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IRELAND AS IT IS
AND AS IT WOULD BE
UNDER HOME RULE.
SIXTY-TWO LETTERS
WRITTEN BY THE
SPECIAL COMMISSIONER
OF THE
BIRMINGHAM DAILY GAZETTE,
BETWEEN MARCH AND AUGUST, 1893.
_With Map of Ireland showing the places visited._
BIRMINGHAM:
BIRMINGHAM DAILY GAZETTE COMPANY, LIMITED, HIGH STREET.
LONDON:
47, FLEET STREET, E.C.
PRINTED BY
THE BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE CO., LTD.,
52 AND 53, HIGH STREET,
BIRMINGHAM.
[Illustration]
SPECIAL COMMISSIONER'S PREFACE.
Irish Loyalists will not soon forget the early part of 1893. Arriving
in Dublin in March, it at once became evident that the industrial
community regarded Home Rule, not with the academical indifference
attributed to the bulk of the English electorate, but with absolute
dismay; not as a possibility which might be pleasantly discussed
between friends, but as a wholly unnecessary measure, darkly
iniquitous, threatening the total destruction of all they held dear.
English lukewarmness was hotly resented, but the certainty that
England must herself receive a dangerous if not a mortal wound, was
scant comfort to men who felt themselves on the eve of a hopeless
struggle for political, nay, even for material existence. This was
before the vast demonstrations of Belfast and Dublin, before the
memorable function in the Albert Hall, London, before the hundreds of
speakers sent forth by the Irish Unionist Alliance had visited
England, spreading the light of accurate knowledge, returning to
Ireland with tidings of comfort and joy. The change in public feeling
was instant and remarkable. Although from day to day the passage of
the Bill through the Commons became more and more a certainty, the
Irish Unionists completely discarded their fears, resuming their
normal condition of trust and confidence. Mr. H.L. Barnardo, J.P., of
Dublin, aptly expressed the universal feeling when he said:--
"We have been to England, and we know three things,--that the Bill
will pass the Commons, that the Lords will throw it out, and that the
English people don't care if they do."
This accounted for the renewed serenity of the well-doing classes,
whose air and attitude were those of men thankful for having narrowly
escaped a great danger. The rebound was easily observable in cities
like Dublin and Belfast, where also was abundantly evident the placid
resignation of the Separatist forces, whose discontent with the actual
Bill and profound distrust of its framer, superadded to an
ever-increasing qualmishness inevitably arising from acquaintance with
the prospective statesmen of an Irish Legislature, caused them to look
forward to the action of the Lords with ill-disguised complacency. In
regions more remote the scattered Loyalists lacked the consolation
arising from numbers and propinquity to England, and accordingly their
tremors continued, and, in a smaller degree, continue still. To them
the Bill is a matter of life and death; and while their industry is
crippled, their mental peace is destroyed by the ever-present torture
of suspense.
As to the merits of the case for Home Rule, I would earnestly ask
fair-minded opponents to remember that during my wanderings I met with
numbers of intelligent and honourable men, both Scots and English, who
having come to Ireland as earnest, nay, even by their own confession,
as bigoted Gladstonians, had changed their opinions on personal
acquaintance with the facts, and strove with all the energy of
conscientious men who had unwittingly led others astray, to repair, so
far as in them lay, the results of their former political action. And
it should be especially noted that of all those I so met who had
arrived in Ireland as Home Rulers, not one retained his original
faith. A very slight process of inductive reasoning will develop the
suggestiveness of this incontestible fact.
Readers will hardly require to be reminded that the letters were
written, not in studious retirement with ample time at command, but
for a Daily Paper, at the rate of nearly eight newspaper columns a
week, in the intervals of travel and inquiry, often under grave
difficulties and with one eye on the inexorable clock. The precepts of
the Master were of necessity ignored:--
_Saepe stylum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint Scripturus;
neque, te ut miretur turba labores Contentus paucis lectoribus._
But before committing them to paper, the facts were sifted with
scrupulous care, and where personal investigation was impracticable,
nothing was adduced except upon evidence of weight and authority
sufficient to prove anything. And as during a six months' hue and cry
of the Nationalist press of Ireland, aided and abetted by some English
prints, no single statement was in any degree shaken, the letters have
re-appeared precisely as at first.
R.J.B.,
Special Commissioner of the _Birmingham Daily Gazette_.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
EDITOR'S REVIEW.
