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Show 1 1 McCarthy on Ireland j I Putin- tbe past quarter of a een- I 7nry what a distance we have trav- j 4r?'( in Ireland! Just before that I lime seemed to have fallen into a period of something like stagnation ! ir reaction in the national condition ' r Ireland, so far as the political and : industrial interests of the country i vere concerned. Gladstone's Land I , Bill of 1" appeared to have been the last word that British legislation was inclined to pronounce for the settle- i ment of the whole Irish land question, jj That measure had just done enough to open the right path for a settlement, ! init according to the general view of f what was regarded as English opin- ion. the path only brought us to the ; dge of a precipice, down which cautious cau-tious and timid legislators did not venture even to look. Now, even in England, it is generally admitted that I the path only brought us within sight f of the hill, which is to be safely f mounted in order to reach the level ! I and expansive ground of Ireland's ! I agricultural development and prosper- f 1 ity. Then at last the whole national i I feeling of the country I mean,, of j course, the whole national feeling of Ireland was roused for the first time, ? to the conviction that Ireland and her people must act for themselves if the nation were ever to be made self-sup-; i porting and prosperous. The appeal f was made to Ireland, and Ireland made splendid answer to that appeal. The b f heart of the country was stirred, and IJ the Irish people were taught to think and act for themselves, and to con- vince their legislators that the houses ' of parliament must take counsel from ! Ireland as a nation, or must make up their minds to enter on a period of revolution. By the influence of the 4 ' Land League and its leaders the whole mass of the Irish population was 4 hrought to act as one man and with 4 I one spirit. 4 The Irish people had had since the ; "Union no adequate representation in 4 I ' the House of Commons, and virtually 4 no representation whatever in the 4 ; Rouse of Lords. Even Gladstone him-4 him-4 ! self did not for a while understand 4 ; how utterly inadequate was the Irish 4 ! representation in the House of Com-4 Com-4 j xnons to express the will of the Irish 4 ? people. This I know to be the fact; for Gladstone himself once told me that he did not see how it was that while a very small number of Irish -1 members in the House of Commons professed to speak for the Irish people, t; the immense majority of Irish members elected on the very same franchise declared that they alone - had authority to announce the will of Ireland, and that Ireland wanted none f the radical reforms In political and industrial life for which some half a r dozen Irishmen in parliament were : Pertinaciously calling. Gladstone, it need hardly be said, only wanted to learn the truth, and he was not long in discovering that the franchise as it ; thpc existed gave no opportunity to the Irish people to make known heir views through the representative chamber. There came, therefore, as j the natural result the introduction of . j hat lowered franchise, which at once j rave the parliamentary representation ' I of Ireland into the hands -cf men whom I Ireland accepted and recognized as 1 he pyrin:. ents of her national claims. : j t'P to that time the cause of' Ireland : j cniy i y a formal motion brought on - I verj- ssion for Home Rule, and anther an-ther motion introduced after the ; ?ame fashion for the establishment of f y Prirciple of Tenant Right for Ires' Ire-s' 'and. narh of these motions was the I suhjPft flf a formal and merely cere-menial cere-menial debate on the question in-I in-I Tniypfi. and then a division was taken ""hic-h ended, of course, in an immense majority against the Irish demand, nd the subject was quietly allowed to drop until the next session gave opportunity op-portunity for a repetition of the same mane performance. Those were the fevs whrn "the three F's," represent-'n5 represent-'n5 fairy of tenure, fair rents, and wo salo, -Rore comonly regarded even , 1 v advpneed British Radicals as the ; 1 'u1' fyrrbols of all that was needed ; jr the ( (,mpPte settlement of the ; .!r'ch Land Question. 1 Then there came the days of the pr'ify commonly described by its on-; on-; ! Dor.rntc af; that of Parliamentary Ob-ruftior;. Ob-ruftior;. The genius of Charles ? : ' '' - Parncll first discovered and applied this new and Indomitable l)0"oe ,n its proper destination. Isaac t had led for a long time the Knle party in the House of j J:."0':?. But Isaac Butt had never -rr.p.. ;f..j ;3t anythingcould be done 1or l"e!.ir:d by so active and so original I a Policy. j0 -as a sinCere lover of hi " - -.try and sympathized fully ' f r just claims, but he was es-t es-t 'he advocate of strictly con- r ::1 , ; a1 proceedings in the House of ! f-ns. He had a profound respect r ;h- ways and forms of the House, aii 1j" did not understand that the M f Inland's claims had utterly u'2!v.vn these antiquated forms, that j ' the case was desperate, and that there was no choice left but that between parliamentary and national revolution Parnell's was that the House of Commons Com-mons must be compelled to listen to the claims of Ireland, and that such compulsion could only come from the policy of obstruction. The whole principle prin-ciple of his action was embodied in the declaration that, if the House of Commons would not pay adequate attention at-tention to the vital business of Ireland it should not for the present be allowed al-lowed to attend to any other business whatever. The situation was like that illustrated in a poem written by an Irishman, which