatives present who mainly constituted the House, would not listen even to incontestable facts, and after the reporters had been excluded negatived his motion without a division. It is said by the English Press, notably the Times and Saturday Review, that Mr. O'Donnell's action has been warmly censured by prominent Home Eulers, and that the matter is likely to create a split m the party. They are exulting ever the prospect of its complete dismemberment since Mr. Butt has finally retired from the leadership. Let us trust that their hopes will be ignominiously disappointed, and that those of the party, whose ardour in a righteous cause and consciousness of having justice with them, has occasionally led them to adopt imprudent tactics, will moderate their zeal under their new leader— whoever he is to be— and subject themselves to that party discipline which is a sine qua non of success. It is perfectly right that on such minor matters as that to which Mr. O'Donnell's motion referred, the members of the party should be allowed to exerciS3 their individual opinion, and owe responsibility to no authority but that of their constituents, but if the coherence of the party is to be maintained, only, honourable and constitutional means must be employed to achieve the object which is the principal cause of their presence at Westminster. Unconstitutional tactics will only irritate the House of Commons and detract from the political respectability of the party. No good end can possibly be served by them as it would be ludicrous in the extreme to suppose that English and Scotch members would yield to the senseless obstruction of a few that which fair argument had failed to convince them was just and necessary. No great reform was ever carried in a day, and why should wo expect the question of Home Government to be an exception to tho general rule. It is a perfect marvel how the movement has grown to its present proportions in the extremely brief period of its existence and the extensive influence it has acquired in Great Britain It promises to go on progressing from its present vantage ground even more rapidly than hitherto, and in truth the prospects of the immediate future appear to exhibit a hopeful brightness that ou^ht to reassure and incite to renewed exertions all lovers of their countrv'a legislative independence. J And now, that the tact, talent, and energy of a few great men haye unified Irish thought and amalgamated Irish feeling, if, through petty personal whimsicalities, the hopes of the party are shipwrecked and the movement ends in disaster, a terrible responsibility will attach to those who shall have been the cause of the calamity, and history shall deal with them with a heavy and unsparing hand. Auckland, July 10th, 1878,- N<