A letter signed " An Old Whig," in Wednesday's Times,
gives some quotations from the speeches of the Irish leaders, which are very significant in view of Mr. Gladstone's declara- tion that the imputation of " general untrustworthiness," on the subject of the Land Laws, is unjust to the Nationalists and unsupported by evidence. For example, on December 7th, 1886, at a meeting of the Central League, Mr. Healy is reported to have said :—" For my part, when I hear the ques- tion of morality discussed in anything that concerns the landlord faction, I have only to say that the morality of any means of putting them down would concern me very little." On January 3rd, 1887, Mr. Dillon is reported to have said at Gorey :—" The soil of Ireland was the property of the children of Ireland, and not the property of the contemptible, rack- renting, intolerant, ascendency landlords, whose fathers had robbed it from their fathers and from whom they would now take it." On the same day, Mr. Arthur O'Connor is said to have laid down the following doctrine at Knockagarry :— " Rent is not a moral obligation ; it is an enforced tribute which is, leviable from the people, extracted from them by what is known as law, but which is really nothing more than robbery." Now, such sentiments may or may not be justi- fiable; but, unquestionably, they do not promise well for those whose property is in Irish land.
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