tells of the widowed woman, who flung herself down on the ground before the Roman Emperor's Em-peror's charger and declared that if he would not listen to her prayers for the hearing of the grievances of her and hers, she would with her own weak frame bar his progress, and he must either hear her story or trample her to death. We can all remember how Parnell and his seven or eight followers carried out that policy of obstruction for session after session m spue or every effort, legal or extra-legal, which could be brought to bear against them. By this policy, and by none other, was brought about that reduction of the franchise which put Parnell at the head of a large majority ma-jority among the representatives of Ireland. It must ever be among the brightest memories of my life that I had for many years the opportunity of serving serv-ing under Parnell in the maintenance of his wise and successful policy. It is a pleasure to me also to remember that there were at least a few independent inde-pendent and enlightened Britsh representatives, repre-sentatives, who acted generously and faithfully with Parnell's party in his endeavors to secure a hearing for the national voice of Ireland. One of these English members is now again in the House of Commons, after an absence of some years Sir Wilfrid Lawson. Another is Henry Labouchere, who has held his seat without interruption in the house. Then there came troubles trou-bles to the Irish party into which it is not necessary to enter now, for they were but short-lived, and Ireland has once again a thoroughly united and national party, under a leader who holds the full confidence of the Irish people. In the meantime, and after a period of terrible trouble, often com-iDg com-iDg to the verge of civil war and during dur-ing which the whole constitutional system of Ireland was supplanted by a brutal despotism, the center of which was in Dublin Castle, the Land League has been converted into a splendidly organized national body, representing in all its details the intelligence, in-telligence, the patriotism and the just demands of the Irish people. Under the influence of this organization the old and disastrous differences between Ulster and the other Irish provinces on the great question of Irish Land Tenure have disappeared, and Mr. T. W. Russell, once the representative of Ulster Unionism, now stands side by side on the Land Question with John Dillon and William O'Brien. The direct di-rect and immediate result of this new condition of things is the Land Bill so lately introduced by a Conservative administration. That measure at the time when I am writing this article is still on its way through the House of Commons, but whatever may be its fate in parliament, the very fact that it has been brought in and by a Conservative Con-servative government, Is enough to show that the Irish Land Tenure Question has come wtihin sight of a full and final settlement. For the first time in he modern history of our island we have had the representatives representa-tives of the landlord class ana the tenant ten-ant class coming to a full agreement as to the basis or a settlement, and we have had a Conservative government govern-ment accepting those terms as the conditions of a legislative measure. "Veigia nulla retrorsum," when that point has been reached. Even a greater evidence of Ireland's progress is to be seen in the fact that we have now the whole nation thoroughly thor-oughly and adequately represented In its own national consulting body. The Dublin convention was an Irish parliament par-liament elected by Irishmen discussing discuss-ing the measures best adapted for Irealnd's welfare, listening attentively and considerately to every difference of opinion, and coming to a final and definite agreement The Dublin convention con-vention was the most important event in the history of our national progress. Even the Tory newspapers most perniciously per-niciously opposed to Ireland's claims have recognized the forbearance, the perfect order, and the willingness to hear every individual opinion which marked the whole of these debates, and the complete sincerity of the decisions de-cisions which were adopted. There, then, we have the authorized demand of the Irish people proclaimed in clear and commanding tones. The English government,- whether it be Liberal of Tory, which fails to recognize the authority au-thority of that proclamation must know that it has to deal not with any mere political organization, but with the embodied resolve of the Irish race at home and abroad. Thus for the first time united Ireland stands up and presents her demands to the imperial parliament. This is the New Ireland which will henceforth have to be dealt with by the imperial government. The spirits of Grattan, of O'Connell, and of Parnell might well he invoked to men who love their country, who know her wants, are prepared to realize her sanctify that genuine union of Irish-aspirations, Irish-aspirations, and have faith in her progress. All this has been done for us withn the past quarter of a century cen-tury these are our gains. I am now but a mere observer of the Irish National Na-tional movement, and perhaps for that very reason am the better able to judge from my remote and secluded position the actual import -of these great changes which have lately taken place in our national conditions. Surveying Sur-veying the prospect in all its propor tions and its lights, I am proud to be able to express my absolute conviction convic-tion that the New Ireland has arisen, and that our dearest national hopes are on the eve of consummation. It is well for those Irishmen who have lived to see the coming of such a day. New Ireland. |
