tion other grave facts, they had every reason to believe would in itself prove ridiculous and incompetent, and make Ireland the laughing-stock of the civilized world. GENERAL GOLDSWORTHY said, that, as an Englishman who had spent many years in Ireland and had thus acquired a considerable knowledge of the Irish character, he felt that it was his duty to make a few observations upon this question, especially as the House had heard a great deal in reference to it from hon. Members who had no acquaintance whatever with that country. At the present moment an exceptional state of things prevailed in Ireland. The Queen's writs did not run in that country, and the people were practically at the mercy of the National League. The National League had ramifications all over Ireland-a fact for which the landlords themselves were greatly to blame. When the National League first came into power the landlords should have called attention to the power that was gradually overspreading the country, and to the growth of a tyranny under which people were prohibited from entering into free contracts and from discharging the ordinary duties of life. The Irish Question ought to be approached from a National and not from a Party point of view. To show how little he was biased by Party considerations in reference to this subject, he might say that when he found that the late Government had made no statement in the Speech from the Throne of their intention to proclaim the National League, he wrote to his friends in Ireland asking them to communicate to him facts with regard to the condition of things in that country which were within their own knowledge, so that he might have materials for calling the attention of the House to this subject at an early date. In response to that invitation he had received a large number of very valuable communications which showed that the landlords could not get their rents from their tenants, and that even those tenants who were in a position to pay and who were willing to pay their rents were prevented by the National League from doing so. The present Chief Secretary for Ireland (Mr. John Morley) had arrogated to himself the right of determining which of the writs from Her Majesty's Courts of Justice Lord Ernest Hamilton should be permitted to run, and he should like to know whether the Chief Secretary was ready also to prevent the mortgagees from foreclosing on those estates on which the landlords were prevented from meeting their obligations in consequence of his action? In one of the letters which he had received from Ireland it was stated that the people had cut down the woods on the estate and had burned the timber, and had threatened to cut off the ears of the agent if he interfered. [An hon. MEMBER: Where has that taken place ?] Not being anxious that any person's ears should be cut off, he must decline to give names or places. Just before coming down to that House to-day he had received a letter from an officer in the Army asking for the loan of £25, on the ground that he was in want of almost the necessaries of life in consequence of the non-payment of rent on his Irish estates. In May next a large number of loans would become due, and if the Queen's writs were not to run in Ireland the landlords would be totally unable to meet their obligations. In his opinion, the Irish people had not been properly treated. The votes of the Irish people ought to be disregarded and justice ought to be done, not only to the tenants, but to the landlords. The question had been raised as to whether Ireland should have Home Rule; and he should like to know whether hon. Members were prepared to hand over to hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway the actual manipulation of the affairs of that country? He might say that whatever Government suppressed the National League, which body was a disgrace to Ireland and also to this country, they would have his support, and if the present Government brought forward effectual measures to uphold Her Majesty's authority in Ireland he was sure they would have a much larger majority than they now had in that House. The hon. Member for the City of Cork (Mr. Parnell) had stated that he was prepared to protect the Protestants of Ireland as well as the Catholics in the event of a Home Rule measure being passed. He had no doubt that that was the hon. Gentleman's intention. But there was an old saying "that he who pays the pipercalls the tune," and though the hon. Gentleman might be very useful to the people who now employed him, still the moment he ceased to play the tune they wished him to play his power would be gone. If they gave Home Rule to Ireland there would be nothing but jobbery practised there. He wished to protest against any greater power being given to the Irish nation until the National League was suppressed. MR. JOHNSTON said, that the question now before the House was one that so largely interested all the Loyalist Members from Ireland that it would not be right if he hesitated for a short time to trouble the House in laying before it some of the views of the constituency which he represented upon the question of the future well-being and government of Ireland. The hon. Member for the City of Cork, on various occasions, had taken care to utter with no uncertain voice the sentiments of the great Party which he led. He quite admitted that it was a great Party. It was a Party which was well organized, thoroughly united, and which had no indefinite object or uncertain aim. It aimed at the utter annihilation of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland and at breaking up the whole British Empire. ["No, no!"] It was all very well for hon. Gentlemen to cry "No!" but he might point out that