THE IRISH AT HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 35, 10 February 1909, Page 6

THE IRISH AT HOME.

REASONS ' FOB DISOOHTEHT. IMPBESBIOHB OF A. NEW ZEALAND VISITOR. (Br REV. PREDERICK STUBBS.) (Specially written for the "Auckland Star.") DUBLIN, December 11, 1908. I have met the Irishman in many lands, in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the islands of the South Pacific, but, although born but a few hundred miles from Dublin, I have never before had the privilege of seeing-him in his own country. Essentially, he is, of course, the same here aa elsewhere, and yet there is a difference, and the advantage lies on the side of "elsewhere." In the colonies he is humorous, goodnatured, industrious, fairly prosperous, and contented;, in the "Ould Counthree" he is a> humorous as ever, but he is certainly not contented, does not prosper as in other lands, is not as industrious, and is filled with a bitterness towards England and things English that mars his own happiness, makes the task of government very difficult and leads to much violence and disorder. At the'present time violence and defiance of the law are of almost daily occurrence.' I do not take my information from the English newspapers, which are accused of wilful exaggeration, but from the Irish papers themselves, which almost every day contain accounts of cattle-driving, shootings and conflicts with the police. I do not propose to burden your columns with detailed reports. These may be seen by ■anyone sufficiently interested in the Eng« 'ish and Irish newspapers, and no doubt ome of the more serious conflicts have ppeared in your own cablegrams. And '.he worst of it is, the lawbreaker in Ireland can nearly always depend upon the ympathy of the people, especially when h-e assault is made upon the person, family or property of a-landlord. This makes the production of evidence very difficult, and conviction by a jury almost impossible. Jurors are intimidated, judges and nagistrates threatened, and car-drivers tnd storekeepers who in any way assist the course of justice, boycotted. Out of 172 recent agrarian outrages (exclusive if cattle-driving) only five persons could lie amenable, and for 349 cases of inali•ioua injury only 30 persons could be .tought to account. As for cattle-driv-iig cases, it is almost comic to find thai ■ at. of 351 prosecutions, 350 failed to ecure convictions, and in 104 cases oi boycotting, -there was no prosecution at ill. There is one feature in the present cries oi outrages that is cheering, how> ■ver, and that, is the decline of cattlenaiming, though no doubt a certain mount of mute suffering is involved in attle-driving. The shooting of a landord in past days frequently had some, ustification, or, at least,- alleviating clrumstances, but the cutting of cows' ud!ers and tails and the houghing of horses iave always appeared to mc to be with>ut excuse. These, poor animals, at all ■vqnts, were never guilty of owning land, •r oppressing a tenant, and I earnestly ope that the Irish leaders will see the rightful cruelty and injustice of such utrages, and do their utmost to prevent ieir occurrence in the future. . A VARIETY OF GRIEVANCES.

But leaving on one side the agrarian difficulty -with which I hope to deal in a future article, no one can visit Ireland without becoming aware of widespread discontent. The Protestants denounce the English Government because of what they regard as weak concessions to the Roman Catholics; the landlords, because no adequate protection is given to property; the Nationalists hate.the Government simply because it is predominantly English, and clamour for Home Rule, and the avowed object of the Irish party is to make the government of Ireland' by England impossible. Let there be no' mistake about this. The agrarian difficulty may, and I think will, be eventually solved, but this will not settle the Irish question. At least three millions of the four and a quarter millions in Ireland are determined to have Home Rule, and the great majority of the Irish members are pledged to. this. The "inextinguishable hate" for England of which Mr. Sexton once spoke still exists. When Mr. Healy declared in the House of Commons that he was in favour of anything against the English Government he did not speak for himself alone; lie but voiced the predominant sentiment of the Irish people. BLAMING THE GOVERNMENT. It is not justifiable, but it is unfortunately the fact, that the Irish peasants are ready to blame the Government for all their troubles. Even a, failure, of the potato crop or a season of bad trade will in some way or other be attributed to the British connection. They are more interested in politics than in the development of their industries. It is to the politician, not to their own industry and thrift, they look for an improvement in their lot. There is too much talking and too little doing.- The "Sinn Fein" organisation lately attempted a universal 'boycott of "foreign" goods, as though that would help them, and I have heard even educated Irishmen advo. cate a 'heavy duty on British manufactures, oblivious of the fact that Great Britain is Ireland's best customer, and could, and certainly would, retaliate. No, Ireland's salvation is not to be found in a general boycott, but in just laws, unflinchingly administered; in the increase of sobriety and industry; in a consequent lessening of political agitation; and, finally, in the deflection of the national energies from politics to the development of the national resources. At present, Ireland, with its 4| millions of people, mostly poor,'spends over £14,000,000—about £15 per annum per family—upon intoxicating liquors, an amount, it may safely be said, far beyond what ehe can afford; and the amount of time and energy and money at present spent— rightly or wrongly—in political agitation, if otherwise employed, would undoubtedly suffice to materially increase the national wealth. WHO IS TO BLAME! In writing above, I have endeavoured I to give the'reader a fair and accurate impression of Irish discontent, and of the disorders that flow from it. But it must not be thought that the blame rests entirely with the Irish people. English misgovemment must bear a large, and, in my opinion, the larger share of the responsibility. Seven "centuries of "helotism" and brutal oppression cannot but have acted for ill on the character of the people. For centuries Ireland was harried by English troops, and cursed by internal strife. The misery of the people was almost indescribable. Here is a picture of what they endured in the days of Elizabeth, It is given by the poet Spenser, who was an eye-witness of ; what' he'relates. Hie testimony is the"m6>9. reliable inasmuch as he was himself a bitter, engejr mi the Celte, ".Oat of every

