IRISH SELF-RELIANCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 48, 30 March 1894, Page 26

IRISH SELF-RELIANCE.

The Home Rule Bulletin, the organ of tbe Irish National Federation of America, in an article beaded " Irish Self-Rsliance," says : - It is often as6erted that the agricultural classes iv Ireland are, generally speaking, a selfish community. Peop'e who make iuch accusations do soon very slender grounds. They belong to the order of reasoners who think the logic of facts unne-en-arv wher« a sweepins assertion has to be made and disproof ii not eaßy. We believe it to be a cruel and gratuitous libel on a great aid warm-hearted people. The agricultural population of Ireland is the bulk of the population. They constitute fully three-fourths, if not mire, of the wholp. Without much exaggeration they may bi spoken of as the whole people. Those who fling this groundless slander at tbem practically attempt what Edmund Burke declared to be an impossibility They try to indict a whole nation. It is the agricultural population of Ireland who have alwayß furnished the bulk of tbe sinews of war for all the political movements in the country, during the present century at least, and they often did so io periods of great distress to their clas9. The mode in which they are new springing to the support of their evicted brethren, in response to the appeal recently made affords a striking oroof that their generosity is not an ephemeral or fickle attribute. They have not wearied out with iteration. Yea r after j ear they have been called upon to put their hands in their pockets for the same object, and th9y bave invarubly done bo not only without gmmblinp or hesitation, but with cheerfulness and whole-hearted cordiality. The evicted have no sham* in accepting such help. It was for a causa that they suffered, and they have an irresistible claim upon the support of their class everywhere in Ireland . Very gratifying it is to peruse the la'est reports regarding the progress of the fund in Ireland. Everywhere there is activity and emulation. Many individuals are giving generously ; in almost every pariah tbe collections of tbe humbler classes go to swell tbe general chest. Before this sheet goes to press the printed lists give reason to believe that tbe total up to Jate will amount up to, if not exceed, fifteen thousand dollars. Looking over the lists of subscriptions, it cannot fail to strike the reader that even the poorest parishes in Ireland— namely, those in some portions of Connaught, are making noble efforts to put themselves in evidence. Soma portions of Ulster, too— notably parishes in Donegal— conspicuous always for their poverty— are bravely struggling to do their duty. Regarding Ulster, the state of thiogs is in some quarters rather paradoxical. We find, for ios'ance, the Ballymena Board of Poor Law Guardians passing resolutions and entering into correspondence with Lord Bipon and Mr John Dillon, M.P , with a view to putting a stop to evictions. Ballymena is the centre of a strongly antiNational distric', «nd we are safe in assuming that the Poor Law Board there it fairly representative of this element among the Ul6ter farmers. This class w»s remarkable for consistent opposition to Home Rule and the land agitation during all the years of twin struggle, ytt there were none more eager to take advantage of the benefits which the popular party by degrees wrung from the landlord Legislature than those very men. They send bitter anti-Nationalists to Parliament ; yet it is to the popular leaders they now turn for relief from buco landlord injustice as they s ill suffer from. We do no 1 find that they contribute anything, as a clipp, towards the sustentation of their fellow-farmers in the south and wost who adopted a more manly attitude in the land struggle. This inconsistent conduct is brought h >me to them very pointedly in a letter from Mr John Dillon in reply to a recent resolution of theirs on the subject of lessening eviction*. To contioue to send men to Parliament whose constant effort it i% to thwart the Nationalist members' endeavours to diminish the landlords' powers of eviction, and then cry out for help to the popular party, ie, indeed, as he reminds them, a little anomalous. Protestant Ulster and Presbyterian Uls'er is being constantly held up before the world by Unionist showmen as tbe one redeeming ■pot in a demoralised Ulaod. If it were consistently anti-National, one might admire it for mistaken fidelity to principle. There is a good deal of the canny Scot about this portion of Ulster, we see however ; and this is a quality which does not commend itself to many outride tbe ranks of camp followers who roam the field when the battle is over in search of booty. Here in America there are some who pride themselves on being what they call Scotch-Irish. We commend this little peculiarity of there confreres in Ireland to their earnest attention. Meantime, to the deecendents of those who in other years were driven out of Ireland by landlord oppression, we commend the example of the more generous-heatted tillers of the soil who still fight Ireland's battle. It is inspiriting to find so true a spirit still animating those at home, showing as it doe<» that the pristine virtues of courage and camaraderie flourish undiminißhed among our f nthfpl people.