IRELAND AND POLAND

A COMPARISON

BY

T. W. ROLLESTON

FIRST HON. SECRETARY OF THE IRISH LITERARY SOCIETY, LONDON; LATEASSISTANT EDITOR OF THE "NEW IRISH LIBRARY, " AND CO-EDITOR OF "ATREASURY OF IRISH POETRY"; AUTHOR OF "MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE CELTICRACE, " ETC. 

NEW YORKGEORGE H. DORAN COMPANYPublishers in America for Hodder & StoughtonMCMXVII

IRELAND AND POLAND

The United Kingdom is composed of four distinct nationalities. Each ofthese has retained its own distinct character, its own national history, its own patriotism and self-respect. Their affairs, great and small, general or local, are administered by one Parliament in which each isfully represented. A large majority of the Irish people have, however, asked that in addition to some representation in the united Parliamentthey shall be granted a local Parliament for the management of their owninternal affairs. The fact that this demand, which has an importantimperial as well as local bearing, has not yet been complied with hasconstantly been used by the enemies of the Entente Powers to representas false and hypocritical the claims of those Powers to be regarded asthe champions of the rights of small nationalities; and the case ofIreland has been compared with that of Prussian Poland, as though thepeoples of these two countries were suffering the same kind ofoppression, the same injustice, the same denial of the right of everyman to live and prosper in his own land on equal terms with hisfellow-citizens in every other part of the realm. 

The best answer to this charge is to tell plainly, without contention orexaggeration, what the united Parliament has done for Ireland since thebeginning of the period of reform nearly fifty years ago. That is whatis here attempted, so far as it can be done in a few pages. It must befully understood that on the Home Rule question the present statementhas no bearing whatever. That difficult problem lies in an altogetherdifferent sphere of politics, and must he judged by considerations whichcannot be touched on here. Without, however, trenching in any degree oncontroversial ground, it may be pointed out that the crucial difficultyof the Home Rule question lies, and has always lain, in the fact that inIreland a substantial and important minority amounting to about 25 percent. Of the population, and differing from the rest of the country inreligion, national traditions, and economic development, has hithertobeen resolutely opposed to passing from the immediate government of theimperial Parliament to that of any other body. This minority being, forthe most part, grouped together in the North-east counties, the lateGovernment attempted to solve the difficulty by offering immediate HomeRule to that section of Ireland which desires it, while leaving theremainder as it is until Parliament should otherwise decree. Thisproposal was rejected by the general opinion of Nationalist Ireland, which was firmly opposed to the partition of the country for anyindefinite period. The question, therefore, remains for the present insuspense, until a solution can be found which will not only ensure theintegrity and security of the Empire but reconcile the conflictingdesires and interests of Irishmen themselves. 

Ireland Fifty Years Ago

So much to clear the ground in regard to the Home Rule controversy. Ishall now ask the reader to glance for a moment at the condition ofIreland fifty years ago. At that time almost the whole agriculturalpopulation were in the position of tenants-at-will, with no securityeither against increased rents or arbitrary eviction. The housing of therural population, and especially of the agricultural labourers, waswretched in the extreme. Local taxation and administration were whollyin the hands of Grand Juries, bodies appointed by the Crown from amongthe country gentlemen in each district. Irish Roman Catholics werewithout any system of University education comparable to that whichProtestants had enjoyed for three hundred years in the University ofDublin. A Church which, whatever its historic claims may have been, numbered only about 12 per cent. Of the population was established bylaw and supported by tithes levied on the whole country. Technicaleducation was inaccessible to the great bulk of the nation; and in nodepartment of public education, of any grade or by whomsoeveradministered, was any attention paid to Irish history, the Irishlanguage, Irish literature, or any subject which might lead youngIrishmen to a better knowledge and understanding of the special problemsof their country and its special claims to the love and respect of itschildren. 

That was the Ireland of fifty years ago. It is an Ireland which at thepresent day lives only on the lips of anti-British orators andjournalists. It is an Ireland as dead as the France of Louis XIV. Of theabuses and disabilities just recounted not one survives to-day. Themeasures by which they have been removed place to the credit of theUnited Kingdom a record of reform the details of which, for the benefitof friends or foes, may be here very briefly set down. 

Religious Equality

In 1869 the Protestant Episcopal Church was disestablished anddisendowed, and is now--many Churchmen believe to its great spiritualadvantage--on the same level as regards its means of support as everyother denomination in Ireland. It may be mentioned that the RomanCatholic Church in Ireland was long in the enjoyment of a State subsidyfor the education of its clergy, a subsidy commuted in 1869 for acapital sum of 370, 000 pounds. 

