SCOTCH OPINION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 399, 3 December 1880, Page 11

SCOTCH OPINION.

The Port Glasgow Observer considers that Irishmen, " whether Protestant or Papist," are fearful at swearing. The writer of " Notes by the Way " in that journal tells us that he " had a great time of swearing last Saturday night" in his ramble through an Irish quarter of the town, and he suggests to ministers, both Protestant and Catholic, that " they might do something, in reforming the language of our streets by directing special attention to the subject for a few Sundays." He is, however, honest and candid enough to admit that " the Irish have a deal to swear at, if they would only do it in an intelligent manner "; and he regards landlords and landlordism as amongst the evils which may with much reason and justice be intelligently sworn at. "Itis no use," he writes, "to believe the public press when, with an air of solemn wisdom, it asserts that Ireland has no grievances. Ireland has grievances that eat into the very heart of the social condition of its people, and the political upheavings of the whole people — their Land Leagues, and their mass meetings of ten, twenty, and thirty thousands — are but the barometer readings of some approaching social tornado. It won't do to shut our eyes and say there is nothing in it. Nothing in it 1 A whole na'ion in wild commotion, and nothing in it ? The land laws are in it. In these class laws, in their reform and equitable adjustment, lies the root of all reform and social advancement. These class laws are made the instruments of cruel injustice on our Irish brethren. They are as potent for evil in England, but there they do not put them in force ; as potent for evil in Scotland too, and in the Highlands unscrupulous landlords put them in force and root out the peasantry. In continuation the writer of " Notes" proceeds to give |he history of the average Irish farmer. Pat gets married, and takes a few acres of unproductive bog — say at £4 per annum. "He works like a hero ;he and hts willing Biddy gather stones and turf, and build a bouse. He digs and trenches his bit of land, and what was waste and unproductive bog now bears potatoes and corn. Thanks to Pat and Biddy* strong arms and willing hearts, they have improved the land by sinking all their extra labour in it — that is their capital. The landlord surveys Pat's improvements, compliments him on bis industry, and claps an additional £4 on iris venture." Pat goes to work again, improves still further, and the landlord again increases the rent, until " at last Pat refuses to paj any further advance, and is evicted — the law helping the landlord to rob Pat." Referring to agrarian outrages, the Observer remarks, " Is it at all wonderful that cases of wild justice are sometim* s heard of 1 In every one of these cases cruel evictions will be found at the root of tbem. In every case the people are blamed because they wont submit to be legally robbed of the fruits of their labour. This sort of writing— justly and fairly stating the Irish case — marks an important advance in Scotch opinion on the Irish land question, and there can be no doubt that such ripening of British public opinion ia entirely due to the vigorous agitation of Mr. Parnell and the Land League. — JXation .