12 FEBRUARY 1881, Page 3

The difference between an Irish Land Leaguer and a Nation-

alist is well marked in an address which Mr. P. J. Smyth has sent to his electors in Ireland. He declares the present agi- tation to be " the most unpatriotic and anti-national ever placed before the Irish people." He cannot conceive " a sadder :spectacle than a people clamouring for a thing in which they do not believe, or know to be hopelessly unattainable." " How different would be our position today if, instead of the absurdity of compulsory expropriation, a rational, a patriotic, and attainable scheme of land reform had been placed before the country The agitation would have been stronger in all the elements of real strength,—justice, right, and reason ; there -would have been no disruption of society, no socialism, no up- rising of one class of Irishmen against another, no civil war, and before Easter Sunday wo would in all probability be in possession of a strong Laud Act, without the compamionment 'of a strong Coercion Act." There are more pluck and sense in thossrold Nationalists than any of the modern school.