in a recent publication of a newspaper-which he sometimes read, and which, no doubt, the hon. Members below the Gangway read regularly and eagerly-called The Irish World, of the 30th of January last, there appeared some correspondence under the heading "Transatlantic," which spoke of Ireland's mission to destroy the British Empire. It was for this mission that the National League had been organized. Well, he wished to draw attention to the fact that an hon. Member below the Gangway wrote a weekly letter to the organ of the League in America under the signature of "Transatlantic." ["Name, name!"], Well, probably hon. Gentlemen would cry "Oh, oh!" if he said it was Mr. T. P. O'Connor. MR. T. P. O'CONNOR: I rise to give the most emphatic contradiction to that statement. I never wrote a line in The Irish World in my life. MR. JOHNSTON said, that was very satisfactory, and he would withdraw the statement. Hon. Gentlemen below the Gangway often spoke about the wrongs of Ireland, past and present. This generous country was always ready to listen to the story of the wrongs of Ireland; but because statements made by some Irish Members were uncontradicted in that House, Englishmen thought they were incapable of contradiction, and therefore believed them. The noble Lord the Member for Paddington (Lord Randolph Churchill) had been accused of uttering violent language and inciting to civil war. But he should like to point out that there was such a thing as an Irish-American military organization on the other side of the Atlantic. It might not be known to every hon. Member of the House that Patrick Egan, who, for reasons which might be easily understood, thought proper to place the broad Atlantic between himself and the administration of justice in Ireland, was now President of the National League in America. There appeared in The Irish World in January last the following letter: "New York City, Jan. 22, '86. "Editor Irish World,-I am glad to see by the announcements in your last issue that the preparations for the Irish-American military July are proceeding steadily. In view espeencampment at Newark, N.J., next Fourth of cially of what has lately occurred on the other side, the military movement ought to be looked on as of supreme importance and ought to be heartily supported by all in a sincere and disin terested way. "The men who originate an idea can best bring about its development and practical application, and I therefore hope that while all İrish Americans will give every encouragement to the be no attempt whatever made by any parties or officers who have started the project, there will under any pretexts to interfere with their work. Let them go on as they have begun, and the outcome will be not only creditable to themselves and their race in the United States, but help greatly to advance the cause of Irish liberty. "HIBERNIAN." And he (Mr. Johnston) declared his belief that hon. Members below the Gangway were in league with the conspirators across the Atlantic in order to compass the destruction of the British Empire; but the Loyalists of Ireland were proud to belong to the British Empire, of which they were determined ever to form a part. In fact, the contents of their letters in The Irish World were in complete conformity with the utterances of the Leaders of the Irish Party in this country and in Ireland. A little while ago Mr. Parnell said-on the 6th September, 1880-[Laughter]-well,, was rewarded by being "Boycotted." hon. Members no doubt looked upon what The only industry the National Party was said five years ago as ancient history; cured to support in Ireland was the whisky and, at all events, they did not like to be industry; for when it was proposed to reminded of their own words. Mr. Par- close the public-houses on Sunday in nell said "We will work within the Dublin they held a mass meeting in the lines of the Constitution as long as it Phoenix Park to protest against it. It suits us." How long it would suit them had no doubt disappointed hon. Memwould depend upon the action of the bers below the Gangway that the antiright hon. Gentleman the First Lord of cipation of The Irish World with regard the Treasury-whether governing Ire- to the recent change of Government had land on the principles that the country not been realized. A paragraph had had been governed by British statesmen appeared in that paper to the following from generation to generation, or whe- effect:ther he attempted to carry out the newfangled ideas which he had taken up in order to seat himself on the Treasury Bench. It would also appear from certain passages in The Irish World that there was a quarrel as to whether Russians or Irishmen were entitled to the honour of the invention of the dynamite mode of warfare, and that Irishmen claimed the honour. In dealing with this question it was necessary to make some allusion to the attitude taken up by the priests and Pre-He was afraid, however, that those anlates of the Church of Rome. For a ticipations had been grievously disaplong time those reverend gentlemen had pointed. He wondered if the Prime held aloof, and had looked upon Minister had made any overtures to nellite Party as revolutionary; but of Mr. Parnell-he begged pardon, the recent years they had been compelled subject. Home Rule cries of "Divide!"] hon. Member for the City of Cork-on the by the force of circumstances to place He knew that hon. Gentlemen below the divide. They had expressed a great Gangway were always very anxious to desire a night or two ago to hear some the Par themselves at the head of the anti English Party in Ireland, and, seeing in that Party the means for carrying out their ultimate designs, they had now thoroughly identified themselves with it. There was one thing upon which the Roman Catholic clergy and the Party led by the hon. Member for Cork were at one, and that was the desire to accomplish the destruction of Orangeism in Ireland. He would call attention to recent utterances of Arch bishop Croke, who said he wished to see the country restored to its pristine vigour, that commerce and agriculture and honest industry might flourish, Orangeism be broken down, and that the green flag might float once more over a prosperous people. It was within the knowledge of hon. Members that in the Province of Ulster, where Orangeism flourished, commerce flourished also; whereas in the other parts of Ireland, where the Orange Institution scarcely existed, commerce was almost extinguished, and honest industry Mr. Johnston "Chief Secretary Parnell.