wild, weak, witty, brave, quarrelsome incapa bles. Still the ones who had taken her under the protection of their power and who had put forth these charges were the very ones who had made her so. Still she resists and is now as she always has been the most in tensely nationalistic people on the face of the globe. No people, less nationalistic, could hold themselves so high under such great difficulties, or make themselves as for midable to such a power as England. It seems as if all this time she has been trying to hold her own when it was absolutely im possible. How terrible it is to receive no re muneration for all this perseverance ! These men go through life receiving noth ing but insults and injustice and are cut off from any hope in death by the heartrending reflection that they leave their children to bear, as their father, an abominable bondage. So it goes from generation to generation. One is filled with a feeling of sincere regret when he comes in contact with some of the youth. Who knows but that among these there may exist some mind formed of the finest mould and wrought for scientific im mortality, some young genius who perhaps if he were in the position to have his talents properly cultivated might be an ennobling feature to an empire. In such a circle some young Napoleon might fight his battles with the greatest of skill and yet the world never know of his sieges. It has been said, with probably a desire to appear impartisan, that the Irish tenant farmer is kind, quick witted and an affectionate husband and father, and in fact he has hardly a fault in him. In this manner he is flattered and probably the next remark will be to the effect that he is indo lent and not fit to have charge of any thing. The inconsistency of at once being the intel ligent and affectionate husband and father and the indolent farmer is very evident. The truth is that he has learned by bitter experience the fact that perseverance and THE FREE LANCE. energy secure no advantages to the Irish farmer, and yet what but grit and persever ance could have enabled him to pay the ex orbitant rents which have been imposed upon him in the past and which he is no longer able to pay? Statistics show that since the tenants have applied to the courts to have their rents reduced, in very few cases has the reduction been less than 50 per cent. Can it be anything but injustice that has re quired these poor men to pay so much more than even English courts sanction ? Still every day we read of these tenants being evicted when in most instances they have more than bought the land. Is it at all remarkable that the Irish farmer now desires to be rid of his landlord without buying him out, when the latter stands con victed by courts of his own nominating, of having for years taken from the farmer rents which were monstrously unjust ? The Irish farmer now desires some rule as a means to an end. Every people regards self-govern ment in the same way. An Irish Parliament could not do much worse for Ireland than the English Parlia ment is now doing, but on the other hand it could do a great deal more for her than the best intentioned English legislature. An Irish Parliament would bring the people and the law into sympathetic instead of as now bitterly hostile relations. Ireland desires home rule because she believes that it means the development of the natural and manufacturing resources of the country and the consequent prosperity of agriculture. With this prosperity the popu lation would cease to decline. Emigration from a country which, under a sympathetic government could command resources for twice its present population, is a remedy worse than the disease it is designed to cure. It is the monopolists instead of the produc tive laborer from which Ireland needs to be relieved. When she receives this part of her
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