THE ARRESTS IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 434, 5 August 1881, Page 5

THE ARRESTS IN IRELAND.

On Friday, June 3, the adjourned debate on Mr. McCarthy's motion on the subject of the arrest was resumed. We abridge as follows the report of the debate which appeared in the limes :—: — Mr. T. O'Connor, in the course of an eloquent and able speech, said the recent return of evictions proved that the total number of threatened evictions reached an appalling total. At the JCaster sessioßß alone the number of decrees obtained was, according to this return, 3000, There were besides 91 decrees of ejectments from the superior courts ; that made a total of about 12,000 people threatened with evictions. But ate he understood that return, it took no account of the actions against tenants brought for the recovery of debt—that was to say, the actions which enabled the landlord to sell oat the interest of the tenant, and thereby to deprive him of all benefits from the Act -of 1870 or the Land Bill that was now before the House. These actions, as the collisions between the emergency men and the Land Leaguers showed, had become one of the most common forms of proceeding against the tenant. Putting all these things together, he was within the limit in saying that 15,000 people in Ireland were mow threatened with becoming what the Prime Minister described as " houseless and homele6B, without hope and without remedy." The Government told them that the Land Bill would better their position as tenantß. They would have ceased to be tenants by the time this Bill had become law. Could anything be more cruel mockery than to bid these people hope with the bailiff at the door and the crowbar already on the roof-tree, while the Government measure crept along and the Conservative and Whig Obstructionists proposed frivolous ajMfd dilatory amendments, and the Ministerial position was that of TJRding in this work of destruction by soldiers, sailors, and police, charges of cavalry, threatened bombardment, and by gunboats, and by the way of making the cause of the tenants still more hopeless they imprisoned everyone who dared to raise his voice on belialf of the oppressed ? The future was dark and dangerous, but was made so by the relentless avarice of many landlords and the criminal neglect of the Government. (Hear, hear,) The Speaker said that the question before the House was the adjournment of the debate. He would suggest that the motion of the adjournment of the debate should be withdrawn in order tbat the debate should be carried on upon the main question. Mr. Parnell asked, on behalf of the hon. member for Limerick, who was not present, to be allowed to withdraw the motion for the adjournment of the debate. The motion was by leave withdrawn. The Solicitor-General for Ireland and Mr. Moore having spoken, Mr. Cowen said it could not be too strongly or repeatedly impressed upon the minds of the public that a Liberal Government and a Liberal Parliament bad placed the liberties of Irishmen at the mercy of an arbitrary magistracy, of a paid police, of the vilest and meanest of all created things,* a political spy. (Hear, hear.) And what bad been the result of the enforcement of the powers which the Government bad obtained ? The Irish executive themselves admitted that Ireland was in a more disturbed condition than ever— a more disturbed state than she had been in during the last half century. (Hear, hear.) Coercion had failed— it had failed disastrously ; and, speaking as an English democrat, he said it had failed deservedly. (Hear, hear.) It had been justly observed that .there was not a single

