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Grant

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THE DEMOCRAT.

"THEY HAVE RIGHTS WHO DARE MAINTAIN THEM."

VOL. IV. No. 94.

The Outlook.

SEPTEMBER, 1886.

It is clear that nothing but a cordial union between English and Irish Radicals can save the country from legislation which will be monstrously unjust and permanently disastrous.

The Government intend to enforce the exaction of rents which are admitted to be excessive, and

PRICE TWOPENCE.

of the British nation. Mr. Parnell's Amendment to the Address declares at once against evictions and land purchase. It seems impossible that anyone with a vestige of humanity in his bosom can fail to give it support.

The English and Irish Peoples.
Although the outlook for the present is dark,

nising that the British aristocracy and not the
British people have been their oppressors in
the past. The Nation, with which is associated
the memory
this truth into eloquent words. After thank-
of many a noble Irishman, puts
ing Mr. Davitt for his conduct at the Chicago
Convention, the Nation says:-
says:-"The English
democracy must get a fair chance of dealing
justice to Ireland. There is no record of blood
and outrage to rise up between us and them.
Their masters have been our tyrants; but as
they have dragged these men from their seats
of power in England, so will they with the wise
instinct of a democracy destroy their tyranny
here. They have only now learned their first
lesson in the history of Irish wrong; let them
not be turned aside by our rash deeds from
learning the whole story. We are the unshrink-
ing enemies of British rule here; but we have
no enmity towards the people of England; we
have rather a great trust in their sense of
justice." Once English and Irish Radicals
learn to work hand in hand the reign of privi-
lege and caste will speedily end.

in doing so they are encouraged by Lord Har- it is cheering to see how Irishmen are recogtington, who urges them to carry out this policy without even the exercise of discretion. Lord Salisbury has declared that the chief object of the proposed Commission of Inquiry is to facilitate arrangements for land purchase, and he contends that purchase must be made on the basis of the rents fixed by the Land Commission, even if these rents cannot possibly be obtained from the produce of the soil. It is interesting to note the coolness with which these noble and wealthy landowners contemplate delay. Of course they can wait, and in the case of landlords it is literally true that everything comes to those who wait. But let us remember that everything goes from those who are evicted. Their improvements which represent years of labour go at once to the owner of the soil, who has done nothing for his tenant but exact rent. Out goes the hardworking occupier with nothing but rags, and without food for his wife and children, expelled from the small home he has created by his own efforts which, poor as it is, afforded some shelter from the bleak winds, a shelter which is now altogether denied to him. These are the Irish outrages which the Government are urged to continue with unceasing severity, and in which they are to employ the whole power

Why Rents are Excessive and Impossible.

We are assured by the most reliable authorities that the value of the corn crops in the

United Kingdom does not exceed fifty-eight millions per annum, whereas the agricultural rent paid to landlords is more than sixty millions. The total produce of the land is found to be worth two hundred and thirty millions, so that the rent paid exceeds the whole value of the corn crops, and comes to more than twenty-four per cent. on the whole produce of the land. The farmers who pay these enormous rents have to compete with men who buy the best land in America for a pound per acre, and with the producers in India, who pay from one shilling to one and sixpence per acre rent. The cost of transport having been greatly reduced, it is now impossible to carry on agriculture with such competitors under a burden exceeding twenty-five per cent. in actual money payment, and probably inflicting injury to the extent of another twenty-five per cent. in obstructions, which the arbitrary actions of landlords impose upon progress. The simple fact is that the British farmer cannot win a race with a landlord on his back.

Indoor Protection.

We have it on the authority of Lord Salisbury that it costs £3,800 per annum to protect the Earl of Kenmare, which has to be paid by the unhappy ratepayers. When a man irritates his neighbours to such a degree that it requires 38 policeman to guard him in his movements, he should either pay the cost of the process or a cheaper plan should be adopted. If an able-bodied man cannot maintain himself by his industry, we forthwith shut him up in the workhouse. The same course should be adopted towards those who are unable to protect themselves against the chronic indignation of their neighbours. The costs the country seventy-five pounds per week. He might be kept quite safe in the workhouse during the same period for eight shillings.

Earl of Kenmare now

Legalised Murder.