The _Birmingham Daily Gazette_ of August 18, 1893, thus summed up the
labours of its Special Commissioner:--We publish to-day the last of
our Special Commissioner's letters on "Ireland As It Is." His task has
been an arduous one, and not without a strong element of personal
danger. That he has been kept under the close observation of the Irish
police; that they have frequently given him timely warning of personal
danger; that he has dared to go to places in County Clare when the
police warned him to refrain, and his native car-driver refused to
venture, are facts which he has modestly abstained from bringing into
the prominence they deserved. We must necessarily speak of the merits
of his labour with a certain measure of reserve, but the many letters
which lie before us are at least a gratifying proof that his work has
been appreciated, and that it has cast new lights upon the Irish
problem. To the simple direction, "State nothing that you cannot stand
by," he has been faithful even beyond our most sanguine hopes. A
stranger in a strange land seeking information wherever it can be
found, and compelled on many occasions to accept the statements made
to him, may easily be led into error. It is to the credit of our
Commissioner that he has withheld some of the most sensational stories
retailed to him, because he had not an opportunity of verifying them
in detail. The notorious Father Humphreys, of Tipperary, will not
soon forget his experience of giving the lie to the _Gazette_; neither
will those who organised an "indignation" meeting at Tuam be likely to
congratulate themselves upon having stung our Commissioner into
retaliation. It may be recalled as an illustration of the desperate
efforts made to discredit him that after he had attended a Nationalist
meeting at Dundalk he was denounced as a "liar" and a "pimp" because
he had stated that he was invited to address the score of persons who
had "met in their thousands" to shake the foundations of the British
Empire. His assailants fiercely declared that he was not invited to
speak; he was only informed that he might address the meeting if he
desired to do so!
Our Commissioner has travelled about four thousand miles since he
started last March. He has taken no lop-sided view of Ireland. The
prosperous North has been contrasted with the stagnant South, and the
causes of their difference have been explained. The splendid work of
industrial development inaugurated in the poverty-stricken West by
that greatest of all Irish Secretaries, Mr. Balfour, has been compared
with the mischievous encouragements of idleness, the lavish
professions of sentimental sympathy, and the dogged refusals of
substantial help since the present Government took office. Above all,
our Commissioner has provided conclusive evidence that Irish
Nationalism is a mere delusive sham--a paltry euphemism for the
predatory passion which a succession of professional agitators have
aroused in the hearts of the people. If the Land Question could be
settled, there would be an end of the clamour for independence and of
the insensate shrieking against British rule. With a definite stake in
the country the peasantry upon whom the Nationalist agitation mainly
relies would cease to place their faith in the impecunious and
blatant scoundrelism which fattens upon the discord and misery which
it provokes in the name of Patriotism. Our Commissioner believes that
the priests, who have an even stronger hold upon the people than the
politicians, would find their power weakened if it were possible to
greatly extend the system of peasant proprietary which it was the
purpose of the Land Purchase of 1891 to foster. Land hunger lies at
the root of Irish disaffection, and the Romish hierarchy have found in
the deep-rooted prejudices and the ignorant superstitions of the
people a foundation upon which they have reared an appalling
superstructure of social and spiritual tyranny. Politicians have
taught the peasantry to believe that they have been robbed of the land
which is their only means of subsistence in a country that is
destitute of mineral wealth, that lacks capital, and is overshadowed
by the enormous commercial energy of Great Britain. The priests have
adopted the theses of politicians, and have brought the terrors of
their sacred calling into play in order to make themselves the masters
of the people.
Home Rule would be the signal for a ghastly civil war, ruinous to
Ireland, and fatal to that spirit of religious toleration by which the
Roman Catholics and the Protestants have obtained equal rights of
citizenship under the rule of the Queen and the Imperial Parliament.
The cultured Roman Catholics of England and Ireland look with pain and
regret at the insensate bigotry and domineering intolerance which made
the exposures in County Meath possible. They see in these wild claims
of absolutism in the domain of temporal as well as spiritual affairs,
a grave danger to all pure religion. They perceive that the revival of
the old sectarian passions in Ireland cannot fail to react on Great
Britain, and even if the Keltic priesthood triumphed over the Ulster
Protestants their victory would be a fatal one to all who hold by the
Roman Catholic faith in England. Home Rule would bring misery and
disaster in its train, and even the Parnellite section of the Irish
people, who have shaken off clerical domination, tremble at the
prospect of it while nine-tenths of their co-religionists are
destitute of personal freedom. We must find the solution of Ireland's
disaffection in another way, and mainly by a bold handling of the
agrarian question, which lies at the root of all. The task before the
Unionist party is not a light one. They must crush the Nationalist
conspiracy, and uproot the fantastic hopes which unscrupulous men have
