Is Ireland a Nation? [pp. 65-83]

Is Ireland a Nation 2
doctrine which has supplied him with a nickname likely to last for his life-" Pinch of
Hunger Trevelyan." His attention had
been called again and again in the House of
Commons by Mr. Parnell, Mr. Sexton, and
other leading men of the Irish party to the
awful distress existing in those wild regions
of the country, where in remote districts
contiguous to the sea coast, the inhabitants
were actually living upon seaweed. The
Irish members had no control over the purse
strings of the nation or they would not allow the principles of political economy to
stand in their way while their fellow countrymen were starving. They besought the
English government to save the people's
lives; the only alternative offered was the
hated workhouse, and when assured that the
people preferred death to entering those
charnel houses, Mr. Trevelyan replied with
brutal candour that when they felt the pinch
of hunger they would gladly avail themselves of the offered refuge.
The celebrated General Gordon, who fell
at Kartoum, was a philanthropic man. He
happened to be in Ireland in the year i88o
and wrote from Glengariff, County Cork, to
the Times. The letter appeared on the 3d
of December of that year. In it he said
"I must say from all accounts and from my own
observation, that the state of our fellow countrymen in the parts I have named, is worse than that
of any people in the world, let alone Europe. I
believe that these people are made as we are;
that they are patient beyond belief, loyal, but at
at the same time broken-spirited and desperate, living on the verge of starvation in places in which
we would not keep our cattle. The Bulgarians,
Anatolians, Chinese, and Indians are better off than
many of them are."
General Gordon's character and vast experience of the inhabitants of various parts
of the habitable globe give a peculiar interest to his pronouncement on the condition
in which he found the people of the rich and
fertile country of Ireland, at the end of seven
centuries of misrule, under laws that come
to her "with a foreign aspect, in a foreign
garb."
The remedy is plain and easy, or, to repeat Mr. Bright's words on the measure of
reform for Ireland in I852, "The means
are simple, but altogether novel in that unhappy country to do full and impartial
justice to her whole population."
How is this to be done? Mr. Gladstone's
proposal supplies the method- "A domestic
legislature for Ireland."
It is urged by the opponents of reform
that Ireland could not manage her own local
affairs, or take care of her own interests if
she had a native parliament, as well as
England takes careof them for her. A very
strong opinion to the contrary exists in Ireland. Let us examine for a moment the
methods by which Irish interests are cared
for by an English Parliament. Mr. Gladstone, speaking in the House of Commons
in i868, said with reference to the land laws:
"It was in the year 1844-now about a quarter of
a century ago-that the question of Irish tenure
and the unprotected position of the cultivator with
regard to the fruits of his interest and labour, had
become so urgent and importunate as to lead the
Conservative Government of Sir Robert Peel to
appoint a Commission to examine thoroughly into
that matter. That Commission reported in 1845.
It was composed of men whose names carry the utmost confidence...... The Commission unanimously reported on many subjects connected with
tenure, but especially they reported to the effect
that under the conditions, and for the purposes
they described, it was the duty of Parliament, without delay, to legislate to secure to the tenant the
benefit of his improvements. That opinion of the
Commission was adopted b)y the Conservative Government of Sir Robert Peel; and Lord Derby, as
the representative of that Government in the
House of Lords, made in 1854, an earnest effort to
secure the adoption of that principle. But from
that day to this the principle has not been adopted."
The grievance of Ireland with respect to
the land was proved and admitted on all
hands to be a crying one. Again and
again, session after session, Mr. Sharman
Crawford and others pressed the consideration of it on the attention of government.
At length, in 1844, after weary years of per
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