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Show IRISH LEADERS HOPEFUL. j Devlin and Finerty Approve Land Bill and Expect Home Rule. Home rule for Ireland is in sight, savs James Devlin of Belfast, member of parliament par-liament for North Kilkenny. After many years of travail, of. bitterness, of dissension, dis-sension, of discontent, sometimes of darkness anj dpspair, the Irish people at ..i?lar in Am"ri,a again present a united front. They have triumphed in the passage of the land bill, which means an emancipation from landlordism, and the owning of their own homes in Ireland, Ire-land, zsow. with the prestige of one victory vic-tory to aid th?m. and with the possession posses-sion of a. compact body in parliament, holding practically the balance of power, they are preparing to concentrate their ' energies on the gaining of a government I or the people, by the people, for the people of Ireland. Mr. Dovlin arrived in Salt T.ake ves-terday, ves-terday, accompanied bv John V. Finertv, the celebrated Irish leader of Chicago. He has been spending ten months touring tour-ing the country in the interest of the L mted Irish league. "For the first time since the (lavs of I am el l. the Irish people are united." said Mr. Devlin. "They have laid a.ide all dissensions and have abandoned all parties par-ties except the United Irish league. The first great result of this harmonv is seen in the land bill which has iust been passed. I confidentlv believe that within with-in five years another result will be the passage of a law giving' self-government for Ireland. . Wyndham Tries to Coerce. "The Irish land bill was a forced concession. con-cession. Only eighteen months ago the chief secretary for Ireland. Mr. Wvnd-ham. Wvnd-ham. stated in a speech that the English Eng-lish people were tired of the Irish eiues-tion eiues-tion and they did not intend to bring about any further land legislation. In order to stamp out the I'nited Irish league he put into operation a coercion act which suspended all rights of.. trial by jury in the cases of persons charged with agrarian offenses. He destroyed the ordinary legal tribunals and set "up co- j ercion courts, with creatures appointed by the government esp?eially to convict Irish public men charged with making speeches on public question". "There was also an interdict against i the press, forbidding the use of resolutions resolu-tions passed at United Irish league meetings. meet-ings. Twenty fditors. among them a woman, were imnrisoned for not cohering coher-ing the interdictions. Public meetings were broken up by armed nolice. Members Mem-bers of parliament, for addressinc their constituents in the streets, were dracged before these specially appointed coercion ! courts and sentenced to terms of im-j im-j prisonment varying from two to six i months, and were treated as ordinary criminals. "But th" league brought about a changa. Every member of parliament sent from Ireland was elected on the Ieagu nlatform. which, in substance, declared de-clared for ownership of land by tenants and for home rule. We had eiarhty-six out of some 601 members of parliament, jail of the eigthy-six voting solidly on any ' proposition. Our sole stanelard in judsr-( judsr-( ing any question was the effect upon , IrolancT - Irish Force the Land Bill. j "We voted as we thought would do ! the most good for Ireland. Our vnt?s ! kept the present ministry fn power. They I were on the verge of defeat, and we i agreed to sustain them if they would I bring in a land bill on lhe lines we laid I down. Tliey promised, and as a result lhe present land bill was framed by j Chief Secretary Wyndham. the same man i who had sa!d a little while before he would do' nothing of th kind. He was of course assisted by the rest of the m'nistry. "The new bill nrovides a fund of SM.-' SM.-' 0K?.0rt0. to be ued to assist the tenants in buying the farms thev occupy.. Either I the tenant ard landlord agree on the , f 'cure, or the land is appraised, and thenv if desire, the government advances lhe money to the tenant at .1 per cent interest, in-terest, and also pays a bonus to the owner own-er to induce him to sell. He is not forced to give up his land, but he Is given every inducement. King Favors Home Rule. "This solves the land problem, and now c very bod v is working for self-government. King Edward is said to be favorable favor-able to home rule, and his influence. Ihouch not particularly sreat. wjH prob-ablv prob-ablv be thrown in this direction. F.ut the real power is in the solid eighty-six Irish , votes in parliament. These votes will be used wherever thev can be to the best advantage. We will support the government govern-ment if thev will eivc us the concessions we wa;t. or we will support the liberals. In this wav I believe we can soon accomplish ac-complish that end so dear to the Irish heartan Irih parliament and Irish government gov-ernment of all local affairs. The Presbyterians Presby-terians of the north and the Catholics of the south are all united for this purpose pur-pose now. and this is the only way in which we can accomplish it. "Thfre is no use in tryinc.to fight England Eng-land in actual war. There are 1S.O00 armed' men in -the IrisW constabulary alone. Then thM-e are 2t'..i imperial troop? in the garrisons, besides the militia. mi-litia. But that is not all. Now that the Boer war is over. Knrland could mass 40rVctroops and send them into Ireland, white her navies circle the island and could cut off all outside supplies. It would be a hopeless contest, no matter hotr brave the Irish mieht be. And no- i body doubts the braverv of the Irish. The Irish regiments in the British serv-1 serv-1 ice are recruited from the scum and rlff-1 rlff-1 raff of the ci't'es. The true Irishman J looks upon a fel'ow cojintrymn who en-Ilit, en-Ilit, in the English army f.nd one who i nek n po'et as 'n the same class. I" the riff-raff con Vrm some of the het troor in the p.n'h army, an idea mnv b oba'nei of what could be accomplished accom-plished if the best of the Irish took the fie!e Parliament the Battleground. "But that is not the way to accomplish our end. We are taking the right course bv united action in parliament, with the" solid support of the Irish wherever they may be. The influence of the Irish in this country upon the British government govern-ment is greater than one might think, it has had a great deal to do with the reforms re-forms alreadv accomplished." Mr Devlin was sent to this country by the I'nited Irish league as a delegate to organize the league and increase interest in ;t work. At present there are 3.(X) branches in Ireland and about 300 in this countrv. The league was conceived by William O'Brien and is an outirowth ot the Irish Land league founded by Michael lJMrUtbevbn and Mr. Finerty were met yesterday by Joseph Geoghegan. Father rl J- M"rPh'-"tt'illiam Whalen of Colorado Colo-rado Springs and other Irishmen. Thev enfoitakeP oa -drive about the city. lr ?, a.ncd at dinner at the Alta club and in the evening they held an inforni.il f.mP,tIon al llw Knutsford. The two win leave this morning for Butte, where uiey win address a mass meeting in the interest of the 'United Irish league, going thence to Anaconda. Helena, St. Paul and the east. : . Mr. DpvIIii is of the opinion that I.vnch. in.- irishman now under sentence for I reason because .he fought with the Boers, win he rf leased soon in response to public sentiment. |