implanted in the minds of an ignorant and credulous people. They must
extend the noble system of practical aid to Ireland so successfully
inaugurated by Mr. Balfour in his light railway, fishery, and
agricultural development schemes. And they must mitigate the friction
between owners and occupiers of the soil by making it easy and
profitable for tenants and landlords alike to avail themselves of
British credit in terminating a relationship which has been fraught
with occasions of bitter hostility and mistrust. Under such a policy
we can see bright prospects of a happy future for the sister island,
but under the policy of Home Rule we see only the lowering clouds of
civil war and the dark shadows of reawakened religious animosity.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
No. 1.--The Spirit of the Capital Dublin, March 28th 1
No. 2.--Panic and Disaster Dublin, March 30th 7
No. 3.--Ulster's Preparations for War Belfast, April 1st 13
No. 4.--Mr. Balfour's Welcome Belfast, April 4th 20
No. 5.--Has Mr. Morley Lied? Ballymena, April 6th 27
No. 6.--The Exodus of Industry Dublin, April 8th 34
Mr. Balfour in Dublin Dublin, April 8th 40
No. 7.--Bad for England, Ruinous to
Ireland Limerick, April 11th 43
No. 8.--Terrorism at Tipperary Tipperary, April 12th 48
No. 9.--Tyranny and Terrorism Oolagh, Co. Tipperary, April 15th 54
No. 10.--Defying the Land League Cork, April 20th 61
No. 11.--The Cry for Peace and
Quietness Tralee, Co. Kerry, April 20th 67
No. 12.--English Ignorance and Irish
Perversity Limerick, April 22nd 75
No. 13.--The Curse Of County
Clare Rathkeale, Co. Limerick, April 24th 81
No. 14.--Lawlessness and
Laziness Killaloe, Co. Clare, April 27th 89
No. 15.--The Peril to English
Trade Ennis, Co. Clare, April 29th 96
No. 16.--Civil War in County
Clare Bodyke, Co. Clare, May 2nd 102
No. 17.--Rent at the Root of
Nationalism Bodyke, Co. Clare, May 2nd 109
No. 18.--Hard Facts for English
Readers Gort, Co. Galway, May 6th 116
No. 19.--Indolence and
Improvidence Athenry, Co. Galway, May 6th 123
No. 20.--Religion at the Bottom of
the Irish Question Tuam, Co. Galway, May 9th 128
No. 21.--Mr. Balfour's Fisheries Galway Town, May 13th 135
No. 22.--The Land League's Reign at
Loughrea Loughrea, May 16th 142
No. 23.--The Reign of Indolence Salthill, May 18th 149
No. 24.--The Aran Islands Galway, May 20th 156
No. 25.--The Priests and
Outrage Moycullen, Connemara, May 23rd 163
No. 26.--The Connemara Railway Oughterard, Connemara, May 23rd 169
No. 27.--Cultivating Irish Industry Athenry, May 27th 177
No. 28.--Could we Reconquer
Ireland? Barna, Co. Galway, May 30th 184
No. 29.--What Rack-Rent
Means Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, June 1st 190
No. 30.--The "Union of Hearts" Athlone, June 3rd 197
No. 31.--The "Union of Hearts" Westport, June 6th 203
No. 32.--Home Rule and Irish Immigration Castlebar, June 8th 209
No. 33.--Tuam's Indignation Meeting Ballina, June 10th 217
No. 34.--Why Ireland does not Prosper Oughewall, June 10th 223
No. 35.--In a Congested District Newport, Co. Mayo, June 15th 230
No. 36.--Irish Improvidence the
Stumbling Block Mulranney, Co. Mayo, June 17th 237
No. 37.--On Achil Island Achil Sound, June 20th 244
No. 38.--The Achil Islanders Dugort, Achil Island, June 22nd 251
No. 39.--Irish Unfitness for
Self-Government Castlereagh, June 24th 259
No. 40.--Object Lessons in Irish
Self-Government Roscommon, June 27th 265
No. 41.--The Changed Spirit of the Capital Dublin, June 29th 271
No. 42.--At a Nationalist Meeting Dundalk, July 1st 279
No. 43.--In the Prosperous North Newry, July 4th 285
No. 44.--The Prosperous North Armagh, July 6th 291
No. 45.--A Picture of Romish "Toleration" Monaghan, July 8th 298
No. 46.--A Bit of Foreign Opinion Enniskillen, July 11th 304
No. 47.--The Loyalists and the Lawless Clones, July 13th 310
No. 48.--A Search for "Orange Rowdyism" Belfast, July 15th 317
No. 49.--The Constitution of the
Orange Lodges Portadown, July 18th 324
No. 50.--The Hollowness of Home Rule Warrenpoint, July 20th 331
No. 51.--The Irish Press on "Finality" Strabane, July 22nd 337
No. 52.--How the Priests Control
the People Raphoe, Co. Donegal, July 25th 345
No. 53.--What they think in County
Donegal Stranorlar, Co. Donegal, July 27th 351
No. 54.--A Sample of Irish "Loyalty" Killygordon, July 29th 358
No. 55.--A Truly Patriotic Priest Donegal, August 1st 365
No. 56.--Do-Nothing Donegal Donegal, August 3rd 371
No. 57.--Barefooted and Dilatory Ballyshannon, August 5th 378
No. 58.--The Truth about Bundoran Sligo, August 8th 383
No. 59.--Irish Nationalism is not
Patriotism Birmingham, August 11th 390
No. 60.--Land Hunger: its Cause,
Effect, and Remedy Birmingham, August 14th 396
No. 61.--Clerical Domination and its
Consequences Birmingham, August 16th 403
No. 62.--Civil War a certainty of
Home Rule Birmingham, August 18th 409
[For a General Index the reader is referred to the end of the
volume.]
IRELAND AS IT IS
AND AS IT WOULD BE
UNDER HOME RULE.
IRELAND AS IT IS
AND AS IT WOULD BE
UNDER HOME RULE
No. 1.--THE SPIRIT OF THE CAPITAL.
By the Spirit of the Capital I do not mean, as an Irishman would tell
you, Jameson's whiskey, nor yet the vivifying soul of Guinness's
double stout, but the mental posture of the dwellers in Dublin with
reference to Home Rule. There can be no doubt of the interest
prevailing in the Irish metropolis. The people are wrought into a
fever-heat of expectancy and intense nervous excitement. Home Rule is
the only topic of conversation. In hotels, on the steamers, in railway
carriages, on tramcars, in the market-place, on the steps of the
temples, at the corners of the streets, in the music halls, the
wondering stranger hears of Home Rule, Home Rule, Home Rule, first,
last, midst, and without end.