Land Reform

As comparisons have been drawn between the systems of government inIreland and in Poland, let us consider for a moment the condition of thePolish rural population under German rule. It must be noted that therecent promises of Polish autonomy made by Germany--obviously formilitary and temporary reasons--refer only to those portions of Polishterritory held by other States. No change is to be made in the positionof Prussian Poland. Here, for many years, it has been, and still is, theavowed object of the Prussian Government either to extirpate or forciblyTeutonise this Slavonic population, and to replant the country withGerman colonists. The German Chancellor in 1900, Prince von Buelow, defended this anti-Polish policy in the cynical saying that "rabbitsbreed faster than hares, " and the meaner animal, the Pole, musttherefore be drastically kept down in favour of the German. Between 1886and 1906 the Prussian Government was spending over a million sterling ayear in buying out Polish landowners, great and small, and plantingGermans in their stead. The measure proved futile; the "rabbits" stillmultiplied, for the Poles bought land from German owners faster than theGovernment did from them. In 1904, in order to check the development ofPolish agriculture and land-settlement, the Government took the extremestep of forbidding Poles to build new farmhouses without a licence. Astill more oppressive measure came in 1908, when, in clear defiance ofthe German Constitution, the Prussian Government actually took powersand were voted funds--from taxation paid by Poles and Germans alike--forthe compulsory expropriation of Polish owners against whom nothingwhatever could be alleged except their non-German nationality. Thesepowers have been put into operation, and every Pole in Prussia now holdshis patrimony on his own soil on the sufferance of a Government whichregards his very existence as a nuisance, because he occupies a placewhich a German might otherwise fill. 

During precisely the same period the British Government in Ireland hasbeen bending the wealth and credit of the United Kingdom to objectsprecisely the reverse. Ireland, owing to the wars and confiscations ofthe seventeenth century, had come to have a land-owning aristocracymainly of English descent with a Celtic peasantry holding their farms asyearly tenants. The object of British land-legislation has been toexpropriate the landlords, so far as their tenanted land is concerned, and to establish the Irish peasant, as absolute owner of the land hetills. The Irish tenant is now subject only to rents fixed by law; hecan at any time sell the interest in his farm, which he has, therefore, a direct interest in improving; he is also assisted by a great scheme ofland-purchase to become owner of his land on paying the price byterminable instalments, which are usually some 20 per cent. Less thanthe amount he formerly paid as rent. Under this scheme about two-thirdsof the Irish tenantry have already become owners of their farms, whilethe remainder enjoy a tenure which is almost as easy and secure asownership itself. It is not surprising, then, that a German economistwho has made a special study of this subject should declare that "theIrish tenants have had conditions assured to them more favourable thanany other tenantry in the world enjoy"; adding the dry comment that inIreland the "magic of property" appears to consist in the fact that itis cheaper to acquire it than not. [*] That magic has been worked forIreland by the British Legislature and by British credit. As in Prussia, compulsory powers (limited by certain conditions and to certaindistricts) stand behind the schemes of the Government; but thecompulsion is exercised not against the Irishman in favour of theEnglish settler, but against the (usually) English landlord in favour ofthe Irish tenant. The State is now pledged to about 130, 000, 000 poundsfor the furtherance of this scheme, the instalments and sinking fund tothe amount of about 5, 000, 000 pounds a year being paid with exemplaryregularity by the farmers who have taken advantage of it. 

[Footnote *: Professor M. Bonn, of Munich University. "Modern Irelandand her Agrarian Problem, " pp. 151, 162, translated from "Die irischeAgrarfrage. " _Archiv fuer Sozialwissenschaft_; Mohr, Tuebingen. ]

The Congested Districts Board

In the poorer and more backward regions of the West it has been feltthat the above measures are not enough, and a special agency has beenconstituted with very wide powers to help the Western farmer, and notonly the farmer, but the fisherman, the weaver, or anyone pursuing aproductive occupation there, to make the most of his resources and todevelop his industry in the best possible way. This Board commands astatutory endowment of 231, 000 pounds a year. A system of light railwayswhich now covers these remote districts has given new and valuablefacilities for the marketing of fish and every kind of produce. 

The various Boards and other agencies by which these measures arecarried into execution are manned almost exclusively by Irishmen. 

The Agricultural Labourer

There is a world of difference between the present lot of the Irishagricultural labourer and his condition in 1883, when reform in thisdepartment was first taken in hand. Cottages can now be provided by theRural District Councils and let at nominal rents. Nearly nine millionssterling have been voted for this purpose at low interest, with sinkingfund, and up to the present date 47, 000 cottages have been built, eachwith its plot of land, while several thousand more are sanctioned. 