class in Ireland who had not lost faith in the Irish executive. (Hear, hear.) It had been replied that there was less demonstration of discontent in Ireland ; but it was not because the people were sullen and silent that they were satisfied. (Hear, hear.) Distrust, discontent, disaffection, were the only terms tbat could describe the state of Irish feeling at the present moment. The simple recital of these facts was the most eloquent condemnation of the conduct of the G-ovemment that could .be offered. (Hear, hear.) They might take possession of a man's body, but it was impossible to conquer the goodwill of the Irishman by coercion. (Hear, bear.) The Government should learn by experience that contentment was the best and safest basis of loyalty. (Hear, hear.) Fifty-four persons had been arrested under the Coercion Acts, but of what class did those persons consist ? It had been pressed upon Parliament during the passing of the Coercion Bill that it was the practice in Ireland to maim cattle and commit arson ; but, as a matter of fact, only one wretched creature who could not speak a word of English, and who did not know the names of the Prime Minister or of the members of the Land League, had been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the maiming of cattle, and only three had been arrested on suspicion of arson. The bulk of those who had been arrested under the Coercion Acts had been charged with having made possibly unjust charges against the Government and against the landlords, but it was the characteristic of all agitation that it should lead to exaggeration, and in the present case the agitation was being conducted against a state of things which the Government themselves had declared was unjust and illegal. The men engaged in conducting the land agitation in Ireland had the same end in view as Iler Majesty's Government, only they were seeking to arrive at that end by different means. One thing could not be denied— namely, that the Land League had created ■& public feeling in favour of land reform in Ireland. If there had been no Land League there would have been no Land Bill. (Hear, hear.) Mr. A. M. Sullivan said : — Under the benevolent and amiable member for Bradford Ireland was being subjected to a despotism more mean and despicable than any the country had experienced since the days of Castlereagh. The secret confidential circular was to be kept under lock and key and to be communicated to subordinates only by word of mouth. With such instructions, in what shape would it be likely to reach the village policeman 1 By the time that circular reached the village policeman, it would have assumed this form — " We have orders from Mr. Forster in the Castle to suspect more criminals and we must send up more prisoners to Dublin." But who were the men arrested under the Act ? There were many among them whom he was proud to claim as friends. If hon. members were to go over the list and teßt the matter by social respectability and personal character, they would find that it was not " village ruffians," but men deserving and possessing the confidence of their fellowcountrymen who were now filling the cells of Kilmainham prison. There was, for instance, young Mr. Higgins, there was in his own county young Mr. Flood, who had been taken to prison as persons " reasonably suspected." Now, the Irish members " reasonably suspected " the Chief Secretary for being the dupe of the police, and for being a lamentable failure in the Irish Office. (Hear, hear.) The last arrest was that of Mr. M'Sweeny, in Donegal. In the barony from which that gentleman had been taken there was no man of better position or greater social influence among his co-religionists. He was a man worthy of public respect, and he enjoyed it ; and yet he had been torn from his home, not because he was a village ruffian, but because he was president of the local branch of the Land League. As to Father Sheehy, the hon. and learned gentleman asked, was a man to be allowed to go scot-free because he was a clergyman of some denomination ? Now, it was his intention to circulate a handbill in Ireland to bhow what a Protestant clergyman was allowed to say and what a Catholic priest was imprisoned for saying. Father Sheehy, being asked his advice as to the course to be pursued by a man named Connor, told him to fight the battle to the bitter end, and asked the neighbours to support Connor by their presence, and to save him from the effects of his stand against eviction. Let them contrast that with the language of Parson Kane, who suggested to his hearers to form clubs and purchase arms in order that they might shoot a Catholic priest in every parish where a Protestant had been murdered ; indeed, Mr. Kane said that six Catholic priests ought to be shot for each. His bishop called his attention to the matter. In reply, the rev. gentleman did not retract his words, but said, on the contrary, that they were deliberately uttered and intended. Yet, while the Protestant clergyman walked free, the Catholic priest was thrown into prison. He could not, therefore, but regret greatly that the Chief Secretary should have filled up the measure of his lamentable incompetency by insulting the sacred body of men who had been throughout the whole of Ireland the best and surest guardians of peace, liberty, and order. Mr. Parnell said that if the Government had introduced a clause into their Coercion Act giving courts an equitable jurisdiction with regard to claims made by landlords for rent they would have avoided the present position of affairs. Undoubtedly, if they wonld go on as they were going on, giving the aid of armed forces of the Crown to landlords for the purpose of evicting tenants, there would be exten • Bive bloodshed in Ireland during the next two months and before th« Land Bill could be passed. Many tenants thought they had only to continue their struggle. (Hear, hear.) With reference to the suggestion of the hon. member for Clonmel that the hon. member for Tipperary should be released on parole, it would be quite impossible for his hon. friend to be party to an arrangement of that sort, because it would subject him to the condition that he should not continue the agitation in which he bad been engaged. An explanation had been offered by the Government of the reason that had led the hon. member to return to his cell instead of remaining in the gaol infirmary ; but what the hon. member himself said was that he had been compelled to return to his cell in consequence of the insulting and offensive conduct of the doctor, who appeared to have received a commission from the landlords to insult and to annoy him. The bon. member further declared that the statement that imprison-