Obviously so much discussion shows difference of opinion, divergency
of conception, conflicting interests. It is borne in upon you that the
Irish people are far from agreed as to what Home Rule means, and that
every individual has his own pet notion, the various theories
differing as widely as the education and social position of their
proposers. But the most striking feature in the attitude of Dublin is
undoubtedly the intense, the deep-rooted, the perfervid hatred of the
bill shown by the better sort of people, the nervous anxiety of the
law-abiding classes, the undisguised alarm of everybody who has
anything to lose, whether commercial men, private traders,
manufacturers, or the representatives of learning and culture. The
mere shadow of Home Rule has already seriously affected stocks and
securities, has brought about withdrawal of capital, and is sending
both English and Irish commercial travellers home empty-handed. Sir
Howard Grubb, maker of the great telescope of the Lick Observatory,
America, an Irishman whose scientific and commercial successes are a
glory to his country, and whose titular honours have been won by sheer
force of merit, declares that the passing of the Home Rule Bill will
be the signal heralding his departure to England, with plant and
working staff, and that he has been preparing for this since 1886. One
of the largest booksellers in the city tells me that, acting in
conjunction with others of the trade, during the last six weeks no
orders have been given to English travellers, adding--and thoughtful
people should find this highly suggestive--"The Dublin Unionists are
the people who have the money and the education. The people who have
money to spend are becoming excessively careful. They know not what
may be in store, but they fear that if Home Rule becomes law they will
be ruined, and more than ninety-five per cent. of my customers are
Unionists."
Further inquiry confirmed the statement that the book-buying community
are practically Unionists to a man. The same figures hold good among
the Irish Quakers. Ninety-five per cent. is the proportion given to me
by an eminent Friend, no stranger to Birmingham, intimately known to
Alderman White and three generations of the Cadbury family. He said,
"Irish Quakers are Unionists, because they are on the spot, because
they understand the subject, because they know what will follow,
because they share the dangers of the threatened revolution. What may
be the proportion of Home Rulers among the English Friends I do not
know, but probably the Gladstonians have a majority, for precisely
opposite reasons to those I have stated, that is,--they are not on the
spot, do not understand the matter, are unable to see what will take
place, and regard themselves as safe, whatever happens." The Irish
Quakers have issued a manifesto which should weigh with their English
brethren and with the country at large. The Quakers know their way
about. Their piety has not blunted their perceptive faculties, has not
taken the edge off their keenness. Their reputation for shrewdness is
equal to their reputation for integrity, which is saying a good deal.
With them the innocence of the dove is happily combined with
considerable wisdom of the serpent. And at least ninety-five per cent.
of the Irish Quakers are earnest Unionists.
But although the deep concern of the respectable classes of the Irish
capital is calculated to fill the wandering Englishman with grave
uneasiness, it is not all tragedy. The Dubliners must have their fun,
and, like the Parisians, will sport with matters of heaviest import.
The poorer classes treat the universal subject lightly, as beseems men
who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The prevailing trait
in their mental attitude is incredulousness. You cannot make them
believe that the bill will pass. "We'll get Home Rule when a pair o'
white wings sprouts out o' me shoulders an' I fly away like a
blackbird," said an old market woman with great emphasis; and a Dublin
jackeen, piloting an American over the city, said: "This, Sorr, is
College Green, an' that, Sorr, is Thrinity College, an' that
Sorr,"--here he pointed to the grand pile opposite the College--"that
Sorr, is the grate buildin' in which the Irish Parliament is _not_
going to meet!" At one of the music halls an old woman (Ireland) is
represented as buying a coffin for a deceased son named "Home Rule"
Bill, when the following conversation occurs:--
"Is it an oak or an elm coffin ye want?"
"Ah, thin, just a chape deal coffin, shure--wid a few archangels on
the lid."
"Will ye want any trimmings?"
"Arrah, what d'ye mane by trimmin's?"
"Trimmings for the coffin."
"Bad luck to yer trimmin's. What would I want wid them? Sure 'twas
'trimmin's' that kilt him!"
It is hoped that Saxon readers will see this subtle joke when I
explain that "delirium" should come before "trimmin's."
