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that a life of irreconcilable enmity to them should follow, and that standing here on the spot where I first drew breath, in sight of a levelled home, with memories of privation and tortures crowding upon my mind, I should swear to devote the remainder of that life to the destruction of what has blasted my early years, pursued me with its vengeance through manhood, and leaves my family in exile to-day far from that Ireland which is itself wronged, robbed, and humiliated through the agency of the same accursed system? It is no little consolation to know, however, that we are here to-day doing battle against a doomed monopoly, and that the power which has so long domineered over Ireland and its people is brought to its knees at last and on the point of being crushed forever. It is humiliating to the last degree that a few thousand landsharks should have so long and so successfully trod upon the necks of millions of Irishmen and defrauded them of the fruits of their land, while at the same time robbing, insulting, and dragooning our country with an inhumanity unsurpassed by the titled plunderers of the middle ages. An average landlord may be likened to a social vulture hovering over the heads of the people and swooping down upon the earnings and the food which that industry produces whenever his appetite or his avarice prompts him. The tenantry in

the past have stood by like a flock of frightened sheep, timid and terrified, unable to prevent this human bird of prey from devouring their own and their children's substance. While rackrents were paid the farmer and his family must live in semi-starvation, in wretched hovels, amid squalor and privations, barbed by the thought that the money earned by labor and sweat from day to day was being spent by his own and his children's deadly enemy in another land in voluptuous ease and sensual gratification. If the rackrent was not paid

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and this blackmail levied upon labor in the shape of rent
was not forthcoming, to be squandered by one who never
earned a penny of it, out upon the roadside the earners would
be cast, to take their choice of death by exposure, workhouse
degradation, or banishment from home and Ireland forever.
Is it possible that our fathers could have tolerated such a
giant wrong, submitted to so monstrous an infamy, and be-
queathed to us an acceptance of it as an inevitable decree
of God, to be borne in meek submission, or to plod on in
sluggish servitude from sire to son, from age to age, proud
of our trampled nature? Such, however, is not our resolve.
We accept no such blasphemous excuse for the abrogation
of our manhood, nor will we allow a horde of vampires to
fatten upon our soil, to degrade us by their assumption of
superiority, and keep our country before the world as the
property and the preserve of the deadliest enemies to her
social and political welfare. We demand the right to live
like civilized men in our land; we demand the right to enjoy
life here, and we are resolved to labor unitedly and unceas-
ingly for the privilege to do so. We ask these demands
upon
the God-given right to mankind to hold in proportion
to their wants and deserts the land which was created for
their sustenance. The principles upon which this land move-
ment rests are founded upon obvious and natural justice,
and if in advocating them we outstep the barriers of political
conventionalities we are justified by the monstrous wrongs
which are upheld by a system that justice and reason alike
condemn, and which civilization has stamped out in every
other country. In demanding the land for the people we
are but claiming the right which is ours in virtue of our cre-
ation and the decrees of our Creator. Land was created for
man's sustenance, and declared to be the property of the

human family, to be worked by labor and made productive in food for the children of men. To hold that, because robbery and fraud have succeeded in gaining possession of the soil of Ireland, landlordism was in the Divine intention and has a right to the land of the country, is a libel on God's immutable ordinances and a doctrine opposed alike to reason and common sense. Landlordism has worked the deadliest wrong to our country and our race. Its gifts to Ireland are famines, discontent, bloodshed, national impoverishment, and national degradation. It robs our country of £20,000,000

annually and disposes of our people as so much vermin. It bars our social progress and deprives us of those advantages which are enjoyed by those who have freed themselves from landlordism. Remove the land monopoly, and famine will be exorcised from Ireland. Strike down this giant fraud upon a people, and peace and plenty will take the place of disturbance and starvation. Give labor its claim upon the wealth it creates, remove the restrictions which this feudal code places upon the proper cultivation of the soil of Ireland, and the charity of other lands will no more be appealed to on our behalf, or our national pride be humiliated by our being exhibited in the eyes of the world as a nation of paupers. Organize, then, for so glorious a consummation. Vow that you will never cease striking until land monopoly is crushed forever in Ireland. Forward with the glorious watchword of "The land for the people." The cause of Ireland to-day is that of humanity and labor throughout the world, and the sympathy of all civilized people is with us in the struggle. Stand together, then, in this contest for the soil of your fatherland, and victory will soon crown your efforts with success. Remember, with courage and with pride, that seven hundred years of wrong failed to crush the soul of Ireland.

