LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
FOREIGN OPINION ON IRELAND.
[To en EDITOR OF TIE BrICTATO1I.1
8111,—It has been asserted, and has not been sufficiently con- tradicted, that European opinion is in favour of the Parnellite contentions. Liberal Englishmen, however, who pretend to think so, can hardly fail to be familiar with the Correspondent, the organ of Montalembert and of his school, who were ever champions of English ideas and of English politicians in the days when reform did not mean nihilism, and when the widest tolerance of political extravagance was the fruit of strength, and not of weakness.
In the Correspondent has lately been published a series of articles on the present state of Ireland, by the Baron E. de Mandat-Grancey, which are both pleasant and instructive reading, and which do not make out Englishmen to be obstinate criminals in their treatment of Ireland. M. de Grancey landed in Ireland in the thick of the last General Election. His first experiences were obtained from the standpoint and under the guidance of the chiefs of the National League; and he plunged into the moving scenes of Sir Thomas Esmonde's election, and assisted at the Home-rule manmuvres, with certainly the inclina- tion, if not the determination, to judge favourably of the pro- prietors of United Ireland and the heroes of "O'Connell Street." But he did not rely solely on their information. He knocked at many doors for facts ; and several passages of his amusing and graphic account of the Irish distemper, and more than one shrewd application of French experience and American forecast to Irish affairs might be profitably quoted. I can but ask space for the concluding paragraphs trans- lated from the last number of his contributions to the Correa. pendant. They are emphasised by the circumstance that they have been written since his return from America, where he had gone fresh from his Irish experiences.
M. de Grancey writes :—" In the beginning of these papers I have related a few episodes of the present crisis in Ireland. How will it end P In the simplest possible way, I am convinced. The adoption of Mr. Gladstone's Bill could only have made matters worse. The tenants might at first have imagined them- selves benefited by it; but, as I have already said, they are not the real sufferers, but the ender-tenants, whom they pitilessly oppress. For these under-tenants nothing can be done, because, in their eagerness to possess land, they throw themselves into every combination that offers them a chance of evading the laws against sub-letting. I consider, therefore, that Mr. Gladstone's defeat has been a blessing to Ireland. The first duty of Government is to restore social order, and this can only be done by the suppression of trial by jury. The Times already says as much. There will certainly be no 'rising,' and if anything of the kind is attempted, it will come to nothing. Rents will be considerably reduced, as in the rest of Europe, and tillage will be almost abandoned to give place to stock-breeding and pasturage. There are many indications that this will be the course of events. The intensity of the present crisis, and the potency of the League, are due, firstly, to the enormous supplies received by the latter from America ; and, secondly, to the support of the clergy. But now the Americans are growing weary. At a large Irish meeting held at Chicago while I was there, one of the orators remarked that if the millions of dollars sent to Ireland were only spent in occasionally firing at a landlord from behind a hedge, the results by no means justified the sacri- fice, and his audience seemed to agree with him. I have every reason to believe that the American subsidies have lately much diminished. I imagine, also, that the clergy are only waiting for a good opportunity to abandon the League. The other day, at Killarney, Mr. Harrington let fall a few words which seem to indicate that some such event is feared by the local politicians. The hierarchy joined the League unwillingly. The new move- ment loomed so dangerously large that the priesthood dared not leave it entirely to political leadership, lest thereby all their own popularity and influence should be lost, at least for a time. But the Catholicism of many of the Irish-Americans with whom the League has allied itself is so doubtful, that we cannot fail to foresee that the cause of religion would gain nothing by the victory of that party, should it ever attain to power. It is my own conviction that the priests will, in the near future, sever their connection with the League.
"The National' movement may continue some time longer, but it will steadily decline. All depends upon the more or lees rapid increase of emigration ; that this increase will be rapid, is my belief. In former days, the Irish never would leave their country until it became absolutely impossible for them to find there the means of existence. I used to think that they were, on the whole, willing to emigrate; but in this I was mistaken, as far as the past is concerned. Now, on the contrary, the chief thought of young Irishmen is to expatriate themselves. A retired Australian official, resident in the County Limerick for the last fifteen years, himself bore witness to me of this change of popular ideas. Every Irishman who takes his departure for Australia or the United States does more towards the solntioa of the critical question than Mr. Parnell's best orations can effect; for he helps to lower rents by diminishing the number of eager and contending land-seekers, and this involves the whole question.
"Therefore, Mr. Parnell and all the well-meaning persons who give him their support, will neither succeed in re-establishing Irish independence, nor in perceptibly modifying existing political conditions, and we are persuaded that in a few years' time, when they see peace and relative prosperity restored to their country, they will not regret their inability to carry out their programme ; for we give them credit for being better pleased with a solution which assures, as far as possible, the amelioration of their compatriots' lot, than they would be with the egotistical satisfaction of a momentary success. If their only object be the ruin of England in revenge for her past injuries to their forefathers, they might have a fair chance of success by continuing the conflict ; but it is too evident that instead of profiting by the fall of England's power, Ireland's fate would be to perish, crushed among the ruins.
"Must we say, then, that all these sacrifices, all this devotion, have been lavished utterly in vain P Assuredly not. The shock inflicted on social Ireland by the exposure of its sorrows and its disgraces, must certainly have had the result of maturing the question, advancing the hope of its solution, and conse- quently placing a limit to the sufferings of that too numerous class of the people which obstinately clings to its native island when the land can no longer maintain it there. In America there is a second Ireland. In Australia, or elsewhere, there will soon be a third. In the prosperity which the emigrated Irish will there enjoy, can we hope that they will retain the faith, virtue, and cheerfulness which sustained and comforted their ancestors through years of oppression and poverty P Of this we are, unhappily, not confident ; for the higher virtues which seem natural to the race, fail under deteriorating influences when it is removed from its native soil. Let us, however, hope that they will be perpetuated among those who remain in the Emerald Isle, and that all travellers will recognise and honour them as I do."—I am, Sir, Zee., M. C. B.
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