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LETTER FROM JOHN MARTIN
Hrooklyn, March Iff JB7O.
To The Editor of the Irish Citizen:
Dear Sir —The recent news from
Ireland by mail arid telegraph indicates
a continual advance of the national
cause. The Irish population in many
ways shows itself more and more fixed in
its determination never to consent
to the English usurpation, however
overwhelming for the time may be the
the force of the usurpers and however
small the means at Ireland’s command
for resistance. The desire for liish self
government spreads and strengthens
among all classes and sects in Ireland.
Upon the other side the English Govern
ment and Parliament, which some time
ago proclaimed and protested, calling all
the world to witness that now, at lust.
England repented other cruel misdeeds
towards the Irish people, and resolved
henceforth to do justice and to let Ire
land be ruled as a free couutry in accord
with Irish ideas—the English Govern
ment and Parliament find themselves
unable to keep on the mask of constitu
tional rule any longer, and are obliged
to appear before the world in their true
character as rulers in Ireland by force
alone.
The elections lately field in Tipperary
County and Waterford City show how
strongly the national sentiment and hope
are reviving among the class of Irishmen
whom England permits to vete for Par
liamentary representatives. Nationalist
without money to pay the expenses of a
on test- and without patronage to
influence votes in their favor, have
in both places been supported not
only by the enthusiastic sympathy of
the general population, but by the votes
of almost a majority of the voters who
came to the poll. Voters for the nation
al candidates had to bear their own ex
penses, bad to face the danger of damage
and perhaps ruin to their personal in
terests, had to resist the solicitations of
Priests (who still trusted to Gladstone’s
promises of good measures for Ireland)
had to vote in presence of the police and
military forces of the Government
against which they were voting. In the
present temper of Ireland, I think that if
a general election were to be held by
ballot, even with the carefully restricted
and arranged constituencies which Eng
lish rule permits in order to keep up the
pretence of a constitution, a large ma
jority of national representatives would
bo returned.
The new English Land Bill for Ire
land was introduced by a speech of Mr.
Gladstone in the English Parliament ac
knowledging, with surprising frankness,
the cruel efleets of English rule upon
the condition of the Irish peasantry up
till now, but describing the new measure
as one framed with the most benevolent
intentions, and calculated to establish
just and happy relations between Irish
landlords and tenants for the future It is
possible that this minister siucercly intends
to remedy the most glaring of the evils
which the rule of his country has pro
duced in the condition of the people of
Ireland, and especially those which pre
vail in the relations of landlords and
tenants. He surely desires to lessen the
disaffection which is si great a trouble
to the English power and so great a dis
grace to the English national reputation.
And he probably desires to lessen the
the emigration, deeming Irishmen at
home in Ireland less dangerous to Eng
lish rule than they become by removing
to the United Stat s But, if we jrive
Mr. Gladstone credit, for sincerity in his
remedial policy for Ireland. Ido not see
how any reasonable person can refuse to
agree with nationalists like myself who
hold that it is impossible for the English
Parliament to make good laws for Ire
land. Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright,
tail, like all English statesmen before
them, because they attempt an impos
sibility—as great an impossibility as
that one man’s heart should circulate the
blood through another man’s body. Mr.
Gladstone himself took pains to show how
every one of the great measures passed
by the English Parliament ior the last
forty years, with the purpose ot justice
and amelioration in Ireland, had proved
a failure and had inflicted new suffering
upon the Irish people. To annul and
abolish an English law for Ireland is
good and gives relief: But to make an
English law for Ireland never benefits
Ireland. The evils which afflict the
Irish population—the insecurity of
tenure, the antipathy of landlord against
tenant, the extermination of Irish fami
lies as if they were vermin, the agrarian
murders which arc the sad resource
against a system of robbery and inhu
manity—are far less the results of any
particular English laws than the natural
and necessary results of English rule it
self. The existence of the English rule
is the cause of them. The removal of
the Erglish rule will abolish them.