corner of tho woods., and. g\ ynnee they came creeping forth: upon their hands, for their legges could not kare thetn; they looked like anatomies of death; they spake -like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eat the dead car* rione, Hippy- where they "could find them, etc" And this picture was paralleled in the days of Cromwell. "In the years 1652 and 1653 a men might travel 20 or 30 miles and not see a living creature. • . . i They (this Irisih)■ Were seen to pluck stinking carrion out of a ditch, "black and rotten; and were said to have. even taken corpses out , of: th* grave to eat/ (Prendergastfs Oromwflllifta Settlement, p. 140 i): : UNJUST PENAL ENACTMENTS. This state of things existed before Protestantism was established in Ireland, and therefore the Protestant Church cannot be blamed for it, but it must be confessed *he Protestant Church did little to improve matters. After the establishment ot Protestantism, the rights and feelings of the people -were outraged by all sorts of penal enactments. In the ■time pf Charles 11. an Ordinance" was passed forbidding any Roman Catholic to buy or barter anything in the : publio markets. The Act of Uniformity required the Roman Catholics to go to a Prqtestanib Church; and fines were imposed for non-attendance. A Roman Catholic could not own property. The Protestant Episcopal Church was' the Church of a small, well-to-do minority, the Church of 100,000 ou.t of 6,000,000 people, and yet the TRoman, Catholic majority were compelled to support it. Tithes were collected at the point, of the bayonet. Is it. any wonder that the Irish people oame to hate the Protestant faith, and the Protestant nation that sought to impose itb upon them? Then' came the establishment of an Irish Parliament, and I do not think it can be denied that during the existence of that Parliament the condition of Ireland immensely improved. There was still the burden of an alien Church; there still existed unjust and oppressive laws; but there was a vast improvement. In the 18th century, Ireland was intellectually, alive; produced orators, statesmen, writers, of her own. The great peers and commoners cast in their lot with the national: life; had their castles and .mansions.,in the country, and their town houses (most of which still remain, but occupied by the. poor) in Dublin. They were possessed by a sense of responsibility, and for the most part lived in the country from which they derived their revenue*. EFFECTS OF THE UNION. But the union, which, whether justifiable or not on political grounds, was certainly brought about by wholesale bribery and corruption, changed all this. The centre of government was transferred to England. The Irish gentry passed most of their time in London. The landlords no longer resided on their estates among their tenants, but entrusted tho management to agents and middlemen whose interest it became to screw every possible penny out of the unfortunate tenant. Is it surprising that as a consequence of this neglect and oppression the most frightful poverty and discontent ensued? Even to-day, in many parts of Ireland, the home of the peasant is represented by four walls of mud, a. roof of turf, a, hole in the roof to let the smoke out, and within, humans, pigs, cows, poultry—-*ll littered together. The Royal Commission of 1835 showed that for 30 weeks of every year 2,386,000 people lived -on the verge of starvation. Their habitations, as I have said, were wretched hovels; they were unprovided with the commonest, necessaries of life; their food frequently nothing but dry potatoes; they slept upon the straw; or sod, sometimes with a blanket, and sometimes with not even that to cover- them. They frequently had but one poor meal a day, and their average earnings were two shillings to shillings 'and- sispence per week. In the entire world there was probably no people subjected to sucliiphysical privation as. the Irish. Then in 1847 came : the. great famine. Ireland unfortunately had come to rely for the subsistence of the masses upon one single root—the potato. Already there had been repeated partial failures of the crop, but in 1847' the failure was utter. Relief was voted by Parliament; funds were raised; but nil attempts at relief proved entirely Inadequate. Tens of thousands perished; men, women, and children- -were atarved to death. Those thai survived sought refuge In America, and between'-1861 and 1900 nearly four millions emigrated. In a single decade 1,500,000 crossed the seas, and to-day the population is but half -what it was 60 years ago. •WRONGS THAT TTFUT, SLOWLY. And so I say that it is no wonder that sullen discontent and bitternees prevail, True, most of Ireland's injustices have ■been removed, apd. the Church of the minority has been disestablished. As I shall show, in my next article, Ireland has now the most liberal land system In the world. But you cannot expect the results-of'centuries of misery and misgovernment to vanish in c. moment, i And tto make matters worse, instead of : steady, resolute, just government, Ireland, foajj been made the shuttlecock* ot political parties, alternately .flattered and flouted, ai party exigencies might re. quire. The ebjee* ef the English, Govern* ment has too often been to make sure ef their majority rattier tliaa te eaferce law and order, and punish outrage and oppression whether oemmitted by land. lord or tenant { and support fcae been purchased -by Advancing to Irish offices men who eafcirejy unfitted for them.

So much for the causes of Irish discontent. These causes are being steadily Temoved; most of them have been removed already but they are more than sufficient to account for the present lamentable etate of things. The land question, which lies at the root of so much of the mischief, is too large a matter to be dealt, wlih here, and will require an article to itself.