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