Underneath the incredulity of the lower classes--and be it observed
that their incredulity is obviously based on an instinctive feeling
that the claims and arguments of their own party are alike
preposterous--underneath this vein of unbelief is a vein of
extraordinary credulity. Poverty is to be at once and for ever
abolished. "The millions an' millions that John Bull dhrags out iv us,
to kape up his grandeur, an' to pay soldiers to grind us down, we'll
put into our own pockets, av you plaze," was the answer vouchsafed to
an inquiry as to what advantages were expected from the passing of the
Home Rule Bill. The speaker was a political barber. Another of the
craft said, in answer to the same query, "Well, Sorr, I think we have
a right to our indipindence. Sure, we'd be as sthrong as Switzerland
or Belgium." A small farmer from the outlying district thought that
rents would be lowered, that money would be advanced to struggling
tenants, that great public works would be instituted, and plainly
intimated that all these good things and many more had been roundly
promised by the Home Rule leaders, and that he, for one, fully
believed that all would duly come to pass, once the Bill were carried,
which happy event he never expected to see. Every man was to be a kind
of king in his own country, evictions were to be utterly unknown; the
peasantry were to live rent free, under a visionary scheme of which he
had all the absurd particulars; the old sporting maxim reminding
farmers that landlord shooting begins on January 1st and ends on
December 31st was to become obsolete by reason of a complete
extinction of the species--only an odd one being occasionally dug out
of the bogs along with trunks of bog-oak and skeletons of the great
Irish elk; while the family pig, which, having for ages occupied a
responsible position in the matter of "Rint," is understood to be an
inveterate landlord-hater, will be released from his delicate
situation, will be relieved from his harassing anxieties, will no
longer be sacrificed to the exigencies of the occasion; but, on the
contrary, will peacefully expire of old age, surrounded by every
tribute of respect. The dirtiest of the Dubliners hold opinions as to
the marvellous results of Home Rule more adapted to their own
positions and pursuits, but apparently on the same plane, no whit
higher in the scale of intelligence. They regard the English as their
natural enemies, and the lower you go the more truculent they become.
One and all they hold the belief, industriously instilled by
agitators, that the poverty of Ireland is due to the aggrandisement
of England, that the bulk of Irish taxation flows into English
coffers, and is used for English purposes to the exclusion of Ireland,
and this they have swallowed and insist upon, in defiance of common
reason and the evidence of their senses. The instinct of patriotism is
not _en evidence_. The dominant passion is cupidity, and nothing
higher; sheer greed of gain, lust of possession, and nothing nobler.
Selfishness and the hope of plunder are the actuating impulses at the
poll; crass ignorance and bitter prejudice the mental disposition of
the lower class of voters. Four hours' slumming convinced me of this,
and must convince anyone. "We'll bate the English into the say," said
a resident in the sweet region yclept Summer Hill. "Whin we get the
police in our hands an' an army of our own, we'd sweep them out o' the
counthry av we only held cabbage-shtalks. Ireland for the Irish, an'
to hell wid John Bull! Thim's my sintiments." And those are the
"sintiments" of his class. I have spent days among the Irish Home
Rulers without having once heard of the Union of Hearts. The phrase
serves well enough to tickle the simple souls of the long-eared but
short-headed fraternity of pseudo-philosophical-philanthropists across
the water, but it has no currency in Ireland.
Like the country folks the city slummers believe that unheard-of
advantages would follow the great Bill, and, unconsciously parodying
Sancho Panza, say in effect, "Now blessings light on him who first
invented Home Rule! it covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a
cloak; it is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the
cold, and cold for the hot." The bare thought of the coming Paradise
illuminates their dirty visages. Like the lunatic, the lover, and the
poet, they are of imagination all compact, and, unlike the character
mentioned by the Bard, they "can hold a fire in their hands, By
thinking on the frosty Caucasus, And cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast; And wallow naked in December snow By
thinking on fantastic summer's heat."
Meanwhile, they lounge about in idleness, hugging their misery,
discussing the "bating" of the Unionist party, or, as I saw them
yesterday evening, listening to the crooning of an ancient female
gutter-snipe, a dun-coloured heap of decrepit wretchedness, chanting
the great future of the Irish Parliament in a picturesque and
extraordinary doggerel anent the "larned reprisintatives of the Oirish
na-a-tion. Promiscu-o-ous they shtand in em-u-la-a-tion." The small
shopkeepers, once ardent Nationalists, seem to be changing their
minds. One of them confided to me the fact that he and his fellows,
brought actually face to face with the possibility that the end of
their aspirations and agitations would be attained, were beginning to
ask whether, after all, taxation would be remitted, whether indeed the
rates would not be heavier, and whether the moneyed people would
remain in the country at all. Hearing on all sides these and similar
confessions, accompanied by urgent admonitions of secrecy, you begin
to ask whether the past conduct of these enlightened voters had any
more substantial basis than a cantankerous and unreasonable
discontent, superadded to an Irishman's natural love of fighting. The
leaders of the Separatist party have made the most frantic efforts to
win over the police, but apparently without much success. The Dublin
constabulary, a body of 1,300 men, is totally separate and distinct
from the Royal Irish Constabulary, but I have reason to believe that
the feeling of both forces is averse to Home Rule. Said a sergeant
yesterday, "John Bull may have faults, but," and here he winked
expressively, "but--he pays!" Then he went on--"I am a Westmeath man,
a Roman Catholic, an' as good an Irishman as any of thim; an' I'd like
Home Rule if it was local self-government, what they call the gas an'
wather management, or the like of that. But although I've the highest
respect for my counthry, an' for my counthrymen, I'd like to feel that
my pay was in better hands, and--what is of more importance--my
pension, afther 30 years' service."
Here was a complete lack of confidence, but my friend had more to say.