While the English rule continues there
cannot be a radical cure of the excep
tional evils which afflict the Irish rural
population, nor of any of the exceptional
evils under which Ireland suffers. A
radical cure can be effected only by
taking Ireland out of the exceptional si
tuation in which she lies and restoring her
to national life aad freedom.
What may be Mr. Gladstone’s real in
tentions in his Land Bill for Ireland, and
whether or not it is possible for the Eng
lish to maintain tLer rule over Ireland
and yet, cease torturing that country and
make its people contented and prosper
ous by ‘‘good laws,” are questions upon
which different opinions may be held,
But the true character of the bill itself,
in the estimation of the people for whose
benefit it purports to be framed is clearly
enough revealed in the new* Coercion
Bill, which the minister and his par
liament arc about to pass along with lheir
Land Bill. Notwithstanding the hopes
excited in the credulous Irish people by
Mr. Gladstone’s profession, and by the
confidence expressed in him by all the
Irish Liberal members, notwithstanding
his frank statement of the evils afflicting
the Irish population, and his specious
description of the measure by which he
proposed to remedy them, no sooner had
the bill itself been published than it met
almost universal condemnation in Ireland
as illusory, mischievous, and leading to
new heart-burnings between tenants and
landlords. It does not give security of
tenure, it does not prevent arbitrary
eviction, it does not give the Tenaut
right custom the force of law. It is
calculated tojembitter still more the rela
tions between landlords and tenants, by
raising endless litigation between them;
litigation in which the poor man will
ive the worst chance of eventual suc
• ss; and it seeks to interpose the English
< Government (in the form of the new
tribunal it creates) as a constantly pre
sent arbiter and mischief-maker between
Irish tenants and Irish landlords. It
offers temptations to landlords to evict
tenants of farms held under the Tenant
right custom. lam well acquainted with
a small estate wherein there have been
several sales of farms under that custom
since my return from exile in 1858. The
average of all the sales was at the rate
of eleven years’ purchase of the rent.
All these farms except one are rated for
the poor-law above £lO and under £SO,
and therefore the compensation to be
paid the tenant, if evicted, will be, ac
cording s o Mr. Gladstone’s bill, a sum,
not < x-ceding five years’ rent; which
allows the evicting laudlord a bonus or
profit on the transaction of six years’ rent
per farm. When this newest English
“settlement of the Irish Land question’
becomes law (as it will, as a mattter of
course), the best thing to be hoped in the
interest of Ireland is that, like the last
“settlement” (Mr. Caldwell’s bill of
I860) it will never be resorted to by
either landlord or tenant. Mr. Gladstone
and his Parliament, however, thiok it
important not only to pass the bill into
law, but to pass it without any loud pro
test from the Irish people; and with that
view they are passing along with it
anew coercion bill to enable the Lord-
Lieutenant and the police to imprison
anybody in Ireland without trial; to
take summary measures with Irish .jour
nalists who are 'opposed to Mr. Glad
stone’s policy, to condemn Irishmen in
certain cases without juries (the old es
tablished system of condemning them by
packed juries becoming too notorious
abroad as well as unreliable at home), to
keep Irishmen in continual dread of be
ing torn away 7 from their families and
ruined in their business or industry it
they dare to express hostilty to Mr.
Gladstone’s policy. With the habeas
corpus suspended, Mr Gladstone hopes
there will be no more elections like Tip
perary, no more pronouncements of
farmer’s clubs against his bill, no more
resolutions of boards of guardians and
city councils in favor of Repeal of the
Uuion. Ireland will be a patient very
tightly strapped down on the table and
as quite as chloroform could make her;
and he can operate upon her at his case
—for her own good !
