Dublin Notes. (From the National Papers )

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 23, 25 March 1892, Page 21

Dublin Notes. (From the National Papers )

Thb mortality among the Tory papers is something fearful. The Bt. Stephens Review disappeared on Batnrday. Within a week three prominent organs of the party have gone to their long homes— the Anti- Jacobin, the New York Herald, and the St. Stephen* Review. In addition to these casualties in the enemy's ranks there have been one or two desertions. It is not long since the Whitehall Review came over to Liberalism, and the Newspaper Review baa ■ince followed suit. That inspiring orator, Mr T. D. Sullivan, calling attention at Mr MUen'e first meeting at Bawtenstall to the staleness and insincerity of the threats of violence from Ulster should Home Bale become an accomplished fact, quoted a good deal of the language used by Ulßtermen when the Catholic Emancipation Bill was on the carpet. "A cry of indignation," they sa id in effect in one of their terrible periods crowded with six-footed words, » a cry of indignation will ascend from earth to heaven, it will be echoed back from heaven to earth, and reverberate from end to end of Ulster." While the audience were applauding and laughing at these mock heroics, a ■light smile and brightening of the eye told those who were eittine in the front of the hall that Mr Sullivan had had a happy idea. And, when the applause subsided, he went on to say : " You observe, ladies and gentlemen, thai after heaven and earth the place which remains is Ulster." In connection with the negotiations now for a long time pending on the Ponsonby Estate for an amicable settlement of the dispute between the tenants and Mr Smith-Barry, an amended offer for a settlement has just been made to the tenants by the representatives of the Land Corporation, who are in the legal possession of the property. The last proposal which was made to the tenants required the latter to pay in cash down one and a-half year's rent as arrears, bo far as the iadicial tenants were concerned, and the non-judicial tenants were required to pay one and a quarter year's rent in hand. The proposal was unfavourably received, and the amended offer now gives the campaigners three years to pay up the respective amounts required, and, to secure which, promissory notea will be accepted from the latter as security. A formal meeting will immediately be held to discuss the latest terms, and it is expected that the offer will be favourably received by the tenants. The Bishop of Down «nd Connor, in a letter to the County Antrim Convention, held recently at Ballymoney, and attended by Mr T. D. Snllivan, M.P., Mr Cox, M.P., Mr M'Cartan, M.P., and Mr Pinkerton, M.P., wrote : "The victory at Rossendale is a new and encouraging augury of the near success of the cause which Irishmen have so long and ardently desired to see realised. There is now little doubt but the coming general election will put Mr Gladstone in a position to satisfy the aspirations of the Irish nice. When that election comes it will be the duty of the constituencies to select honeßt representatives, who will neither betray the interests of the country nor trample on the laws of morality." The National Press contemplates the possible loss of Derry, West Belfast, North Fermanagh, South Dublin, and Stephen's Green Division to the Tories, and says the difficulty of re-capturing South Tyrone, South Derry, and North Tyrone is enormously increased. The Irish party, reconititnted in unity, it calculates, will be at least 76 strong. The Home Rule Bill of 1886 was beaten by 30 votes, and the eight doubtful seats in Ireland count sixteen upon a division. The gallant fight waged by the tenants of tbe barony of Shelburne, county Wexford, againßt their evicting landlords cost poor "Jim" Ryan his life. The grave of tbe sturdy Campaigner will not be left unmarked. Never in the crash of battle was a patriot life more freely yielded for Ireland than was James Ryan's. In tbe long fight in Shelburne he took a leading part. He was of the party of defenders that grappled and overturned the first battering-ram. He faced bared bayonets and stood before the levelled rifles at Somer's Fort. His fate was similar to that of John Mandeville. Prieon treatment, as applied to a Campaigner, wrecked bis constitution, and he was released only to die. The lesson of his life is well remembered by his comrades, A little fund has been raised to erect a memorial in Carragh churchyard to the memory of poor Ryan. Mr John Barry, M.P., has been invited to nnveil the monument, acd has comented to attend. It was at first proposed to hold the dimoastration in connec ioa with*" the nnveiling during the present month, but on the suggestion of Mr John Dillon the meeting is oeing arraoged for Sunday, 24th April, when several members of the Irish Party will be able to attend. A convention of delegates of the National Federation branches of the district will be held in New Rosa for the purpose of making preparation for the demonstration. A gratifying proof of the strength of Nationality in the North was afforded lately by the splendid gathering of delegates at the County Antrim Convention held at Ballymoney. There is no part of Ireland where Nationalists have had a harder battle to fight