"Sixty evictions have already been executed, affecting as many as eighty families, by an armed force of officers, sergeants, and con

stables to the number of nearly 200, and only £4 has been realised." So writes the newspaper correspondent who has accompanied the evicting army against the hapless Gweedore peasantry-people whom Lord Salisbury, doubtless, considers as quite capable of satisfying the landlords' demands. The descriptions of the operations of the crowbar brigade in Gweedore are simply heart-rending. In one case the tenant, a widow of 90 years, lay in a prostrate condition by the fireside-she was dying. Her emaciated form bore testimony to the privations she had undergone. The priest interceded on her behalf, and at last persuaded the evictors to allow her to remain in her wretched cabin for the few days that remain to her. But even then a scene has to be enacted which makes the blood of every honest man boil in his veins. The poor, withered creature has to be carried outside the door of her cabin in order that the formality of taking possession may be effected. The man who is responsible for these proceedings must be a fiend in human form. And while deeds such as this are being done the Prime Minister of England has the audacity to prate of the immorality of the Irish peasantry.

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In his cabin

Sweeney is now the victim. there is but one room, and his wife, a weak, sickly woman, has a three weeks' old baby in her arms. Husband, wife, and five children, too young to know the evil that has come upon them, are thrust into the road, the door is barred, and they may die for want of food and shelter for aught the landlord or his satellites care. Such is the work done daily in Ireland in the name of British law. A Government which permits such work is a band of brigands. Irishmen have grasped the fact that from Lord Salisbury no quarter is to be expected. The Compensation for Disturbance Bill was introduced at a time when famine was

stalking through Ireland. The man who is now at the head of affairs characterised it as "the measure of a mind not strongly impressed with reverence for the rights of property, and who desired to make his own path smooth by

feeding wild beasts whom he is not strong enough to tame." Lord Salisbury has again declared war against the Irish peasantry.

Outrages.

"The distinction between Davitt and the persons of whom Congressman Finerty is representative is not one of much value to Englishmen. If Davitt advises Parliamentary agitation instead of dynamite it is not in the least because he wishes to save Englishmen's skins, but simply because he thinks the former method is more likely than the latter to succeed in effecting the erection of Ireland as an independent State." So says the St. James's Gazette, which evidently has a judicious appreciation of the wisdom and probable efficiency of Michael Davitt's recommendations. A more unjust and mendacious charge of indifference to human suffering was never made. Michael Davitt has striven nobly to keep the cause he loves free from outrage, and has done more than any living man to sow the seeds of good will between the English and Irish peoples. His action at the Chicago Convention is alone a sufficient answer to such a calumny as this. The privileged classes know full well that outrages committed by the poor people who have been driven to desperation by oppression are the most effective arguments for "resolute" and unjust government, and it is to be hoped that Michael Davitt and other able supporters of the people's cause will succeed in their efforts to keep the peace in spite of all provocation. The people can then use on their own behalf a power far more effective than outrages against their op

pressors,

Argyll and Whisky.

The Anti-Whisky Manifesto issued by the Duke of Argyll's late factor in Tiree has been repudiated by the Duke, who says the late factor issued it without his authority, and that though "his motive may have been a good one the action he took shows I did not remove him a moment too soon." The late factor retorts that he was not "removed," but resigned his office ning years after the publication of the Anti-Whisky Edict. This, nowever, is not all.

Argyll's whilom factotum states that he resigned his office because he found his Grace had resolved to clear the people away, and rather than be a party to wholesale evictions he took the step in question. He adds pathetically, "My zeal to uphold the Duke's temperance policy may very probably have exceeded my discretion at the time." Most true.

Oban Unprotected.

The removal of police from Oban to assist in the buccaneering expedition to Tiree seems to have been taken advantage of by the ne'erdo-weels of that town. At a meeting of the Town Council, Councillor Munro said:" It is a gross injustice that Oban should have been left for more than a week in charge of two policemen, who were strangers. The drunks had taken advantage of this state of affairs, and had been having a high old time of it. He could not say how many ribs had got broken on Saturday night. The policemen themselves, he believed, had got several broken." Apart from the performances of the "drunks," the matter will be a serious one for the ratepayers of Oban, who will have to contribute to the expenses of the expedition. Indignation is felt in the town at the idea of people being compelled to pay the cost of sending a force to harry the Crofters of Tiree in the interests of such a man as the Duke of Argyll. Doubtless his Grace considers it of more importance that his rents should be exacted than that "law and order" should be maintained in Oban.

The Cost of Landlordism.

Apart from the money exacted in the shape of rent, the cost of landlordism in Ireland is far greater than most people imagine. The wholesale evictions in Donegal, in which 150 policemen and bailiffs, and sixty cars were employed, has cost no less than £100 a day, although the total yearly rental involved is only £150. A tradesman, to whom a legitimate debt was due, who applied for an army to aid him in obtaining his money would be laughed at, but landlords, who give nothing in return for what they receive, have all the " resources of civilization" placed at their disposal, at the

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