MORE INSANE THAN EVER.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 42, 8 February 1889, Page 16

MORE INSANE THAN EVER.

to _, {ShBSSp Uf^ fctate of Ireland is lamentable, and this is 'JDhkwT entirely owing to the policy pursued by the Salisbury Government. This Government started on \jpSjDjffr the principle of resolute administration in that flfS^fc 1 countr y> which means the employment of the forces of the Crown in the extirpation of the 4B** 1 people, the enforcement of unjust and impossible rents, and the persecution and attempted degration of the leaders of the inhabitants of the country. It admitted tbc existence of abuses, and the necessity of remedial

legislation, but whilst maintaining the ascendancy of felonious landlordism, it has done hardly anything in the way of remedial legislation, thus emphasising the contention of Irishmen that the only hope for the peace and prosperity of Ireland is the restoration of her native Legislature. What is the outcome of Salisbukt'b resolute government, which he intended should continue for 20 years ? Let Mitchelstown answer ; let the Clanricarde estate testify ; let the neverending imprisonment of Irish Members of Paliament and popular and trusted priests illustrate the situation. And lastly, moat lamentable to relate, is not the killing of Inspector Martin at Qweedore a miserable outcome of the absurd and, indeed, insane policy that endeavours to prevent by prosecution in the eourta of law, the expression of feelings and sentiments entertained by the Irish millions, and which would be perfectly lawful in England and Scotland ? The proceedings of the Salisbury Government in Ireland are at once petty, contemptible, irritating, and foolish. There is not a scintilla of statesmanship about them, but on the contrary, they betray nothing Higher or wiser than the bungling and shallow spirit of a police constable, not over-wise or experienced, and incapable of taking an enlarged view of public affairs. The Salisbury Government, we are bound to believe, is under the conviction that by evicting tenants for non-payment of impossible rents, by imprisoning the priests and Members of Parliament for a newly-invented political offence, by refusing to remedy notoriously bad legislation, by telling the people they must not hope for a redress of grievances, till, by abandoning agitation, they declare there are no grievances, by such an abomination as the proceedings before the Commission Court, by insulting the people in and out of Parliament, they are pui suing a policy calculated to win the respect and confidence of the Irish people, and laying the foundation of loyalty, lasting peace, and prosperity in Ireland. We are bound, we say, to believe that the Salisbury Government are under this conviction. Our reason for saying so is this : What we have described in the second last sentence is a faithful picture of the policy and proceedings of the Salisbury Cabinet on the one band, whilst on the other we have the declaration of that Cabinet that they are the best friends of Ireland, and are pursuing the best, indeed the only, policy calculated to ensure peace and prosperity there. Can there be a greater delusion, and can there be a stronger proof that the Salisbury Cabinet is pursuing an insane policy, which daily becomes more insane ? But if we abandon this theory, and maintain what many think — that the Salisbury Government has no care whatever for anything higher or better than the interests of party, and of the victory and ascendency of Irish landlordism — what must be said ? Such a policy would be no more intelligible nor worse than the former. For the man must be foolish, indeed, who imagines that the tricks and pranks of Balfoue in Ireland can either strengthen his party or save from utter annihilation Irish landlordism. How ordinarily sensible men, men of ordinary common sense, can imagine that Balfour'b treatment of priests, people, and Members of Parliament can result in good to any body or thing is beyond comprehension. Why, his policy and proceedings can only have, as they only have had in the past, the effect of rendering Toryism and landlordism utterly detestable to the people of the whole Empire, and hastening the downfall of both. The policy and administration of Salisbtjby in Ireland are intensely insane, and the great wonder is that the people of England, so renowned for their common sense and businesslike habits, tolerate them for an hour. They had better rise as one man and demand that an end be put to such a state of things — to a state of things which is little short of civil war, mainly provoked by the irritation and scandalous misgoverniaent of the great Tory Cabinet.