He referred to the provisions of the bill, spoke of the six years'
arrangement, and on this point exhibited great native shrewdness. "How
do we know we'll be employed for six years, once the Irish leaders get
matters in their own hands? They may promise fairly enough, but they
would be subject to several influences which might prevint thim kaping
their promise. First of all, when they had the power, they would
naturally like to manage things their own way--an' not to be
altogether bound down so hard an' fast by their engagement with the
English Parliament. Then, although they profess such friendship, they
don't altogether like us. We may tell them we are Nationalists, an'
that we're runnin' over with patriotism; but they'll tell us that we
stood by at evictions, an' that we fired on the people at
Mitchelstown. But the greatest thing of all is this--all their
counthry friends, all the terrorisers, the men that mutilated the
cattle, the village ruffians that for years have been doin' their
work, an' actin' as their spies--all these will have to be provided
for. The same with our officers, but their case is still worse. They
have had to pass a regular military examination, which means an
expensive education. They will get the go-by an' the dirty kick-out,
in order that the friends of the ruling party, who have been so long
in the desert, may be furnished with posts. 'Tis human nature, Sorr."
Wherefore, the constabulary, it would seem, may be trusted to take
care of themselves, but the situation is suggestive of serious
complications, once the bill were passed. A full private this morning
told me that without the security of the British Exchequer the force
would not hold together for four-and-twenty hours, a statement which,
whatever be its value, is at least an indication of the amount of
trust which some of the Irish people, and those not the worst
informed, are disposed to place in the distinguished assembly which,
according to the authority hereinbefore-mentioned is _not_ to meet on
College Green.
A never-ending complaint which follows you everywhere is the
supineness of the English electorate. Men whose interests are
seriously threatened, such as the better class of shopkeepers, are
unable to understand the comparative calmness of the British public at
large. Passionately they ask why England leaves them to their fate,
and strongly they urge that prompt and decided action should be taken,
if not for the sake of Ireland, then in the interests of England
herself. Disruption, pure and simple, the breaking up of the Empire,
with panic and general ruin, are in their opinion the sure and certain
concomitants of the bill now before the House. They declare that
Englishmen as a whole, whether Gladstonians or Unionists, fail to
realise the gravity of the situation, and they lose no opportunity of
saying whenever they hear an English accent, "WE DON'T WANT IT, WE
DON'T WANT IT!" Not always do they trouble to say what is the thing
they so emphatically reject. "Pardon me, Sir, but are you English?"
Receiving an affirmative the rejoinder comes at once, and forcefully,
"We don't want it, we don't want it! Tell the English people that if
they knew all they would not entertain the idea for a moment." The
phrase meets you everywhere, is roared at you in chorus in commercial
rooms, haunts you in your sleep, and, if they would own it, must be
painfully suggestive to Gladstonian visitors. But there are none so
blind as those who will not see, none so deaf as those who will not
hear. It is impossible to withhold sympathy with the indignation and
mental anxiety of these industrious men, who have made Dublin what she
is, and whose only notion of happiness is the fulfilment of duty,
their sole means of acquiring wealth or middleclass comfort, hard and
honest work. That the backbone of the city should stand with their
fortunes subject to the will of a few unscrupulous agitators is
indeed, as they say, an inscrutable dispensation of Providence.
Help, however, is at hand. As Hercules hangs backward in their need
they have determined to help themselves. During the Easter recess both
Ireland and England will be made to ring with denunciations of Home
Rule, denunciations uttered for the most part by Irishmen. Orators
will go forth throughout the length and breadth of both islands, with
the object of laying the truth of the matter before the
people--demonstrating the dire results which the most intelligent
almost unanimously predict. There will be no lack of funds--Catholics
and Protestants are subscribing, among the former the grandson of
Daniel O'Connell, the great Liberator of Ireland. Money is literally
pouring into the offices of the Irish Unionist Alliance. Little Roman
Catholic Tralee, in the heart of Kerry, one of the most disturbed
districts, has sent several hundreds. In three weeks the subscriptions
have reached L20,000. That ought to be enough to enable Irish
Unionists not, as one said to me, "to enlighten the English people. We
do not presume to so much. But we will try to let some of the Darkness
out."
Dublin, March 28th.
No. 2.--PANIC AND DISASTER.
The situation is becoming hourly more serious. The over-excited
condition of men's minds is rapidly ripening into a panic. The
impending Second Reading is driving the respectable population of
Ireland into absolute despair. The capital is inundated by men from
all parts of the kingdom anxious to know the worst, running hither and
thither, asking whether, even at the eleventh hour, anything may be
done to avert the dreaded calamity. An eminent solicitor assures me
that during the last four-and-twenty hours a striking change of
opinion has taken place. Red-hot Home Rulers when confronted with the
looming actuality are on all sides abandoning their loudly proclaimed
political opinions. My friend's business--he is, or has been, an
ardent Home Ruler--is chiefly connected with land conveyancing, and he
declares that his office is besieged by people anxious to "withdraw
their charges" on land and house property, that is, to recall their
money advanced on mortgage, however profitable the investment, however
apparently solid the security. He instanced the case of an estate in
Cavan, bearing three mortgages of respectively L1,000, L3,000, and
L4,000, and leaving to the borrower a clear income of L1,700 a year
after all claims were paid. The three lenders are strenuously
endeavouring to realise, the thousand-pounder being prostrate with
affright, but although the investments under normal conditions would
fetch a good premium, not a penny can be raised in any direction. The
lenders are Home Rulers, and eighty per cent. of the population of
Cavan are Roman Catholic.
