A CORONETED "SQUELCHER."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 50, 5 April 1889, Page 13

A CORONETED "SQUELCHER."

TO THE EDITOR N.Z. TABLET. Blß,— lnfallible truth hath declared that " out of the abundance of the heart the month speaketb." This statement, true at the comnencement of the Christian era, is no less true in the 19th century of its course. Innumerable illustrations have been frequently given of the faithful record which the tongue exhibits of the ingrained thoughts of the heart. We have been recently furnished with a great and notable instance of how even the high position, the heavy responsibility, and the reputed wisdom of a Prime Minister of the British Empire do not prevent the ebulition of feelings of a bitter, overbearing, jealous, and rancorous nature. The great and mighty Marquis ol Salisbury who could stigmatise the Irish as " Hottentots," sneer at an Indian gentleman as a " black man," and threaten, in most graceful language, to " squelch " the agitation for Home Rule, reveals, as in a looking -glass, the ugly features of a crnel tyrant. We know now, by the test of infallible truth, what degree of faith to place in the assurance be gives of hia desire to pacify Ireland, and to satisfy her moderate and just demands. We are informed by cablegram that Lord Salisbury's Government "intend to restore order to Ireland, enlarge the scope of Lord Ashbourne's Act, grant local government, and thereby squelch the Hgitation for Home Rule." A magnificent policy truly, which may for the moment tickle the imagination of its author by its grand proportions and its glorious results, but it has, between its conception and completion, the fatal flaw that Salisbury haß not yet within his grasp the dictatorship of any part of the British Empiie. His method of restoriog •• order " has been tried too long and too often— has been " tried in the balance "of history and " found wanting "—to inspire any hope of the " when " being reached, after which he proposes to institute the contemplated reforms. The Act referred to is far too much in favour of the landlords, and any Act connected with the wholesale sale and purchase of land must follow and not precede the settlement of self-government, else there will be stored up for future generations an exhauatless crop of agrarian evili. The "local government" is one of those paltry instalments of justice which irntateß more than satisfies the aspirations of a people like the Irish. They have, since the so-called Union, literally groaned under the hideous nightmare of Castle Bule ; and until this realistic embodiment of everything that is despotic, irresponsible, unfair, and burdensome, and that forever reminds the nation of being treated as a conquered province of the Empire, is likely to be swept away into oblivion, " the agitation for Home Rule ' will never cease and will never be "squelched "by a Tory Government. Lord Salisbury also accuses his opponents with " resorting to a cataract of falsehoods to attain their ends." Perhaps this great and pure champion of the truth may know what he himself meanß by this accusation. But a little reflection should remind him of the terrific lapses from truth of which he and the Conservative party were guilty after the last election. They deluded the electors, and obtained their reign of unrighteous power by nothing less than false pretences. They were to pacify Ireland by the ordinary law and conciliatory measure *, in replacement of Gladstone's promise of Home Rule. But no sooner was the wretched " mandate " put in their hand than the iron rod of coercion was raised, and wo now see the result in a country more intensely determined to have Home Rule, and nothing but Home Bule. We see a country panting for freedom, and tbe leaders, constitutionally elected, imprisoned, degraded, and punished for expressing the sentiments of their constituents. We see a country where the armed forces oi' the Government are employed, in the interests of avaricious and absentee landlords, to evict poor, helpless tenants from their homes, because they cannot pay impossible rents and arrears of rents accumulated during the past years of low prices and bad crops Is it fitting for such an aristocrat as Salisbury, who would establish order upon ruin, misery, and desolation— for order reigneth in a desert —to cant about hia conciliatory intentions .' Verily, there must be a a "cataract "forming on his visual organs, so that he cannot distinguish falsehood from truth, and he must rapidly be getting into that state which is premonitory of the vengeance ot the gods ! An eminent historian say&, " To secure the empire of tbe law not only over the actions but over the sympathies of the pejple is the very first end of enlightened statesmanship, and the degree in which it is attained is the very best teßt of good Government." Brought before the bar of this philosophical and historical test, what judgment can be pronounced upon the present Government, but condemnation ? Salisbury should be "squelched," and ere long the public opinion of Great .Britain will "squelch " him, wben Home Rule will triumph in Ireland — I am, etc., A True Unionist.