AN AMERICAN VIEW OF THE IRISH QUESTION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 6, 1 June 1883, Page 19

AN AMERICAN VIEW OF THE IRISH QUESTION.

(By William Howard in the Irish World.')

The recent exploit of certain Irish patriots, in shattering to pieces a few square yards of masonry, woodwork, and glass in London, has aroused prreater British indignation than the oft-repeated exploit of Irish-English landlords, in ejecting multitudes of helpless women and children into the highways, to perish of cold and hunger, because unable thiough the rapacity of their landlords, to longer pay the exorbitant rents charged for their miserable hovels. So long as it was only the Irish Ox that was being gored by the British Bull, English so-called " Fair-play " could see in it nothing but a source of regret that the innocent Ox should have been so unfortunate as to excite the ire of the implacable Bull. But when the phrensied Ox gives in its desperation a clip that barely scratches the Bull's tough hide, then English " fair play " (?) has not words enough at command to express its horror at the audacity of the Ox in daring to xetaliate upon its hereditary foe. In 1845 the human population of Ireland was 8,300.000 ; in 1882 its population was 5,200,000 or 3,100,000 lens than in '45. la 1845 the population of England and Scotland was 19,500,000 ; in 1882 their population was 30,300,000, cr 11,800,000 more than in 1845. Now, the climate and soil of neither England, Scotland nor Ireland have altered since 1845 ; but the appliances and means for deriving sustenance and wealth from the climate and soil have been vastly improved and increased so that a given amount of land is now capable of suptortiug a much larger number of people and in greater comfort than it could in 1845. Nevertheless, while England and Scotland prove by their great increase in population and wealth that they have abundantly profited by recent improvements and discoveries, as applied to agriculture and manufactures, Ireland } shows a lamentable contrast to this, in a decrease of 3,000,000 from 8,000,000 of population and an unparalleled increase of poverty and destitution. Had Ireland been allowed by her British rulers the same opportunities for achieving wealth and progress as was accredited to England and Scotland, her population to-day would have been 12,500,000, or 4,000,000 more instead of 3,000,000 less than in 1845. That this disgraceful state of affairs is not the fault of either the climate or the soil everyone admits, and that it is not the fault of the Irish we know from the fact that to whatever country they go they and their descendants rank ultimately among the foremost in enterprise, wealth, and intelligence. In view of the foregoing truths every candid mind is driven irresistibly to the. conclusionjthat Irish poverty , distress, and misery are due to British tyranny ; that England, instead of governing Ireland as an integral part of herself, treats it as a conquered province to be want only despoiled and oppressed to gratify the avarice and innate cruelty of the conquerors. I am not Irish or of Irish descent ; my connections and affiliations are all American, hence I cannot be charged with seeing the misfortunes of Ireland through the medium of national prejudice or pride. I only echo the opinion of every fair-minded man, no matter what his nationality, when I say that the blight resting upon Ireland would be speedily removed if the English Bull would permit the Irish Ox to graze unmolested upon the products of the land which Nature has provided for its especial support.