-I am strongly of opinion that the time has come for Parnell to accept the Chief Secretaryship of Ireland. It is due to the Irish Party that the offer of the office be made. It is a hundred times more important for Irishmen to administer English laws in Ireland than to make laws for themselves and have them administered by aliens, as under the régime of 1782. Of the four new law officers of the Castle, it is expected by many that Tim Healy shall be one. There will be no difficulty about Parnell's or Healy's reelection." statement from the Benches on which he sat; but he had waited in vain for any of them to rise and attempt to explain the damaging statements that had been made against them and their League by the right hon. Gentleman Were they prepared to repudiate in that the Member for Dublin University. them; or would they not substitute for House the charges brought against their mild and dove-like utterances in that House those violent speeches they made in Ireland, such as that he was about to quote? In October, 1880, a Gentleman whose name was reported to be Biggar made use of the following words: : "Now, our worthy chairman in his speech said that it was undesirable that anything in the way of violence towards the landlords should say this, that the Land League as a body wants be perpetrated. Now, on that subject I will to do what is most beneficial, and they do not want that any violence should be offered to the landlords. Now, one of the reasons is thisthat persons who have undertaken to shoot landlords have missed the landlord and shot someone whom they did not intend." He thought he might also refer to the manner in which the Leader of the Party below the Gangway spoke on the same subject. Speaking on the 26th of September, 1880, at New Ross, the hon. Member for the City of Cork said— "I had wished, in referring to a sad occurence which took place lately-the shooting, or attempted shooting, of a land agent in this neighbourhood-I had wished to point out that recourse to such measures of procedure is entirely unnecessary, and absolutely prejudicial, where there is a suitable organization among the tenants themselves." 1881, the right hon. Gentleman, when Prime Minister of England, speaking bebefore 20,000 people at Leeds, openly and deliberately charged the President of the Irish National Land League with complicity with the assassination Press of America. The right hon. Gentleman said on that occasion "Mr. Parnell has said America is the only friend of Ireland; but in all his references to America he has never found time to utter one word of disapproval about what is known as the assassination literature of that country. Not American literature-no, there is not an American who does not spurn and loathe it; but there are, it is sad to say, a knot of Irishmen who are not ashamed to point out, in the Press which they maintain, how the ships of Her Majesty's Navy ought to be blown into the air to destroy the power of England by secret They had heard that night from the treachery, and how individuals they are pleased right hon. Gentleman the Member for to select ought to be made the object of the Dublin University (Mr. Holmes) a very knife of the assassin because they do not conpathetic account of the murder of Mr. form to the new Irish gospel." Curtin. But the right hon. Gentleman The whole policy of the Nationalists was the Prime Minister treated that account to disintegrate the Empire. That was in a rather jocose manner, and a smile the object of the United Irishmen in played upon the right hon. Gentleman's the Rebellion of 1798, and, down to the countenance when he said that the right present day, the whole policy of the hon. Gentleman the Member for Dublin Party was to destroy the welfare and University had forgotten the date of the prosperity of the country. He need Occurrence. Perhaps the right hon. only point to the recent attempt of The Gentleman the Prime Minister had for- Freeman's Journal to damage bank stock gotten the date of the murder of Gene- in Ireland. When the Prince of Wales ral Gordon when he was seen enjoying passed through Cork it was well known the play at the Criterion Theatre. Was how the Nationalists received him. There it hopeless of those who were were a great many things which hon. tending for life and liberty in Ireland Members below the Gangway were preto expect anything from those who at pared to deny; but could they deny present ruled the destinies of the British that at recent meetings in Ireland, the Empire? Murder had for the moment name of the Mahdi was greeted with comparatively ceased in Ireland; but loud applause, while that of Eng. that country had been too long the land was received with groans? The shuttlecock of Party. The lives and Loyalists of Ireland appealed with conliberties of the fellow-subjects of Eng-fidence to this country, for they could lishmen and Scotchmen in that portion not imagine that it was a crime, by of