under more discouraging circumstances than in the north-east corner of Ulster, the stronghold of Orange ascendency ; but it is doubtful if there is any part of Ireland where oor countrymen have shown a stronger devotion to the National cause and a greater willingness to help on the struggle, as far aa lies in their power. A welcome feature of the proceedings was the large number of Protestants who were present as Nationalist delegates, giving the lie by their presence and their speeches to the tramped -up falsehoods of the Coeroionis's that Home Rule would lead to the oppression of the Protestant minority. Mr T. D. Sullivan, in his able addresß, referred to the glorious result in Rossendale, in the winning of which be had so important a share. Coming from the scene of that great election contest, he was able to tear to pieces the absurd pretences now pat forward by the Coercionists that the electicn wa9 not fought on the Home Rule questicn. We are glad to find that the County Antrim Nationalists have put forward a demand for the amelioration of the labourers' condition, which certainly affords a wide enough field for reform. A new movement, which ought to be a great moral and material benefit to the masses of the people, has just been started in Ireland. It is called the "Apostleship of Cleanliness." It offers prizes to children who keep the neatest homes, and proposes to begin the work in convent, national, and primary schools, and, snbsequently, to extend its operations more widely. Charity, philanthropy, and tern, pcrance reform will suggest macy ways and means of procuring an abundance of prizes. No charity, it is pointed out, could be better applied, be more pleasing to God, more creditable to our country, or more conducive to sanitary improvement. The committee will award the prizes publicly in the schools or in some public hall. It is suggested that every convent might have a room fitted up so as to serve as a model for a poor man's room, which also serves as a kitchen. There are many good ladies who will be only too glad to aid in thiß practical plan of making homes happy, by sending, to the different schools in their districts, useful prizes to stimulate and enable little girls to make their homes clean, comfortable, and attractive for their parents and themselves. It will not surprise those who knew of the strenuous efforts of the Rev J. A. Cnllen.of Belvidere College, in the cause of temperance, to learn that he is the prime mover in this work, which must subverse in a very effective manner the larger aim of promoting sobriety among the people. It is an old saying that " cleanliness is next to godliness," and the keeping of clean, wellordered and comfortable homes would cut at the root of drink evil which, like an ill-weed, thrives apace where dirt and Bqaalor drive men from their cheerless firesides to the public-house. Judge Gibson's decision in the Landed Estates Court gives Mr Balfour's Purchase Act a deadly stab. His Lordship struck, not at the mere working of the Purchase Department, but dealt, perhaps unintentionally, a reeling blow at the Act itself. He first decided that the tenants on a County Down estate which had been sold to a speculator were mere outsiders, and thus disintitled to interfere against the wishes of mortgagees or mortgagors to upset what he declared to be a collusive and improper sale. The statutes which confer a special status on tenants when property is sold in the Landed Estates Court, Judge Gibson decided, had no application, and so far the judgment hit only at the rights of the tenantry. But incidentally reasons were given why the owner could not be expected to accept his tenants' offer under the purchase code, which we fancy neither Mrßalfournor the landlord party will eDJoy. They are that, first, a fifth of the price would remain locked up in the Land Commission, and second, that the price would be practically what that body fixed, and third, but most important of all, that the price wonld be paid, not in sovereigns, but in Mr Balfour's new Three per Cent Stock, which is iekrv par. A judicial announcement of this kind on the market value of a stock in which no dealings have taken place, for there have been no sales under the new Act, and of which the entire L 33,000,000 remain to be issued, knocks millions off its value to the landlords of Ireland, and must prove an additional tophatnper on the working of a statute which has fallen stiliborn upon the country.