MR. J. E. REDMOND'S LETTER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVIII, Issue 31, 26 November 1886, Page 5

MR. J. E. REDMOND'S LETTER.

October 1, 1886. Mr. Pabnell's Bill has been ultimately rejected by Parliament This result has placed before the world two or three facts of supreme ' importance. First of all, the Imperial Parliament has deliberately refused to <step in between landloid and tenant in li eland during the coming winter, and though the fact that judicial re'its are excessive in view of the fall in prices is undisputed, it has refused lo afford to tenants who cannot pay any protection. Thus for the thousandth time, the incapacity and unwillingness of the English Parliament to legislate wisely for Irelan i is clearly proved. At the last election the one great cry for the so-called "Liberal Unionists'' was that there was no need for Home Rule, because tht Imperial Parliament was ready to right every wrong and redress every genuine grievance in Ireland. That cry can never again be raised by at least one dis. tingmshed " Unionist," Mr. Charnberlnn. That gentleman, months ago, recognised that the mcieasing agricultural depression wou.d make the payment of the full judicial rents an impossibility, and as he boldly advocited a temporary suspension of ewctuns in certain cases. He professed to believe in spite of the history of the Dis turbance Bill of 1880, that such a proposal could be passed through Parliament. Never again can he or any of his fellows claim that the assembly of EDghstimen and Scotchmen at Westminster is competent to govern Ireland, for though a case over* helmnng in its strength was presented in favour of a temporary suspensiDu of the full legal rights of the landlords, the House of Commons dthoerately refused the moderate proposals of Mr. Painoll, and btrangest of al', Mr. Chamberlain himself was absent from the division lobby. Parliament has been prorogued, honorable members have dispersed for the li hohda\s," and we are left face to face with a crwis full of danger and of misery. Irish tenants who cannot pay the full rent, and there has been no serious attempt to prove that they are not the majority, are to be kft to the mercy and forbearance of Irish landlord--, which is the Tory way of saying that the lives of the people during the coming six months will depend upon the force, the discipline, and the intensity of the laud war. Iv 1880 Parliament similarly refuse ito protect the people, and they were forced to protect themselves. A like crisis has now arisen , and every individual who took part in the division in Mr. Parnell's Bill did so witn his eyes open, knowing full well what the meaning and effect of his vote would be. Those who vote i for the Bill voted for a peaceful winter and for the protection of life and property in Ireland. Those who voted against it, voted for an end. ing of the Truce of God, for a renewal of the land war, for a postponement of all hopes of amicable settlement of the Irish question, and foi a recourse once rxore to couci >n measures. There was no disguise about the matter. Thp position of the Government was quite plain. Sn Michael Hicks Beach, the new Chief Sec etary, was almost brutally candid. It was no part of his business, he argued, to either admit or deny the inability of the tenants to pay. That wa a a matter between them and the landlord*. If such inability did exist, he trusted the latter would act with forbearance, but in any case tbe duty of the Government was to assist them in the assertion of their legal rights, and he wound up his speech by a plain threat that if disturbance occurred in Ireland, Parliament would be summoned together again in November to exact coercion. His words

