Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home Rule — John Shaqi
Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home RuleBuckley, Robert John
History
Ireland as it is, and as it would be under Home Rule
Buckley, Robert John
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901; Irish question
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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