ROSEBERY

ΓΑ

RCHIBALD PHILIP PRIMROSE, fifth Earl of Rosebery, a distinguished English statesman, was born in London, May 7, 1847, and was educated at Eton and Christ Church College, Oxford University. He succeeded to the title in 1868 by the death of his grandfather, before he reached his majority, and his first appearance in Parliament was in the House of Lords. His first speech was made in 1871, when he was selected by Mr. Gladstone to second the address in reply to the Queen's speech from the throne. During the next few years he mingled occasionally in the debates, always speaking with animation, but with no especial eloquence. A Liberal in politics, and a warm admirer of Gladstone, he sat in the latter's cabinet in 1881-83 as under-secretary of home affairs. During the brief Liberal rule of 1885 he was Lord Privy Seal and First Commissioner of Public Works, and in 1886 he was made Secretary of Foreign Affairs. While holding this position he conducted the foreign policy on the general lines followed in the preceding Conservative government and endeavored to keep it removed as far as possible from the influence of party strife. He was one of the most ardent supporters in the House of Lords of Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill. In 1888 he became a member of the London County Council and in the last Gladstone administration he was again at his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs. On the retirement of Gladstone in March, 1894, Lord Rosebery succeeded him as Prime Minister, holding office until the return of the Conservative party to power in 1895. Lord Rosebery is a man of wide sympathies, and manifested much interest in ameliorating the condition of the laboring classes. He served as Lord Rector of Aberdeen University 1878-81, and of Edinburgh University 1882-83. He was made honorary student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1894. He published "Life of Pitt" (1891); Speeches, 1874-96" (1896); "Appreciations and Addresses " (1899).

66

THE TRUE LEVERAGE OF EMPIRE

DELIVERED AT THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS, GLASGOW,
SEPTEMBER 80, 1874

F, in addressing this great meeting, I were to speak out of the fulness of my heart, I should tell of nothing but my own misgivings. But it is too much the practice on these occasions to take up time selfishly in apologies. You asked me kindly and generously to come here to-night. I thought it a clear duty to obey your summons and recipro-,

cate your sympathy. But none the less sensible am I of my own deficiencies and of my need of your further large indulgence; none the less do I feel as if I were only placed in this prominent position to serve as a foil to the ripe wisdom of so many in this Congress.

It is impossible for any one at my age to pretend to instruct―few can have adequate knowledge; none sufficient experience. I can offer, then, no fresh contribution to your stock of information. I can only, as it were, set in motion my small share of electric current of sympathy and interest, which is surely not the least valuable of the features of this Congress. But I would before all express my pride and my joy at making this first visit to Glasgow under the auspices of your association. There are probably few places to which

Englishman can point with more pride than to Glasgow; none perhaps which a Scotchman can regard with so much.

I suppose that there are in this city 500,000 inhabitants; that the rental amounts to £2,500,000; that the shipbuilding of the Clyde is supreme in the world. How long has it taken to produce this immense result? What is the origin of this great population? Whence dates this easy predominance in shipping, this vast collection of material wealth?

Two centuries ago Glasgow was officially described as "a neat burghe town, consisting of foure streets." At that time she possessed twelve vessels carrying 957 tons. In the year 1718, little more than a century and a half ago, the first Scottish ship that ever crossed the Atlantic-a vessel of sixty tons-was launched in the Clyde, which has since witnessed the building of the Cunard line of steamers. And as for her rental of £2,500,000, it has been computed that the

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