The same story is heard everywhere, with "damnable iteration." The
cause of charity is suffering severely. The building of additions to
the Rotunda Hospital and the Hospital for Consumptives, at a cost of
twenty thousand pounds, has been definitely abandoned, although
three-quarters of the money has been raised. The building trade is at
a complete standstill. On every hand contracts are thrown up, great
works are put aside. Mr. Kane, High Sheriff of Kildare, declines to
proceed with the building of his new mansion, which was to cost many
thousand pounds. Mr. John Jameson, the eminent distiller, who also
contemplated the construction of a palatial residence, which would
take years to build, has dropped the idea. The project for the
formation of a great Donegal Oyster-bed Company, which long bade fair
to prosper, and to confer a boon on the starving peasantry of the
coast, has been cast to the winds. Among the shoals of similar
occurrences which confront you at every turn, some contain an element
almost of humour. A Dublin architect tells a quaint story of this
kind. It may not be generally known in England that the Roman
Catholics of Ireland can borrow money from John Bull for the erection
of "glebe-houses," at 4 per cent., repayable in 49 years. In a certain
recent case the priest thought the builder's estimate too high, and,
without absolutely declining the contract, intimated that he would
"wait a while." Said the architect, "Better make up your mind before
June, or you may have the Irish Legislature to deal with." This
argument acted like magic. The good Father instantly saw its cogency,
and, like every other patriotic Nationalist whose personal interest is
involved, preferred to place himself in English hands rather than in
those of his own countrymen, and incontinently accepted the contract,
begging the architect to proceed with all haste.
A run on the Post Office Savings Bank threatens to clear out every
penny of Irish money, and why? Because it has dawned on the small
hoarders, the thrifty and industrious members of the lower classes,
that the Post Office is to be transferred to the Irish Legislature. A
friend tells me that yesterday his Catholic cook begged for an
interview. She had money in the Post Office Savings Bank, and
thereanent required advice, asking if it would be safe till to-morrow!
Following up this hint, pregnant with meaning, though delivered in
jest, I found that the feeling of insecurity is spreading like wild
fire, to the intense indignation of those patriots who have no
savings, and who are alive to the fact that under the provisions of
the proposed Act the four millions supposed to be lying in the Post
Office Savings Bank would constitute the entire working capital, as
distinguished from current income, of the College Green Legislature.
The master of a small sub-office told me that the withdrawals at his
little place amounted to L200 per week, rising latterly to L70 per
day, and that it was necessary to get money from London to meet the
demands. Concurrently with this I learn that the Dublin Savings Bank,
an institution managed by merchants of the city, for the encouragement
of thrift, is receiving the money so withdrawn, and this confidence is
explained by the well-known fact that the directors have publicly
declared that on the passing of the Home Rule Bill they will pay 20s.
in the pound and close the bank, in addition to which significant
ultimatum they have, in writing, declared to Mr. Gladstone, that this
course of action is due to the fact that they repudiate the security
of the proposed Irish Legislature. To put the thing in a nutshell it
may be said that not a single Irishman in or out of the country is
willing to trust the Irish Legislature with a single penny of his own
money.
A curious feature of the Nationalist character is the profound
contempt expressed for Nationalist M.P.'s. Englishmen are accustomed
to speak of their own members, representing their own opinions, with
respect. Not so in Dublin. A rabid Nationalist said to me, "I am an
Irishman to the backbone. I am a Home Ruler out-and-out. But do you
think I'd trust my property with either of the two Tims? Do you think
such men as Tim Harrington and Tim Healy are fit to be trusted with
the spending of 2-1/2 millions of money per annum? They have their
job, and they work well at their job, and the Irish people have backed
them up out of pure divilment. 'Tis mighty fine to take a rise out of
John Bull, to harass him, to worry him, to badger him out of his seven
sinses. The half of the voters never were serious, or voted as they
were told by men who expatiated on the wrongs which have been dinned
into them from infancy. But to trust these orators with their money!
Bedad, we're not all out such omadhauns (idiots) as that! Paddy is not
altogether such a fool as he looks."
Although public feeling has suddenly deepened in intensity, the change
has been for some time in progress. I am enabled to state on
irrefragable authority, that Lord Houghton's sudden departure from
Dublin on Sunday week was entirely due to his alarm at the shifting
aspect of affairs, which rendered instant conference with Mr.
Gladstone a matter of urgent necessity. And it should be especially
noted that this change is most apparent not in the Protestant North,
not among the irreconcilable black and heretic Ulsterites, but in
Nationalist Dublin, in the Roman Catholic south--not simply among the
moneyed classes and well-to-do shopkeepers of Dublin, but among the
industrious poor, and the small farmers of the region round about. The
opinions and feelings of the better classes have ever been dead
against the Bill, and the best portion of the poorer people are
assuredly moving in the same direction. That such is the simple fact
is undeniable. It is thrust upon you whether you will or no. You are
compelled to believe it, whatever your political creed. It manifests
itself in a variety of ways. Mr. Love, of Kildare, a landed
proprietor, now in Dublin, says that on Sunday last Dr. Gowing, parish
priest of Kill, denounced Home Rule from the altar, and advised the
people to have none of it.
