THE STATE OF IRELAND.
WE have many grounds of quarrel with the present Government. They have plunged the finances of the country into a disorder without parallel in the past twenty years, instead of relieving the taxpayer, as they might have done, from a portion of the burden of taxation Which he now bears. [We know, of course, that they boast that they have taken off the Coal-tax and a portion of the Sugar-tax ; but what is the use of taking off four or five millions of taxation with one hand and adding fifteen or twenty millions of new taxation with' the other, as they will have tO do' this year if they pay their way?] Again, they have been "digging," as M. Yves Guyot, the well-known French Free-trader, tells us, "the grave of Free-trade," though they were entrusted by the country with the imperative duty of keeping it alive. They have placed the Trade-Unions above the law, with consequences which may yet prove disastrous. They have restricted the hours of labour, and interfered, in the spirit of Protection, with a full-grown man's right to sell his labour on his own terms, and to make his own conditions as to the time he, shall work,—and this in an industry where it cannot possibly be alleged that the worker is too weak to protect himself. They have raised a grave Constitutional question by their agitation against the Lords, and yet made no serious attempt to settle the problem on sound lines. Worse, however, even than their betrayal of Free-trade, their inauguration of Socialistic Protection, and their financial profligacy is the condition to which they have . reduced Ireland. Unable to grant the demands of the Nationalists by legislation, and unable, remember, not, because of the House of Lords, but because those demands were too exorbitant, they have attempted to conciliate their allies through administrative methods,—a policy which means, in effect, allowing lawlessness and terrorism to rule in Ireland. We do not hesitate to aLty that at this moment the Irish population suffer from no grievances, political or social, which it is in the power of Governments, to allay. There is no Government oppression, no class oppression, no religious oppression in Ireland, unless it is an oppression not to be allowed to seize your neighbour's goods, or to shoot him down like a dog if you do not agree with his views as to land tenure, or if he is unwilling to abandon his property at the commands of outsiders. Yet, though Ireland has suffered since the present Govern- ment came into power neither from famine nor from any other condition which might to some extent excuse or explain an outbreak of lawlessness, the country under the present regime has been steadily drifting from peace to anarchy.
How bad is the present condition of things may be gathered from a speech made by Mr. S. H. Butcher at Oxford, and reported in last Saturday's papers. Mr. Butcher is no Orange firebrand, but a man of moderation and good sense, who weighs his words and who is sincerely anxious for the welfare of Ireland. He represents, not an Irish loyalist constituency, but the University of Cam- bridge, and therefore it is impossible to suggest thii,t he has been inflamed by the promptings of Irish landlords or of "Ulster fanatics" to whom he owes his seat and whose bidding he must do. Yet this is what he tells us as to the present state of Ireland. "In 1907 the number of cattle-drives was 390; in 1908 it was 1,051, and legal proceedings were only taken in 162 cases." We are too apt in dealing with criminal statistics to think of certain crimes as if they were evil natural phenomena like earth- quakes, which cannot be avoided, and must therefore be endured. Let our readers remember, however, what cattle- drives really are. They are not fierce outbreaks of retalia- tion for some eviction or "act of feudal tyranny," or even incidents in a struggle in which it can be suggested that there are faults on both sides. Cattle-drives are efforts to make a particular Irish industry impossible, and to drive out one set of occupiers of the land. and to put another in their place. Sometimes the object of the new land-grabbers is to convert pasture into arable. Occasionally it takes the cruder form of A, B, and C considering that they are better entitled to graze cattle on particular lands' than those who are at present in lawful occupation of them. Never, indeed, have lawlessness and rapine had less excuse than in the case of cattle-driving, and never have they been more injurious to the welfare of Ireland as a whole. Here is a purely Irish industry, and one which is beneficial in a high degree, not only to the individuals who are engaged in it, but to thousands of Irishmen throughout the island, which is being ruined because the British Government have not the honesty or the nerve to carry out the fundamental maxim of civil adminis- tration,—to protect all men in the exercise of their just rights. But unfortunately cattle-driving is not the only evil from which Ireland is suffering. The records of even more serious crimes are most alarming. The total number of cases of firing at the person and into dwellings, which was only twelve in 1906, rose tolorty-nine in 1907 and to a hundred and. twenty-one in 1908. Think what these facts moan in a country with a population of under five millions, and, remember that no one can suggest that these reports are in any way "cooked," or have doubtful or trivial offences included in them, in order to make out a case for coercion, as was often alleged by the Nationalists to have been done under a Unionist Government. If any influence has been at work on the statistics, it has been entirely against including trivial offences. It would be easy enough to give further facts and figures in regard to lawlessness in Ireland, but those we have named are sufficient. Something, however, must be said in detail upon the Craughwell murder, since it is unfortunately typical of what is going on in Ireland just now. Note that this murder cannot be condoned on the ground that a rapacious landlord or his agent fell a victim to the sense of injury and indignation bred by a cruel and callous enforcement of the rights of property. The murder has no such exouse, but has arisen from the exercise of predatory instincts such as exist in all com- munities. The constable was murdered because Iriehmen have been taught to believe that if a crime can be ticketed " Agrarian " it is not to be regarded as a crime and that punishment will not be the result. In case our readers do not remember the details of the crime, we will set them forth as they are described in the Irish Times of January 25th in an interview with Mrs. Ryan, the occupier of the farm at Craughwell. We may preface our quotation, however, by stating that in order to intimidate two men who were builaing a wall on a boycotted farm, two men in ambush shot at them. The men building the wall were protected by an armed policeman, and this policeman, when the shots were fired, pursued the criminals and was shot dead by them. The population of the district remained passive spectators of the hunt for the murderers, and when the murdered constable's funeral took place it was boycotted by the people, and the black flag was hoisted as a menace to those who might show sympathy with the murdered man :— " The representative of the Irish TirlOs had an interview with Mrs. Ryan, the owner of the boycotted farm. She lives in a comfortable thatched house in the village of Craughwell. At the time I called upon her there were five policemen armed with loaded rifles on duty close to her door. She seemed deeply affected by the dreadful tragedy which had just happened, and she spoke in 4 manner which suggested a highly strung tempera- ment. She was quite willing to impart any information which she possessed, and though at times while narrating her melancholy story she burst into tears, she gave me very plainly to understand that she would not surrender to terrorism in the smallest degree, and that she was prepared to fight unflinchingly for her rights no matter what new danger threatened.