I am glad that MM. Gladstone and
Bright, after all the fine profession with
which they have deceived many credul
ous persons in Ireland and elsewhere, are
passing anew coercion bill for the very
pu’pose of gagging Irish discontent and
preventing all free political action in
Ireland, while they carry into effect their
policy of “ruling Ireland ia accord with
Irish ideas,” and ‘doing iu the Imperial
Parliament everything for Ireland that
lieland could do for herself.” The
Irish people will never again place so
, much confidence in any English states
man as, at one time, they placed in those
two. And perhaps no two English
statesmen ever came into office with a
greater disposition to try to relieve Ire
land from the worst ofner sufferingsunder
■MIBII 0? BBS
English rule, provided relief could be af
forded without removing the rule itself
which caused the sufferings, than did
MM. Gladstone and Bright. This Land
Bill, then, we may conclude is the very
best that an English Parliament can
give Ireland. Let all Irishmeu who
still trust in English legislation mark
that. Let all who hesitate to take the
thorny path that leads towards national
independece, and flatter themselves with
the vain hope that justice, honor and
prosperity are possible for Ireland un
der English rule, behold that rule as it is
administered by the most benevolent of
English statesmen.
The Brlght-Gladstone Coercion Bill is
imposed on Ireland purely and simply to
strike terror and suppress demonstra
tions of Irish opiniou. Never in all the
shameful history of English rule was
there an example t of more audacious lying
in the names given by the English to
their acts of tyranny in Ireland than this
Bright Gladstone Bill affords, “A bill
for the protection of life and property in
Ireland !” Ah Iye English statesmen,
your own Government statistics are be
iore your eyes to prove that both life and
property are far safer in Ireland than
they are in England. There are more
than two |murders committed in Eng
land, in proportion to population, for
every one iu Ireland. There are more
than four robberies committed in Eng
land, in proportion to population, for
every one in Ireland- And you never
thiuk it proper to suspend the habeas
corpus where life and property really
need protection so mnch, but only where
life and property are comparatively
secure. I say it is a base thing for Mr.
Gladstone to pretend that “loyal men
(meaning willing subjects of the English
usurpation) are unable to pursue a live
lihood in Ireland in peace and confi
dence.” It is base to put forward a false
slander like that as ground for justifying
his spiteful detention of Irish political
prisoners under treatment which has sent
some of them into the mad-honse and
many of them iuto the grave. It is base
to see to bliud the eyes of foreigners by
this “aggregation of 1800 agrarian of
fences since IB6o"—offences among
which, it seems, there were only nine
murders, and which were mainly threa
tening letters and unlawful oaths. Why,
one man might easily write a thousa id
threatening letters in a single week —one
policeman, for example.
But comment upon this Coercion Bill
of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright is need
less. Nothing more insolently tyranni
cal in its provisions, more recklessly false
in its allegations, more venomously jeal
ous of Irish freedom of speech and ac
tiou as to public affairs, has been enacted
by the English since the Union than this
measure of these “friends of Ireland.”
lam glad it is so. English rule is less
demoralizing to the Irish people with
out habeas corpus t han with habeas cor
pus. The Coercion Bill will utterly fail
to suppress the national sentiment and
hope iu Ireland. It will, on the contrary,
convent more arid more of the waverers
to the national doctrine. It will hasten
the coming of that day, for which all
good Irishmen are longing in every
clime, when the best of every sect a»d
class and condition in Ireland will be join
ed together to protest openly against the
English rule, and demand national self
government. And whenever that glori
ous day shall come, the English will, in
my opinion, peaceably abdicate their
usurped rule and peaceably yield us up
our national right.
I am, dear sir, sincerely yours,
John Martin.
EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE
OF THE RANNER OF THE SOUTH.
IRELAND.
