MR. CHILDERS IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 399, 3 December 1880, Page 16

MR. CHILDERS IN IRELAND.

" Fix us in tbe soil at fair rents, and we will willingly pay them • aud you will at the same time fix us in loyalty to our {Sovereign arid in obedience to the laws of this realm." These arc the concluding words of t.he address presented to Mr. Childers by the parish nrie-fc of Donegal and the other inhabitants of the district. The Secretary for War delivered a very sympathetic as well as sensible reply. He averred that his mission combined instruction with amusement and that he was gathering data f .«• future legislation. Though Mr. Childers' visit is of a very quiet and unpretentious character, it marks a preat stride in the advance of Irish public opinion as represented in, the Cabinet. Lord Palmerston was oft*>n in. Donegal both whau Minister and in a comparatively private station, but none of his visits to the house which he owned on the burderl&nd of Ulster and Connaught partook of the spirit of the present statesman's tour. Lord Palmerston came simply to seek rest and retirement from the world of politics and legislation. Mr. Childers comes professedly to be instructed, with the view of laying the fruits of his observation and experience before his colleagues of the Cabinet. Up to this his journey has resulted in satisfaction at the peace prevailing between the diiterent sections in a eounly of the province where religious bickerings assume the most aggravated forms. Mr. Childeis h,is~ passed through the dwtnet marked with the blood of Lord Lei trim and almost at the very scene of the tragedy he compliments the people upon their simplicity, their peacefulnoss, and Iheir virtues, natural and acquired. As we pointed out upon Mr. Childers' advent, that which he hns done and what he will see are the most telling commentaries upon the blind and furious hate of those who cried out for troops and pronounced a Peace Preservation Act the panacea fov Ireland, — Freeman,