Ireland is likely once more to upset the Government programme considerably in the coming session. The growing condition of lawlessness in island is giving Mr. Birrell " very uncomfortable time. The Trish Unionists have for a long time past been denouncing him for.this inaction, which in their view amounts to outrage. On the other hand Mr. Redmond brings forward the old plea that there is far less serious crime in Leland than in England or Scotland. In the sense in which he uses the word "crime" that is undeniable, though there is probably a good deal of truth in the retort of Mr. Walter Long that this is not because the Irish as a race are less criminally inclined than the English and Scotch, but because there are in Ireland far fewer of those great centres. of population which afford the readiest field action for professional criminals.
is not ordis crime, how-riy [ever as Mr. Redmond knows well enough, that the Unionists refer to when they denounce the lawlessness of Ireland. It is agrarian and political lawlessness. It is true that even this is to-day of a far less serious type than of old. There have been a few cases of shooting at men who are in the black books of the League, and at their families; but in the main the weapons used are boycotting and cattle-driving, CATTLE-DRIVING, Mr. Redmond, while taking care not to defend cattle-driving directly, contends that it is not a crime. Technically he is quite right. The law distinguished between a crime and a misdemeanour, and cattle-driving ecrues under the less serious head. The cattle are not stolen or mutilated; they are simply driven off the grazing lands, Nevertheless cattle-driving is doing immense harm to one of Ire~ land's most prosperous industries. The Irish peasants are alarmed at the growth of what they call "cattle ranches" because they threaten to reduce the amount of land available for acquirement by small farms under Mr. Wyndham's Land Act. No doubt the growth of grazing has a tendency in this direction, and Mr. Birrell has so far acknowledged the grievance as to promise to introduce a Bill to deal with it, At the same time there can be no question that cattle-raising is a branch of agriculture for which much of the land of Ireland is best suited, and that the Irish could not do a more foolish thing in their own interest than cripple this profitable industry. The immediate point of interest, however, is thet Mr. Birrell is encouraging the prosecution of ignorant men who take part in cattle driving, while he has not the courage to prosecute Mr. Ginnell, ur. the Nationalist member who invented this new plan of campaign and who goes about openly advocating it. The excuse of the Chief Secretary is that it would be bad policy to make martyr of Mr. Ginnell; but even that doughty champion of the Government, the " Westminster Gazette," now confesses that this excuse is not good enough.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.