Of the results of the Labourers' Act a recent observer writes:

 "The Irish agricultural labourer can now obtain a cottage with three rooms, a piggery, and garden allotment of an acre or half an acre, and for this he is charged a rent of one to two shillings a week ... These cottages by the wayside give a hopeful aspect to the country ... Flowers are before the doors of the new cottages and creepers upon the walls. The labourer can keep pigs, poultry, and a goat, and grow his potatoes and vegetables in his garden allotment. "[*]

[Footnote *: Padraic Colum: "My Irish Year, " pp. 18, 19. ]

Local Government

In 1898 a Local Government Bill was passed for Ireland which placed theadministration of the poor law and other local affairs for ruraldistricts on the same footing as in England. The rule of the GrandJuries, which had lasted for two and a half centuries, and which had, onthe whole, carried on local affairs with credit and success, was nowentirely swept away, and elected bodies were placed in full control oflocal taxation, administration, and patronage. In the case of the largertowns free municipal institutions had already existed for some sixtyyears. In these the franchise was now reduced, and is wide enough bothin town and country to admit every class of the population. Since 1899the new elective bodies have had important duties to fulfil in regard tothe development of agriculture and technical instruction. 

The Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction

This new Irish Department of State grew out of a demand formulated afterlong inquiry and discussion by a voluntary Irish committee representingboth Unionist and Nationalist opinion. It was established in 1899, andnow commands the large endowment of 197, 000 pounds a year, with acapital sum of over 200, 000 pounds. The annual endowment is clear of allcharges for offices and staff, which are on the Civil Service Estimates. Its head is a Minister responsible to Parliament, but associated withhim are Boards of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, two-thirds ofwhich are elected respectively by County and Borough Councils. Withouttheir concurrence no expenditure can be undertaken, and local work islargely carried on through committees appointed by these Councils. Thepeople at large are therefore intimately and responsibly associated withthe work of the Department, the annual meetings of which form a kind ofindustrial Parliament, where the whole economic organisation of Irelandcan be reviewed, debated, and developed. The Department works byteaching, by inquiry, by experiment, and has an immense field ofactivity in dealing with cattle diseases, the improvement of stock, thecontrol of creameries, the marketing of produce, etc. It has alsobrought facilities for technical instruction into every important centreof population. 

University Education

This important question was settled in 1908 by the foundation of a newUniversity, the "National University, " with its central authority inDublin and colleges in Dublin (the old Catholic University of whichCardinal Newman was rector), in Cork, and in Galway. The University isopen to all creeds, and may not impose religious tests upon itsstudents, but its government is mainly in the hands of the RomanCatholic hierarchy, and it is accepted as a fair settlement of thequestion of Catholic higher education in Ireland. In the management ofits internal affairs, the appointment of professors, the selection oftextbooks, etc. , the National University is wholly autonomous and freefrom Government interference. One of its most remarkable features isthat the Irish language has been made an obligatory subject formatriculation. The endowment of the University, with its constituentcolleges, amounts to 74, 000 pounds a year, and it was voted a capitalsum for building and equipment of 170, 000 pounds. It need hardly be saidthat no parallel to this institution exists in Prussian Poland. 

Language and Native Culture

In this as in other respects a comparison with the theory and practiceof German administration may help to place the policy of the UnitedKingdom in its proper light. When at the Congress of Vienna, 1815, Prussia definitely acquired her present share of Polish territory, KingFriedrich Wilhelm III promised for himself and his successors, "on mykingly word, " that the Poles should have religious freedom, the use ofthe Polish language in administration, in the Law Courts and in theschools, and be in all respects on an equality with their Germanfellow-citizens. We have already seen how these promises were kept inregard to the vital question of the ownership of land. They have been noless flagrantly broken in regard to the national language. The use ofPolish is strictly prohibited at all public meetings. No Polish deputyto the Reichstag may address his constituents in the only language theyunderstand. Since 1873 German alone may be taught in the nationalschools. The language of instruction must be German wherever half thepupils are capable of understanding it, and after 1928 it is decreedthat no other language must be heard in the schoolroom. A decree of 1899forbids teachers to use Polish even in their own family circles. Anyonewho is caught teaching Polish, even gratuitously, is punished by fine orimprisonment. Polish literature found in the houses of private personsis confiscated, and its possessors imprisoned, if the police consider itto bear the least trace of any propagandist character. [*]

[Footnote *: "The Evolution of Modern Germany, " by W. H. Dawson, bringstogether in its twenty-third chapter most of the facts relating to thisquestion. See especially a letter from a prominent member of the Polisharistocracy quoted on p. 475. ]

All this, it will be seen, is merely the drastic execution tion of thepolicy laid down by Treitschke, the prophet of modern Germany, and morerecently urged by the most popular living representative of Prussianideals, H. S. Chamberlain. 