The debate on the Land Question has
closed, and the Government Bill bas re
ceived the second reading in the Com
mons by an overwhelming majority. The
debate has been singularly devoid of in
terest from the almost total absence of
party feeling. The Conservatives, either
from an acute perception of the danger
of obstructing the consummation of the
national desires, or from a vivid sense
of their utter inability to cope with the
Liberal majorities, have failed to honor the
Government with that uncompromising
opposition with which they receive every
thing that tends to the advancement of
the prosperity of Ireland. Possibly
they, as landlords, have perceived that
a graceful acquiesence to the popular
! will is about the best means they can
adopt to secure their own tenure in Ire
land, or, perhaps, some of the late “Irish
outrages” have awakened them to a sense
iof the disagreeable form which any dis-
appointment of the people might assume;
but, at all events, they have spared them
selves and the Nation the empty heroics
with which they generally favor us on
these occasions, and have displayed an
amount of common sense for which we
were quite unprepared. Upon a divi
sion, the members were found to be 442
for the measure and 11 against. It is
true that the eleven contained some of
the names that are nearest and dearest
to the cause of Ireland, but their dis
sent was not so much an opposition to
either the Bill or the policy which had
dictated it, as a protest against its pre
sent imperfection and inability to meet
the grievances of Ireland. Hitherto, the
consent of both extreme Conservatives
and true Liberals has been given to it
as a recognition of its undeniable neces
sity at the present crisis, but when the
question arises as to how far the princi
ples of the measure will extend, their
present indifference will be laid aside for
all the animated contention and fierce de
bate that each display where their vital
interests are involved. Thus we expect
Greek to meet Greek in Committee, and
each side will earnestly prepare for the
“tug of war.” The Liberals are deter
mined to storm the Government with
such amendments that the original mea
sure will be scarcely recognizable by its
nearest friends, while the Conservative
landlords are equally intent upon saving
all they can from the wreck of their
powers and privileges. On the whole,
we have little doubt that when the Bill
comes forth from the regenerating influ
ences of the Committee, that it will be
welcomed by Ireland as the great mes
sage of peace and prosperity so long and
so ardently desired.
OIiANGEISM.
Another name lias been added to the
illustrious list of Protestant martyrs in
Ireland. We are assured that he suffered
with a nious resignation that cannot fail
to be gratifying and consolatory in the
highest degree, in these days so marked
by the fierce persecution that is waged
against the devotees of the “pious and
immortal memory” and the Orange Lodges
in Ireland. The happy individual who
has thus faithfully followed in the steps
of the illustrious Madden, is Captain
Coote, a High Sheriff, whom the Govern
ment has thought fit to interrupt in the
happy work of packing the juries in
Monaghan. The authorities, it seems,
called upon him to dismiss his under*
Sheriff, which he refusing to do, was
summarily dismissed himself. His case
was brought before the House of Com
mons by a few virulent Tories, but with
no other result than to elicit au appro
bation of the course which the Govern
ment had pursued. Thus there was
nothing more to be done than to consign
him to the enthusiastic hero worship of
the Orangemen, and to add another name
to the list of the persecuted brethren who
have suffered in the cause of wrong and
oppression in Ireland. His predecessor
of unenviable fame, Captain Madden, has
added a sequel to his remarkable history,
which proves that his persecutors were
not content with despoiling him of the
powers of office which he had devoted to
the interests of Orangemen, to the pre
judice of every feeling of right or justice.
It seems that after receiving his conge
from the Executive, he was filled with
an ardent desire to preacli and teach the
faith of Orangeism in England. After
delighting the mobs of Manchester with
an elaborate description of the manner iu
which he was to lead an army of Or
angemen to besiege the Pope and the
Council in Rome, his missionary ardor
assumed a quite unexpected term by
venting itself upon two gentlemen in
the hotel, whom the great Captain horse
whipped within an inch of their lives.
Whether the Captain in soaring in the
realms of fancy had discovered some
imaginary connection between the un
fortunate gentlemen and the objects of
his pious intentions or whether he was
merely practising for his proposed cam
paign remains to be told, but to the im
mense chagrin of the Orangemen, and it
is to be supposed, to the intense consola
tion ot His Holiness and the Right Rev
erend Fathers, the Government again in
terposed by arresting hiiu, declaring him
a lunatic, and sending him to prison for
twelve months. Such and other evidences
of better days may possibly prove that
the systematic exclusion of Catholics trorn
the jury panel by the High Sheriff and
his minions, is a game that can be
played no more, however convenient a
method it may*have been for the perver
» siou of justice and law in Ireland.
Amongst the latest and most gratifying
items of news, is the sanction of His
Holiness to the decree of the Propagan
da, elevating the great Bishop McGetti
gan, of Rapphoe, to the Archiepiscopal
See of Armagh and the Primacy of all
Ireland. His Grace was chosen as dig
nessimus by the Clergy of Armagh anil
is the 107th Prelate in succession / rom
the great Apostle of Ireland.