the British Empire were, or ought to be, of some consideration to British statesmen, and he could not think that when the destinies of the Empire were committed to the care of right hon. Gentlemen opposite there should be any hesitation in announcing a policy for protecting the lives and liberties of the Loyalists in Ireland. He would not wish to trench upon the province of the right hon. Gentleman the First Lord of Treasury in denouncing the deeds of the Land League. The National League was only another name for the Land League, and on the 7th of October, con sending soldiers to the field and officers to command them, to uphold the great British Empire. They had assisted in sending out Governers to the Colonies, and they had promoted by every means in their power the trade and commerce of this country. They did not think that at this critical moment they ought to be abandoned to those who hated the name and were the eternal foes of England, and who were leagued with traitors in the American States to bring about the ruin of this great Empire and to destroy the rule of the Queen in Ireland. An eloquent writer had described He said "Half a score of men met in secret; the leader tells them that Ireland has been too long trampled upon by such men as A. B., that it is time to throw off the yoke of landlords and tyrants. Three of them are sworn to shoot A. B.; they armed themselves and find their opportunity; and we read of another brutal murder. This is the type of transaction which has exasperated England during the last two years. That passage appeared in The Nineteenth Century, November, 1882, and the writer was "John Morley." He (Mr. Johnston) hoped that the right hon. Gentleman entertained the same views on that grave question at the present moment. It was not the landlords and agents principally, but the farmers and labourers, Roman Catholics more than Protestants, who were the victims; and the description given in The Nineteenth Century was strictly and literally true. He (Mr. Johnston), although an Orangeman, would give perfect liberty to his fellow Roman Catholics, and in the matters affecting their welfare he would show no Party feeling in that House. He regretted to think that there was too much truth in the statement made recently by a priest in Dublin to a Correspondent of The New York Nation, when he said Yet how crime was brought about in Ireland. | and whatever else might bring about that happy result, he was quite sure that coercion was not going to do it. If coercion would make a country happy and prosperous, Ireland ought to be in that condition, for there was no country that he knew, except such as had the misfortune to be under the rule of the Turks, that had ever had so much of it. Ireland stood in a position of which the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Johuston) was ashamed- and so was he- and he should continue to be ashamed till every wrong under which that country suffered had been removed. What had tended more than anything else to cause the evils under which Ireland laboured were the efforts made by some people, including certain hon. Members, to fan the flames of religious bigotry. The attempt to fan the flames of religious bigotry and hate would not promote peace and prosperity. Such speeches as those delivered lately by the hon. Member for South Paddington (Lord Randolph Churchill) would have just the opposite effect. Another thing that would not promote peace and prosperity was to have one policy before the elections and another after. That would not only not promote peace and prosperity, but it would tend to destroy confidence in public men by the vacillating policy that had been pursued. [Opposition cheers.] If hon. Gentlemen opposite wanted proofs of that, he would not have to go further than the noble Lord the Member for South Paddington. Ireland had been lately invited to express its opinions in a Constitutional way, and having so done he, as a Liberal, maintained that those opinions ought to be listened to. There were only two ways in which a nation could express its views "I'll tell you what, there is no use in your talking of moderation or reconcilement with England. They hate us, and we hate them. So long as I have the power I'll work and I'll work for Home Rule; and then I'd work and I'd strive for separation; and then I'd work and I'd strive for the destruction of the British Empire." The First Lord of the Treasury had from time to time introduced measures for the pacification of Ireland and the conciliation of the people. With such a people conciliation was out of the question and impossible. Some of those measures for the amelioration of the condition of the tenantry had his support in 1870. But each measure seemed to be attended with disastrous failure, and the Irreconcilables would take his measures to-day and work for the destruction of the Empire to-morrow. MR. HANDEL COSSHAM said, they could not get rid of the wrongs and injuries of two centuries in the short space of years that that Parliament had been working in the right direction. In dealing with Ireland they ought to aim at the peace and prosperity of the country, Mr. Johnston the one being the Constitutional way, and the other illegal, and a way that would bring disgrace upon any country. In no way could a country be brought into greater misfortune in crime namely, the refusal to listen to its Constitutionally expressed opinions. Ireland had sent her Representatives to the House of Commons to express her views; and while he did not say that the House was bound to agree with them, he did say that it ought to hear them. He entered a serious protest against the sentiment that Ireland was to be governed against her own will, and as a Liberal |