Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1886 — COERCION IN IRELAND. [ARTICLE]

COERCION IN IRELAND.

Mr. Sexton’s Opinion of Gen. Sir Kedvers Buller’s Mission. [Special cablegram to the Chicago Daily News.] In an interview I had with Mr. Sexton, M. P., he said, concerning the appointment of Sir Redvers Buller: “I think it is intended to pave the way for coercion in Ireland enforced by a military administration.” “Will not a coercion act be needed before he can do his work thoroughly?” “Certainly. I be'ieve Parliament will be summoned again in November for the purpose of passing a stringent coercion act. Buller's proceeding in Kerry will very likely furnish a plausible excuse for applying for such a measure. Meanwhile, should he, during the preliminary operation, do any violence to the constitution by overstepping the law, and treat moonlighters, as has been threatened, as though they were in rebellion, bearing arms against the crown, Parliament will be asked to pass an indemnity act in his favor. This will be a short measure, one clause probably freeing him from the penalties which his conduct would otherwise entail. It would be following the precedent adopted previous to the rebellion of 1798 in the case of Lord Carhampton, who was sent to Ireland as military administrator, and who distinguished himself by practicing what he himself styled ‘violence outside the law.’ This was one of the methods by which the Irish people of that time were exasperated into insurrection. Gen. Lake also, who helped put down the rebellion in ’9B, was indemnified by Parliment for the atrocities he committed. “The phrase used by the spokesman of the Government in reference to Buller's appointment is indicative of the object they have in view. They intend, they said, in solving the Irish question, to utilize those officials who had had experience in solving similar problems in other countries. All the experience Buller has ever bad has been as a soldier, and his chief distinction was won among the savage tribes of Zululand, against whom he exercised peculiar inhumanity. Judging from his experience, therefore!, he goes to Irel ind as the best exponent of Lord Salisbury’s policy of governing Ireland as a nation of Hottentots.” “What effect will the coercion regime have upon the people of Ireland?” “It won’t affect them very much. They are now too well skilled in the art of resisting and outwitting coercion. Besides, their course is now everywhere understood, and they have the sympathy of the whole world with them. The greatest statesman of the age has put himself at their head, and the greatest party in England has made their cause its own.” “How will the coercion policy operate upon the government?” “It will enable them to carry out their designs smoothly at first, but in a short time it will create a revolution of feeling throughout England, and many men who aie strong anti-home-ruleis now will be converted to home rule in consequence. Those conversions will take place in the House of Commons as well as in the country, and before the Hottentot policy has been long in operation an opportunity will arise when the friends of Ireland will be able to drive its authors out of power.”