The Catholics of Derry and the sur
rounding neighborhood are preparing for
a great display on the Feast of the
Patron Saint, aud to the intense annoy,
ance of the Den y Apprentice Boys, the
Town Hall has been granted to them tor
the occasion. It is rumored that a simi
lar demonstration is to take place in Dub
lin on the same occasion.
THE DISESTABLISHED CHURCH
The Council of the Unsent is still
being held in Dublin, and Bishops, Min
isters, aud People are engaged in a fircee
struggle for their respective rights, and
according to all accounts the two first
are getting the worst of it. The latest
concession wruug from them by the peo
ple is the right to elect their own Minis
ters. The Bishops and Ministers have
struggled hard aDd fought every inch of
the vantage ground they hare lost, but
are now trembling on the brink of an
almost unqualified laiarchy.
SPAIN.
The penalty of rebellion and the price
of reform are fearfully paid in the evils
which follow in the wake of revolution.
Even in these days of Nineteenth Cen
tury civilization a reorganization or re
form of a nation involving a suspension
ol the supreme power, can only be ef
fected through the crucible of blood aud
anarchy,. This lamentable necessity may
possibly be confined to the monarchical
system where all the salutary safeguards
of liberty and security are vested in the
throne, which becomes the great centre
of order and authority, so that when
any unhappy combination of circum
stances conspire 1o accomplish its down
lull, the great barriers to unbridled law
lessness are* withdrawn—the law becomes
a dead letter, authority is paralyzed and
in the general ruin the fallen sceptic is
seized by some miserable adventurers
who disgrace the name of liberty. Such
a state of things is fearfully exemplified
in the present state o! Spain where
crime is committed on a scale, and with
a frequency that menaces the very
foundation of society. Not two years
ago, and the Revolution was hailed by
the Protestant and Infidel portions of Eu
rope as a great and noble triumph of
modern civilization over intolerance and
tyranny. Revolutionist would-be-hcroes
became amusingly ridiculous in their
joy; statesmen rejoiced at the blow
which the Church had sustained in the
fall ol the Catholic Queen; even the
fanatics of Exeter Hal! departed for a
moment from their prosaic cam to in
dulge in Sunday heroics on the great
event, and the spirit of a smile may be
supposed to have played upon their pro
fessionally lugubrious faces, as they
dwelt in pious contemplation on the ex
ploits of the “Bible in Spain.” Finally,
they promised her a mission of so mauv
bible-power—England promised every
thing that wouldn’t cost lu*rself anything
—all the Protestant powers rushed with
congratulations and recognitions to th**
infant Government, and Seward, to con
clude the list ot benefits, generously pre
mised to save her the trouble of govern
ing Cuba, as she would have so much to
do in reconstruction and Reform. What
an interesting picture was Spain to be of
a Nation emancipated from the trammel*
of despotism and moving forth into the
light and life of civil and religious liber
ty! ! Two years follow of systematic
chicanery and blundering, which Prim
dignifies with the title of Admiiiisti ation
and Government, and the condition ol'
Spain is a thousand fold worse to-day
than under the worst periods of the
Bourbon dynasty. Throughout tin
country the ruling features are vino* red
starvation; the treasury almost empty ;
the coupons which were due in Janti oy
unpaid; the widows of the soldiers ha*.c
received no pension since October, and
may be seen dressed in mourning, lea :-
ing their children, begging from door t >
door. Crimes of the most harrowing na
ture —murder—open robbery in day Iff’
—are being daily committed with im
punity. In the midst of all this pover;
vice, an 1 destitution, the Cortes assem
ble to impose new taxes and vote m; -
riag'\s and horses to the Cabinet Mmi--
ters. Last of these calamities ( v ) is
miserable failure of Protestantism
Spain. We can fancy how Europe mu.-*
blush for her vaunted progress and civ
ilization as she vainly endeavors to tr; '
one trait of the proud and Cathode
Spain of three centuries ago in hopebm
ruin pitiable wreck of to-dav.
4 ERITA'