She had been in America with her himband, she said, and had returned to Craughwell, her native district, about nine years ago, bringing with her some hundreds of pounds. When she came home the farm which she now held in Templemartin, and which was about ten acres in extent, was in the hands of a caretaker named Gilligan, a remote relative of her own. Gilligan had been previously evicted from the farm, and would not be reinstated as a tenant. She had been told that if she gave him some compensa- tion the United Irish League would withdraw the boycott and allow her tp enter peaceably into possession. She afterwards came tp terms with Gilligan, and she went to Sligo, where, by appoint- ment, she met two members of Parliament, who drafted a docn- remit, whioh both she and Gilligan signed, and whereby she purchased his 'claim' from him for 420. The branches of the United Irish League at Loughrea and Craughwell confirmed the negotiations, and she was then satisfied that no difficulties would be put in her way.
The arrangement, however, did not suit a local faction, who wanted the farm for division amongst themselves, and a decree went forth that she must be boycotted if she did not at once surrender her rights. She would not surrender in view of the fact that she had paid away 420, and had been accepted by Mr. Shaw Timer, Lord Clanrioarde's agent, as the rightful tenant, at a rent of £1 a year. She purchased certain stock, which she placed on the farm, and she made arrangements for opening s provision shop in the town. In view, however, of ahnost universal hostility shown towards her, she never started the shop. She thought the farm would require all her energies. The boycott continued, though not vigorously, for some time, but nevertheless he had been able to get provisions, and to make fairly satisfactory progrees.
A couple of years ago matters got worse. Her home was fired into about that time, and a little later she herself was fired at at the Craughwell railway station. She was not hurt, but several grains of shot were found in her dress. Her friends and relations who came to call on her rendered themselves unpopular, and a first cousin of hers who had been a constant visitor was fired at. Then she told her friends not to come to her any more. About two years age the fences and walls ourronnding her farm were pulled down and she received £10 compensation for the injury done. She tried to get Workmen to rebuild the walls, but in vain, and having wasted all this time it oecurred to her to apply to Mr. Shaw Toner for workmen. The agent on hearing from her sent Coady and Malone to do the work, and on the fourth day of their operations the murder was committed.
Mrs. Ryan quite broke down at this stage of her statement. Then she spoke rather excitedly, and with a good deal of gesture. 'Is not it dreadful P ' she said. 'What an awful position. Here are my two children,' and she pointed to a rather pretty girl of about eighteen years of age, who seemed to possess something of her mother's determination, and a pale-faced boy several years younger, who hung his head and sobbed from time to time. Nobody,' Mrs. li,yan continued, will speak to my children except the policeman. Why, the very postboy who delivers letters here won't exchange a word with my lad.'" We print elsewhere a letter from a correspondent who contrasts the public feeling occasioned by the murder of a policeman in London and that of a policeman in Ireland. Nothing can undo a murder once done, but we sincerely hope that sympathy with the murdered man's, family, and. detestation of the crime, may be expressed throughout England and Scotland, and that it may be shown in the subscription which Lady Fitzgerald, the wife of the Knight of Kerry, is collecting,—a subscription to which the Daily Express has been calling attention daily in its columns. If any of our readers care to entrust us with subscriptions for the murdered man's family, we shall be mast glad to forward them to the proper quarter. Any subscriptions sent will be acknowledged in our columns. As we have said, money can make little amends to the murdered man's family, but at any rate it is well that the policemen of Ireland should know that if they fall in the discharge of their duty they will not fall unhououred, and. that those who are dear to them, and dependent on them, will not be allowed to suffer, but will be generously treated.
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