were brave enough. He was, so to spe.ik, eager for the fray, and he hurled his threat of coercion at the heads of tue Idsh party with a smile upon his lips He would have us believe he is making war " with a light heart." But tbo»e who observed him close y thought they could detect a tremor in his voice and an anxious look in his eye, as his threat was met by the prompt and fearless cbeers of the liish party. The truth is, Sir M. Beach is today the most miserable man in Eugland. It is easy for Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Chui chill to propose coercion. They will not have to carry it out ; theif political reputations will not be staked upo.i its success. Sir M, Beach is wis<? enough to understand the true nature of the path upon which he has been forced to enter, and he is shrewd enough to grasp to the full the difficulties before him and the disadvantages under wnich he starts. He has before him the failures of Mr. Forster an i Lord Spencer and Mr. Trevelani and no one knows better how little probability there is that whe n they fa'led he will succeed. The policy of the new Government seems plain enough. The coming months, they expect and perhaps hope, will witness a social war in Ireland more intense than that of '80 and 81. Thp*e will be wholesale evictions, which mean wide" spread misery and want and desperation. Thousands of famishing men will be cast loose upon the country and the natural result will follow. The public peace will be disturbed, evil passions will find vent; bloodshed, and outrage will increase with horrible rapidity Parliament shocked and horrified will willingly grant a five years coercion Bill, public opinion in Great Britain which is now steadily setting in favour of Home Rule will suddenly reer round again to hopeless panic and prejudice, those Liberals who to-day are sympathisers with the National aspirations of Irishmen will regret that they ever trusted Mr. Parnell, and the net result of it all will be the indefinite postponement of all chances of Home Kule and the absolute impossibility of a return of Mr. Gladstone to power. This is their little programme ; an admirable and clever one did ;t enactment not necessitate the ppilling of innocent blood, and th c misery of countless thousands of men and women and children These are the dangers ahead of us in the near future, the duty of the hour is to avo'd ihem. The Government policy is a daring one and like all daring policies it is full of peril for it authors. Its success would probably mean the installation o the present Government in office for the next 5 years Its failur would mean in all hutnau probability the return of Mr. Gladstone to power, and the speedy establishment of Home Rule. The way to defeat ihe diabolical plans of the Government is plain enough. Aganan disturbance during the coming winter is certain and under the circumstances natural anl justifiable. Agarian disturbance will make the proposal of a Coercion Bill imperative upon the Government but aganan disturbance will not enable a coercion Bill to pas§ nothing cm do that except an outoreak of crime and outrage. If by resistence to uDJust eviction the Government can be forced to propose coercion, without being able to point to a recrudescence of serious i crime, the game wul hive been won, and Mr. Gladstone 1 ! opnortunit? will ag^in have come. The duty of the moment then ia to help the tenants to resist the exaction of exorbitant rente and at the same time to pn serve Ireland from crime. To do this there are two means only, one the checking of evictious ; the other the robbing eviction of its hoirors. — "Where a landlord refuse to accept such proportion of the rent as the tenant can pay,and insists upon evicting him, the tenant must pay nothing on account, but consent to go ont, and the land from which be is evicted must be strictly boycotted and the true facts of the cisc must bejplaced before the world. In this way by the force of public opini m and above all by making eviction a profitless and even a costly proceeding for the landlord, the number of evictions may be cbecked. Where a tenant has actually been evicted, then sufficient money must at once be forthcoming to preserve his family from want, and in this way eviction may be robbed of its horror. For the success of this poiicy of belf-defence, large fundß will be needed, and Mr. Parnell has addressed the following appeal to the exiled member 3of the Irish race : — '' The rejection of the Tenant's Relief Bill, the scarcely veiled threats of the Irish Secretary, aad the alarming increase in the number of e\ ictions, clearly indicate the commencement of a combined movement cf extti initiation against the tenant-farmers of Ireland by the English Government and the Irißh landlords. I lose no time in advising you of the imminence of a crisis and peril which has seldom been equalled even in the troubled history of Ireland. I know that it will be the highest duty and the most honourable task which can engage the attention cf my countrymen in free America to do what in them lies to frustrate the attempts of those wbu> would assassinate our nation, and to alleviate the sufferings of those whu, unhappily, must be the numerous victims of the social war which has been preached by the powerful and rich Government of England against our people. In sending us that moral and material assistance which has never been wanting, never been stinted ' from your side of the Atlantic, you w ill perform two most important and va uablp functions ; you will encourage the weak to resist and bear oppression ; jou will also lessen and alienate those feelings of

despair in the minds of the evicted which have so often and so unhappily stimulated these victims to a recourse to the wild justice of revenge. In doing so, you will assist in preserving for our movement that peaceable character which has enabled it to win its most recent and almost crowning triumph, while you will strengthen it to bear oppression and encourage our people until the final goal of legislative independence has Ibeen won."— Of the success of this appeal I have no doubt, and notwithstanding the terrible dangers of the future, 1 s>m confident that Ireland will emerge from this final struggle with her honour untarnished and her cause triumphant. J. E. Redmond.