THE IRISH REVOLUTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 411, 25 February 1881, Page 17

THE IRISH REVOLUTION.

(Philadelphia Public Ledger.) There's a homely old story about a man who never found the right time to mend his leaky roof. When it was raiuiug lie couldn't or wouldn't go out in the wet to mend it, and when the weather was dry, the holes in the thatch didn't make any difference. They were rather pleasant than otherwise. That is about the philosophy of the British Government in its way of looking at the Irish question. When there's agitation and disturbance and thrcitened revolt, resulting from long neglected suffering and wrong, the Government will not move in the direction of just and sufficient redress : they will not act under menace, although they cannot dispute the wrong or the reason for disturbance ; and when there is no agitation, when the political and social skies are clear of dark clouds — then it makes no difference. The Irish roof may be patched some other time. This is manifestly the view Lord Sherbrooke— he that used to bs Mr. Lowe — takes of the way to deal with Ireland. He Bays : '' The time for considering great and drastic changes is not well chosen amid scenes of heat and violence. Then is the time to stand by the laws as they are, and to see, as far as the power of Government goes, that they are respected and obeyed." That is the old cry and the ne|r cry. The people suffer and forbear while forbearance is possible, ts\ nothing is done. When longer forbearance is beyond the power of human nature, and they resist with what energy is within their reach, then " the time is not well-chosen " — then is the time for enforcing the laws as they are — the very laws which lead to the poverty, the suffering, the utter inability to make a living out of the land, the starvation, resistance and revolt. The Irish people have been noted for th« patience with which they bear their miseries. As far back as the Devon Land Commission in 1843-45 it was shown that the destitute Irish numbered one-third of the entire population of the island. The land was held in large tracts by absolute owners — mostly English peers — who were neglectful of their properties in Ireland ; and the effect of the land laws was declared by the Commission "to create a feeling of insecurity which directly checked industry." The people engaged in agriculture were " steeped in poverty and misery. Under all this they were so quiet and forbearing that the Commission felt obligated to pay homage to " the patient endurance which the labouring classes have generally exhibited under sufferings which are greater, we believe, than the people of any other country in Europe have to sustain. Then surely was one of the times for remedial legislation of the most favouring and comprehensive description ; but except this patronizing pat on the back for their good behaviour under the wor.-t suffering in Europe, the Irish people gob nothing. That was two years before the awful famine of 1847, and three years before the Young Ireland rising of 1848. It would have been easy then to do all that was asked. Mr. John Dillon, the father of the Mr. Dillon recently in this country with Mr. Parnell, formulated the requirements of Ireland in three words: '• A revaluation oi the land and perpetuity (that is fixity of tenure) for the tenant." That was repelled in '48 as asking too much, but il could be had almost for the asking now. Bo it is that the British Parliament has refused to learn. Now the necessities of the case have pushed the suffering people to demand, not only " fixity of tenure and " fair rents " under a new valuation, but " free sale " of the lands themselves. Long deferred justice thus brings its own penalties. Within the last thirty-two or three years there have been three famines and as many serious seasons of agitation, if not more. "Young Ireland " rose for redress of grievances in 1848, as the Land League does now, and the Fenian trouble was about midway between. The land question, with accompanying destitution among the peasantry, was involved in every one of these risings. None of the starvation periods, none of the threatened insurrections, growing out of an unberable state of affairs, brought sufficient wis-lom to the British Parliament. The Land Act of 1870 was something, but only a patch. It was all Mr. Gladstone could get at that time however. They were all warned then, and long before, that something deeper and broader would have to be done, if the roots and branches of Irish suffering were to be reached. And so Parliament and Ministries have blundered on to this time, neglecting justice when everything was tranquil, refusing to act during periods of disturbance, the Government expressing indignation when commotion and violence arose through its own neglects, until now there is but little more than a phantom of British rule in Ireland, except that which is backed by the presence of armed soldiery. The time to do justice is when people are suffering injustice. That is always in order.