 "There is, " writes Chamberlain, "no task before us so important as that of forcing the German language on the world (_die deutsche Sprache der Welt aufzuzwingen_. )" The German has "a twofold duty" laid on him: "never must a German abandon his own speech, neither he nor his children's children; and in every place, at every time, he must remember to compel others to use it until it has triumphed everywhere as the German Army has done in war. ... So far as the German Empire extends, the clergy must preach in German alone, in German alone the teacher must give his lessons ... Mankind must be made to understand that anyone who cannot speak German is a pariah. "[*]

[Footnote *: "Kriegsaufsaetze, " 1914. ]

Such are the ideals and such the practice of the people whom RogerCasement and one or two other enthusiasts for Gaelic culture in Irelandhave sought to make the dominant power in that country, because it willrid them of "English" rule. 

Let us now see what "English" rule (it is not really English at all, butthe rule of the United Kingdom) is actually like in regard to thisparticular subject. Up to the decade 1830-40 it may be said that theIrish language was spoken by fully half the population of Ireland. Norestrictive measures were in force against it. But during that decade ageneral system of elementary education was introduced, and in the BoardSchools the language withered away with astonishing rapidity. At thelast census (1911) only 16, 000 persons were recorded as speaking Irishalone, while the number of those who knew anything of the language wasonly about 13 per cent. Of the population. Whether this change was ablessing or a bane to Ireland is a subject which is outside the range ofthis discussion, but whatever it was the Irish people themselves had afull share of responsibility for the result. With scarcely an exception, the abandonment of Irish was approved by the clergy, the politicalleaders, and the masses of the people "The killing of the language, "writes Dr. Douglas Hyde, "took place under the eye of O'Connell and theParliamentarians, and, of course, under the eye and with the sanction ofthe Catholic priesthood and prelates ... From a complexity of causeswhich I am afraid to explain, the men who for the last sixty years havehad the ear of the Irish race have persistently shown the cold shoulderto everything that was Irish and racial. "[*] Their attitude is easilyunderstood. Irish had long ceased to be used for literary purposes. NoIrish newspapers, no Irish books were printed; English was regarded asthe only available key to the world of modern culture, and Irelandbecame an English-speaking country without a struggle and almost withouta regret. 

[Footnote *: "Beside the Fire, " pp. Xliii, xliv (1890). Dr. Hyde was thefirst president of the Gaelic League, and is now Professor of ModernIrish in the National University. ]

In the early 'nineties, however, a popular movement took shape for therescue of what still remained of the language and for its restoration, so far as was practically possible. Classes for the study of Irish wereformed all over the country, folk-tales were collected, MSS. Ofhalf-forgotten poets were disinterred and edited, the first scholarlyand adequate dictionary of modern Irish was compiled, [*] and plays, poems, and stories began to be written in the re-discovered language. These activities were mostly organised and directed by the GaelicLeague, a body founded in 1893. One can easily imagine how a PrussianGovernment would have dealt with such a movement, especially as acertain disaffected element in the country immediately began to make useof it for its own ends. The British Government looked on not only calmlybut approvingly. When a general demand arose for the effective teachingof Irish in the elementary schools--though at this time only about21, 000 old people were recorded in the census as ignorant of English--itwas at once agreed to. Irish had been permitted and paid for, though notmarkedly encouraged, since 1879. It was now placed on a list of subjectswhich might be taught in school hours, and extra fees were allotted forteaching it at the rate of ten shillings per pupil--twice the amountallowed for French, Latin, or music. Grants are also made to certaincolleges where teachers of the language can be trained. All this beganin 1901, and since that time over 12, 000 pounds a year has been paid forIrish teaching directly from Imperial funds--about twice the amountcollected in the same period by voluntary contributions from Ireland andthe rest of the world. Nor is this the limit of the grant; it is limitedonly by the willingness of school managers and parents to make use ofit. Indirectly, the State is paying much more, for the variousprofessorships and lectureships in Irish subjects--language history, archaeology, and economies--established under the National Universityaccount for well over 3, 500 pounds a year. Taking the direct expenditureon elementary education alone, the State has paid for Irish teachingsince 1879 a sum of no less than 209, 000 pounds. It may therefore beclaimed that in cultivating her ancient language and native traditions, Ireland enjoys the fairest and most liberal treatment ever accorded to asmall nationality incorporated in a great Empire. 