ment for political offences in Ireland was no punishment was untrue and unjust, inasmuch as he was confined in a cell some 12ft. square for 22 hours of the 24, although he acknowledged fully that the piison officials other than the doctor were most kind and courteous. •The case of the Government in asking for coercive powers was that the law was set aside, and the decrees of the Land League were enforced by a set of ruffians. It was now clear, however, that the Land Leagne waa the outcome of the public opinion in Ireland, otherwise thousands of men, women, and children would not have turned out in crowds to be shot, and to protest against the arbitrary and horrible conduct of the Irish executive. The House could form no idea of the terrible state of things in which the constabulary were obliged to keep a register in order to have always a sufficient number of " suspects " to send up to the Chief Secretary whenever the right hon. gentleman happened to be spurred on by his political opponents. The Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant, when asking Parliament to give him the powers contained in the Coercion Act, said he desired those powers in ordeT that he might lay hands on persons who had committed outrages and were well known to the police. This might have been so, but the statistics which had been published since the passing of the Act showed that very few of the persons who might have been supposed to come within the scheme had been arrested, and he asked the Government to adopt a principle of forbearance in dealing with a people who were — and justly so, in his view — saturated with disaffection towards their rulers. (Hear, hear.) He believed the Irish tenants were willing to do what was just, but if were driven to desperation be could not say how long they remain in that state of mind. The whole administration of the law in Ireland had been brought into contempt (ironical cheering) simply because the Government had ignored the just claims of the tenants. Why should not the Government now be guided by the advice given them by Archbishop Croke and by the example set them by Lord Portarlington ? If they allowed things to go on as they were going on now, he, for one, would not be responsible for the result. The result, he feared, would be great loss of life, and most probably the loss of the entire property of the landlords. The tenants were now willing to pay a fair rent. It had been said that they had been advised to pay no rent at all, but he had always heretofore opposed that advice. He did noc know how much longer he could continue to do so. (Hear, and a laugh.) Events were advancing very rapidly in Ireland, and it was impossible to say what might b« the position that day four weeks. It might happen, and very likely it would happen, if the Government went «n in their course of aggression (laughter) — yes, aggression and irritation — that they would find themselves face to face with a strike against all rents, and, if that were so, did they think that they would find it easy to get them to pay any rent at all ? The outlook was a very serious one for the Irish landlords. He knew no class which had so much interest in the settlement of the question as they had. The Government had the prospect before them of being utterly discredited in Ireland. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) They were teaching the people of Ireland very dangerous lessons, and the leaders, who occupied a middle position now, did not know how soon they might find others very much in advance of them. Unless the Government did something to stop evictions in Ireland he feared there would be an increase of outrage in Ireland. If blood was shed by the police and military there would no doubt be retaliation, and landlords would be murdered in Ireland. Nobody would regret such a thing more than he would do. He could not help saying — and he did not at all say it in the nature of a threat — that if things went on as they were going on the lives of many landlords and tenants would undoubtedly be lost. Her Majesty's Government had the control of events. Let them try the experiment in the premier county in Ireland recommended by Archbishop Croke ; let them leave to the clergy of the county the responsibility for the maintenance of order and peace, and he believed that neither landlord nor tenant would regret the result. (Hear, hear.) The Marquis of Hartington then addressed the House, and Mr. O'Connor Power asked what would be the effect of adopting the resolution of the hon. member for Longford ? It was a very able and clearly drawn resolution, but it did not go to the heart of the present difficulty. It said that the Government had done wrong hure and done wrong there ; but the important part of the resolution was the concluding section, which declared that the Government were «ing wrong in employing the armed forces of the Crown in ecuting wanton and cruel evictions. Suppose they assumed that proposition, how did that improve the position in Ireland ? If the Government were not to employ the armed forces of the Crown in carrying out wanton and cruel evictions, they must determine what were wanton and cruel evictions and what were not. If it were not presumptuous in him, he would say that the speech of the SolicitorGeneral of England that night was a statesmanlike utterance from beginning to end (hear, hear) ; but it had scarcely grappled with the difficulty with which the Government must contend in a crisis like that through which they were passing. The hoa. member fot the city of Cork had recommended the Government to adopt the advice of the Archbishop of Cashel. He was sorry that the hoii. member had not adopted the advice of the Archbishop of Cashel in reference to the second reading of the Land Bill. (Hear, hear.) If the Land League succeeded by its power in inducing those tenants who were not subjected to unjust rents to resist rents that were fair, the landlords would in time be avenged, but they Btill would be oaly at cross purposes, and would have made no real advance towards establishing the just rights of either class of the community in •Iceland. (Hear, hear.) Considering the powers vested in the Irish Government by the Coercion Acts, he thought the number of arrests which had been made was not very extraordinary. He could not think of accusing the Chief Secretary of having been wanting in sufficient consideration of those cases before he signed the warrants under which those men were arrested ; but there were some things that the right hon. gentleman might have done which he thought he had not done in regard to those cases. He could not understand why opportunity should not be given to a person within 24 hours

after he had been placed in custody to lay before the Secretary of State grounds calculated in the opinion of the prisoner to rebut the accusation against him. (Hear.) Mr. M'Carthy replied briefly, and announced that "he felt it to be his duty to go to a division. The House divided, and the numbers were — For the motion ... ... ... ... ... 22Against ... ... ... ... „, 130 Majority ... ... ... ... ... iqq