The Dubliners are beginning to publicly ridicule their Nationalist
members. A bog-oak carving represents a typical Irishman driving a
"conthrairy pig," which is supposed to stand for Tim Harrington. The
interesting animal is deviating from the right way, gazing fixedly at a
milestone which bears the legend, "IX. miles to College Green." His
master gives him a cut of the whip and a jerk of the rope, and thus
addresses the wayward Tim, "Arrah, don't be wastin' yer larnin', radin'
milestones. Ye're not goin' to Dublin--ye're goin' to BRAY!" A Phoenix
Park orator who sang amusing songs finished his appeal for coppers
thus, "Sure, Home Rule is a splindid thing--an iligant thing intirely,
an' a blind man could see the goodness iv it wid his two eyes. Didn't
ye all know Tim Harrington whin he hadn't the price iv his breakfast?
Didn't ye know him whin he would dhrop on his two marrowbones and thank
God for the price of a shmell of calamity-wather" (whiskey). "An' now
look at him! D'ye mind the iligant property he has outside Dublin? An
ye'll all get the like o' that, every bosthoon among yez, av ye get
Home Rule. But yez must sind _me_ to Parlimint. Sure I have ivery
quollification. Wasn't I born among yez? Wasn't I rared among yez?
Don't I know what yez wants? An' didn't I go many a day widout a male?
Aye, that I did, an' could do it again! Sind _me_ to Parlimint, till I
get within whisperin' distance of Misther Gladstone--within whisperin'
distance, d'ye mind me? Ye'll all get lashins of dhrink, an' free
quarthers at the Castle. An' all ye have to do is to pay me, an' pay me
well." Here the speaker laid his finger along his nose and broke into a
comic song having reference to "the broad Atlantic," which he chanted
in a brogue almost as broad as the Atlantic itself.
The better class of vacillating Nationalists are ready to give a
plausible reason for the faith that is in them. You cannot catch an
Irish Home Ruler napping, nor will he admit that he was ever wrong. He
will talk to the average Englishman about Irish rights and Irish
wrongs, Irish virtues and Irish abstinence from crime with a reckless
disregard for truth that can only be born of a firm belief that Irish
newspapers are never read outside Ireland, and will then walk off and
plume himself on the assumption that because he met no point-blank
contradiction he has duped his victim into believing the most absurd
mass of wild misinformation that was ever crammed down the throats of
the most gullible of his rustic countrymen. It must be admitted that
they are shrewd critics of the Bill, of which every individual
citizen, whatever his conviction, has an annotated copy in his
tail-pocket. The Dublin change of front is ascribed to the "insulting
manner in which the Bill is drafted." The Nationalists, one and all,
roundly declare, in terms which admit of no qualification, that the
present bill means no less than separation, and while admitting that
this is their dearest aspiration, declare that England will only have
herself to thank. They complain that the word "Parliament" is never
used in the Bill when referring to the Irish Legislature, but console
themselves with the reflection that the supremacy of Parliament proper
is only mentioned in the preamble, which they rejoice to believe is
not part of the bill, and therefore is not binding in law. The
Treasury clauses they declare to have been drawn by a deadly enemy of
Ireland, but here again they find salvation in the alleged
inconsistency of the various provisions of the bill.
They accept with exceeding great joy the provision which will enable
them to deprive of their property, rights, and privileges all existing
Corporations whether incorporated under Royal Charter or otherwise,
pointing out that this means ownership and control of the Bank of
Ireland, Trinity College, and all the churches and cathedrals, which
hereafter are to be wrested from Protestant hands and devoted to the
propagandism of the Roman Catholic faith; and that the Bill confers
these powers is, they say, made clearly evident by the clause that
places these matters in the hands of an executive "directed by Irish
Act." By virtue of his position they have already nominated Archbishop
Walsh on this executive, with other ecclesiastics of like kidney. This
they admit is a good mouthful, but they scornfully assert that while
Mr. Gladstone has left them income-tax to pay, he has also loaded them
with the Post Office, a Greek gift, which under the best English
management is worked at a loss of fifty thousand pounds a year! The
two Home Rulers who in my hearing so ruthlessly dissected the Bill
made merry over the clause which excludes the Irish Government from
all control of the "foreign mails or submarine telegraphs or
through-lines in connection therewith," pouring on the unhappy
sentence whole cataracts of ridicule. "We have the thing in our hands,
and we are not to control its working," said they. "The cable between
England and America passes through Ireland, will be worked by our
servants, by people who will look to us as their paymasters, and we
are to have no control!" The preposterous absurdity of the notion
tickled the entire company. "But if England does not please us, can we
not cut the cable? Can we not order our own paid servants to cease
transmitting messages, or to transmit only such as have survived the
inspection of the accredited officials of the Irish people?" It was
thought that this was reasonable and a possible, nay a probable
conjuncture, and might be used as a weapon to damage English trade.
"Let them go round or lay another cable," said one patriot.