[Footnote *: By the Rev. P. S. Dineen; published by the Irish TestsSociety. ]

Reforms and Their Results

On the reforms which have been thus briefly sketched, one or two generalremarks may be in place. 

It has sometimes been contended that except by violence, or the menaceof violence, Ireland has never obtained anything from the EnglishLegislature. It would be truer to say that she has never obtainedanything at all. England is not a sovereign Power, and does notadminister Irish affairs, nor even her own. What has been gained hasbeen gained from the Legislature of the United Kingdom, in whichIrishmen, like every other race inhabiting that kingdom, have had theirfull share of representation and of influence. And if in Ireland, as inother countries, the necessity of reform has sometimes been made evidentby disorder, it is wholly untrue to say that this has been always oreven usually the case. Land-reform in its earliest stages, like tradeunionism in England, was accompanied by disorder. But the greatestmeasure of Irish land-reform--the Wyndham Act of 1903--was worked out onIrish soil by peaceable discussion among the parties concerned, andParliament acted at once upon their joint demand. It was in preciselythe same way that the Department of Agriculture came into being; nor didthe great measures of Local Government, of University education forCatholics, of the Labourers' Acts, or the recognition extended to theGaelic movement, owe their origin to any other cause than the wholesomeinfluences of reason and goodwill. 

The internal condition of Ireland already shows a marked response to thealtered state of things. It is visible, as many travellers have noticed, in the face of the country; it is proved by official records andstatistics. Emigration has declined to its lowest point; education hasspread amongst the people. Irish emigrants, when they do leave their ownshores, take higher positions than ever before. A population of somefour millions, largely composed of small farmers, has lent forty-sevenmillions sterling to the Government; and, what is still moresignificant, the deposits in Post Office Savings Banks have risen fromsix millions in 1896 to over thirteen millions the year before the war. The new War Loan is reported to have had an extraordinary success inIreland. On the last day of subscription a single Dublin bank took inone million sterling. [*] With some self-appointed champions of Irelandabuse of the British Empire is a very popular amusement, but the Irishfarmer and the Irish trader put their money in it, and with it theystand to win or lose. 

[Footnote *: The Times, Feb. 17, 1917. ]

Irish agriculture, partly owing to climatic conditions and partly to thefact that Ireland has a monopoly of the export of live cattle toEngland, has developed hitherto rather in the direction ofcattle-raising than of tillage; and cattle have increased since 1851from three million to over five million head, and sheep from twomillions to three million six hundred thousand. Poultry have nearlyquadrupled in the same period. The gross railway receipts--anothersignificant symptom--were 2, 750, 000 pounds in 1886. In 1915 they hadrisen to 4, 831, 000 pounds. The co-operative agricultural associations, in which Ireland has shown the way to the English-speaking world, nownumber about 1, 000, and do a trade of well over five millions a year. The thousands of labourers' cottages which have sprung up, each with itsplot of land, have been to the Irish labourers what the Land Acts havebeen to the farmer--they have completely transformed his economic statusin the country. 

Accompanying these symptoms of material progress, we have witnessed inrecent years a striking outburst of intellectual activity. Irishliterature, in poetry and drama, has attracted the attention of thewhole world of culture, and exact and scholarly research in history andarchaeology have flourished and found audiences as they were never knownto do in Ireland till now. This has not been the work of any one sectionof the people, either in creed or in politics; but the whole movementhas been inspired by an Irish patriotism which no sane person regards asconflicting in any degree with allegiance to the Empire under theshelter of which it has grown and prospered. 

The circumstances above set forth do not pretend to be the whole storyabout modern Ireland, nor do they show that the millennium has arrivedin that country. Apart from Home Rule, which is outside our presentfield, much still remains to be done--there is elementary education tobe advanced, commercial facilities to be developed, land-purchase to becompleted. But it is contended that the real facts about Ireland arewholly and absurdly inconsistent with the picture of that country whichthe friends of Germany circulate so industriously at the present time. Ireland is not an oppressed and plundered nation, ground under the heelof a foreign Power, and with her individual life deliberately stifledlike that of Poland in the German Empire. Only through ignorance ormalice could such an illusion gain currency, and it needs only the touchof reality--reality which every one can easily see or verify forhimself--to dispel it for ever from the mind of every candid inquirer.