Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1890 — OUTRAGE ON THE IRISH. [ARTICLE]

OUTRAGE ON THE IRISH.

O’Brien, Di lon and Others Arrested on Truuip«d-l-P Charges. o London politicians were startled on Thursday by the announcement’ from Dublin that John Dillon and William XTBrienwere under arrest...onthe-eharge-of conspiracy and inciting tenants to refjise payment .of rent to landlords, and that warrants were out for other members of the Land League.. There was much speculation as to the motive which has -inspired the government to : enterAipon ; this new crusade against nationalism. From .well informed sources, however, it is learned that.the. movement which has., caused such surprise to the public is the result of pressure brought to bear upon the government by the Irish Tories, who learned that Mr. O’Brien was arranging a campaign against several large estates similar to the one so successfully carried out on the Smith-Barry lands ,at Tipperary. Barry’s great wealth enables him to survive the depopulation of his domains, but there are many cases in which such an exodus would mean ruin to the landlordsMr. O’Brien was also credited with the intention of utilizing the distress caused by the potato blight as a joaans-bf-stirring up feeling against the landlord system, which would" be charged with the responsibility of keeping the people too poor to accumulate even the few pounds required to help them through an occasional bad season. The suggestion to nip these schemes in the bud by a wholesale jailing of Mr. O’Brien and his friends on general charges of technical violations of the laW, came originally from the Dublin Castle authorities, but was readily acquiesced in by Secretary Balfour. Doubt less a desire to prevent the proposed American tour of O’Brien, Dillon aqd others had its weight in leading to the arrests, but this is not believed to have been the j rincipal incentive. Mr. O’Brien’s last trip through America and Canada did not have sufficient effect in evoking ill feeling against England, nor in swelling the contributions to the Irish campaign funds, to justify any great apprehensions as to the result of the expected tour; and the same statement may be made in reference to the former American journeys of Messrs. Dillon and Redmond. The Nationalists are not at all dismayed by the new turn which events have taken; iu fact, they are already claiming that their cause-will be all the stronger on accoun of a renewal of England’s proverbial tactics of persecution. They confidently predict that American liberality will be greatly stimulated by what has occurred.