GOD DEPEND THE RIGHT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 20, 6 September 1889, Page 13

GOD DEPEND THE RIGHT.

{United Ireland, July 13.) THie champion evictor has declared war on the tenantry of Ireland. Bo be it. The tenants are ready for the struggle. Black-Bmith. Barry£ reception of the deputation of his Tipperar> tenants, with the Very Bev.oimonoah.iil at their head, wM^bnuJue to the verge of Inmlt. Hebroaght them to London oa the false pretenoe that he was prepared to receive the memorial with an open mind and consider his reply with facts before him. He did nothing of the kind. He had written out his refusal before he heard a word of their arguments and : read it the moment theii address of remonstrance had concluded Hensdaway to the Home of Commons the instant the deputation proceeded to expose the glaring misstatemeats in hit reply. He enhoed the deputation to London on false pretences. He had his terago of old falsehoods ready, cut and dry, like a Removable's decision. The thins; could have gone to Ireland in a half-penny wrapper, and have sayed the insulting mockery of bringing • deputation from Ireland to hear it read. His reply was, in truth, an insolent defiance, whatever fear was hid behind it. They laugh best who laugh last. Tipperary is bad to beat. Tipperary has taken up the exterminator? challenge, and claimed a. a right the front place in the great battle between evic tow and evicted, by which the fate of Ireland will be decided! Black-Smith-Barrys reply to the tenants' deputation has aggravated the guilt of his wanton interference with evictions on the Pousonby !£&.«!£ iI SS rp( f eted ' t c °° n{^^! l * to* general interest of the raokrenton. The tenants on the Ponsonby estate are to be extermU?*?l •S en « our< « e *« othMß - The noble object of the landlords' confederation is to push up the price of land and put money in their purse*, no matter at what cost to the tenantry of misery and ruin. It ?"?*£*> 2r s MS? lt s- Bi 2* to Beck t0 cloak b * complicated falsehoods that the landlord and tenants had practically clasped hands in settlement on the Ponsonby estate when he stepped in to create discord. A few shillings from each tenant would have squared the djfleTenoe between them. It was to prevent peace he interposed. He S^S.*** 11 En £lwb banquet that he forbade a settlement on this Irish estate. Bven after his interference had been resented and his authority denied he forced himself on the reluctant rackrenter. No one now disputes the justice of the tenants' claims. Even the ageu^ Mr. Townsend, has confessed their modera1"?* 5w^ miUl "^ y qawrels not with the justice of their claims, but with their resolute combination to enforce them. The terms which his eviction syndicate offers-the terms with which the brave Balfoor ia so enamoured-are a wanton insult to the misery of the tenants. For nearly four yean this fighting for their bare right has been raging. During that period they have been subjected to bitter persecution. They have been driven in hundreds from their homes, their cattle seized, their lands left desolate, costs and expenses pifed mountains high on them. Imprisonment followed imprisonment for the bread-winners of the family who dared resist eviction, or even run the ploughshare through their own lands For these four years Black-Smith- Barry modestly claims rent shall be paid. These arrears, subject to the nominal reduction of twenty Der c«Dt,«!DWOUBIy tobe let stand out at three per cent, interest, which Is to be piled on to the original rack-rent, already impossible of payment. The rack-renters' confederation might as reasonably domand the teaants should pay tbiee-quarteri of the moon, and, as a special compliment, allow the fourth quarter to stand out on interest. County Court Judge Curran, a Coercionut to his finger5* 1 ?' 3*i t^ th&t eveQ in ordin * r7r 7 cases, where no eviction destroyed the ability to pay, au order to pay the arrears by instalments is an insupportable burden which means absolute ruin to the tenant. Black-Smith-Barry's benevolent proposition is that interest on arrears of rack-rent which accrued due while the tenants were robbed of the benefit of their holdings, should be added as a perpetual dharge to the rack-rent, itself confessed to be insupportable Let us for one moment, before passing from the subject, contrast these generous terms which the champion exterminator offers to t'ha oppressed Ponsonby tenants with the terms which the law accords to *££' bre^ren the Crofters, in Scotland. A single sample will •Gffice. On Lady Matheson's property, on the island of Lewis we read the Commissioners have granted a reduction of thirty-one psr cent, on the rents and a reduotum of seventytut per cent, on the arrears. These were arrears that, unlike the Ponsonby arrears, accrued due while the tenants were in the full possession and enjoyment of their holdings. But it is useless discussing further the absurd terms that Black-Smith-Barry proposes They are not xeaot seriously. He scarcely dissembles his knowledge that they are impossible. They are but the cover under which he advances to this war of ruthless extermination. They are the blind by which he would hide from English humanity the wanton savagery of these evictions: His object is to " make examples "of the Ponsonby tenants, to strike such terror as will enable the rack-renters in the brief apace left them to enact what terms they please They know right well their fall is inevitable. They are determined, Bobadil Baunderson declares, to fall « like Irish gentlemen." The Lord Mayor of Dublin shrewdly interprets this bombastic declamation They are determined to fall backwards, borne down by the weight of twenty-three years' purchaie in their coat-tail pockets. It is to this laudable end that extermination campaigns are planned and eviction companies formed, and that the counter-combinations of the tenants are attacked with all the savageries of Coercion. Their time is short and they know it They s and on a loaded mine that every day grows hotter under their feet. The General Election will blow their power sky-high if they cannot in the brief space remaining to them carry off their plunder 5^ fc"""" 1 . ***. the tanM o£ tha confli <*- They know that they have but to stand firm and their victory is assured . The boor of deliverance is at hand. E*ery motive that can inspire men is there to ■treogthen their resolution. Their oppressors "by a wUd fraosj driven fight for power, for plunder, and an extended rule •

they for their country, their altars, &nd thoir home." Who can doubt the issue of such a confliot f Tne banner of the tenants 1 righteous combination has been solemnly blessed by the great Archbishop of Cashel, whose name is a word to con j are with in Ireland. His own Tipperary I — Tipperary which never yet turned its back on the enemy —proudly raises the banner in the forefront of the battle. The erictors' rash challenge to a general engagement has been eagerly ac ;e p ted . The struggle will ba fought out to the bitter end, and Cod defend the right.