Punch: Punch (78.1880)

WHEN SHALL WE THREE MEET AGAIN?”

HARD LINES!

Here is a specimen of the truths which Mr. Parnell is flinging
broadcast in the States. The following gems are from his speech at
Newark, a flourishing manufacturing town of New Jersey, a few
miles from New York:—

“ Last evening the cable told us that the British Government, unable to sweep
back the movement, had resorted to massacre. In Galway County the police
had fired upon the people. Such occurrences show us how terrible is the condi-
tion of things in Ireland. It is part of the policy of the landlords to use the
armed force as part of their method of eviction, and picture if you can what an
eviction is! The house is broken into, the furniture broken by sledge-hammers.
No respect is paid to age or sex, or even to death. Although I am no advocate
of force, yet, at the same time, such deeds as we have heard of are enough to
stir the hearts of the most patient people to use force. {Applause.) The
English Press tell you of cattle disabled and landlords shot, but they never
■specify any case, and now, after all the forbearance of the people, the Govern-
ment were the first to shed blood. I say those people were murdered, and I
say it fearlessly, and I shall repeat it in the House of Commons when I get
there. {Applause.) That was noble conduct on the part of the people when
they, with their brothers and sisters shot down beside them, still forebore from
violence. It will hardly be believed, but it was a fact in our last famine, that
when com was seized by the landlords for rent it was burnt by them in the
sight of the starving people. "VVe desire to make the tenant-farmers the
owners—that is our policy. {Applause.) We think the system which puts
middlemen between those who own and those who work the land is an artifi-
cial system. You had landlords in this State once, but in your rough and
ready method you abolished them. In France they had landlords, but in the
Revolution they were hung to the lamp-posts. In Prussia they divided the
land and gave the landlords a third in small fragments. Iam afraid it will
be with our efforts as it was with the books of the Sibyl. She offered all her
books for a price, and on a refusal went off and burnt one and came back anj
offered the rest, and so on until the price was paid for the one book that was
left. The Irish landlords will refuse our offer, and we shall offer less and less
until we get what we want, and we shall surely get it.’ ’ ’

And yet in. answer to these heart-rending appeals, these revolting
cases of tyranny, oppression and outrage, Uncle Sam: cruelly ana
cold-heartedly buttons up his pockets. When in spite of Parnell,
he sends relief to the starving and suffering Irish in the South and
West, left destitute by the cruelty of the season, not of their land-
lords, he prefers to do it through the Duchess of Marlborough,

or, if Roman Catholic, the clergy of the party he desires to help,
instead of Messrs. Parnell and Dillon.

This is too cruel—neither trust their oratory for truth, nor their
agency for relief ! What does Uncle Sam take them for ?

For firebrands, perhaps, bent on spreading hate and lawlessness,
anarchy and ruin, in the hopes of picking popularity and influence
out of the mess. Or, perhaps, for agitators blinded by prejudice,
giddy with the fumes of mob incense, and drunk with the wine of hate
for the Saxon and unreasoning plaudits of the Celt. For anything,
in short, but for faithful describers of facts, or trustworthy channels
of alms. Such is Uncle Sam’s ridiculous prejudice—much as he
knows from experience of Irish nature and Irish agitation.

COOL, IE NOT CHILLY.

The following letter has found its way to 85, Fleet Street. From
internal evidence Mr. Punch imagines it must have been intended
for one of his daily contemporaries :—

Sir, January 26, 1880.

I have read with the greatest possible pleasure the com-
munications evidently emanating from the purest of philanthropists
which you have from time to time published in your valuable columns
concerning the war between Chili and Peru. A great opportunity of
practical benevolence offers itself at the present moment to the former
country. Peru is beaten, hopelessly beaten; and now is. the hour
for Chili to set an example to the whole world moderation, kind-
ness, and generosity. It is, indeed, a grand thought! The Chilians
are a noble people, and they should be worthy of their reputation!
But, after all, human nature is human nature; and should “the
English of South America” show any hesitation in pursuing the
path I am about to point out to them, it is my firm opinion that the
Great Powers of Europe should employ their Moral Force in com-
pelling them into it. If Moral Force fails, why then the most
peaceable amongst us may discover the real use of those “bloated
armaments ” which have caused so much vague and wide-spread
apprehension. In a word, a “Menace to the Peace of Europe,”
might be turned into a “ Source of the Prosperity of South America.”
It is unnecessary to enlarge upon the horrors of war. To every