The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-09-11 00:00:00

THE IRISH DEMONSTRATION IN
HYDE PARK.

In London on Sunday, the "demonstration "in Hdye
Park, in protest against the action of the House of Lords
in regard to Irish measures sent up from the House of
Commons, was great in point of numbers. While the
people were assembling in the park the procession was
being organized in Trafalgar-square. It fell off very
greatly from the promised numbers, the failure being
attributed to a pastoral letter which Cardinal
Manning had ordered, it was said, to be read at Mass
in the morning in the Roman Catholic places of
worship in his diocese' for)oidding the use of the
banners association with the League of the Cross, the
great temperance organization of the Roman Catholics,'
and the fact that the officiating priests at some of the
places of worship had urged their congregations not to
take their children into the turmoil of a Sunday poli-
litical meeting.

When the -procession reached Hyde Park, at the
clump of trees known as the "Reformers' Tree," a
glatform was erected, and around this the Irish por-
tion of the gathering formed an excited throng.
Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., who took the position
of chairman, ,e. sk e d his fellow countrymen, by ob-
serving order, to give evidence of their power of
self-government, and then proceeded to say that in
meeting there that day in those vast numbers the
Irish people in London, while protesting against the
action of the House of Lords, did not desire it to be
implied that this was the only institution of which they
as a people complained; for they protested against
the whole of the rule over Ireland from St. Stephen's-
hall, whether in the House of Commons or in the House
of Lords; but they specially protested against the
House of Lords as the worst part of the most oppres-
sive system of English g wernment. (Cheers.) The
House of Lords was a House of landlords, while the
Irish people were for the most part a nation of tenants,
and could therefore expect and had received the
utmost oppression from this branch of the Legislature.
He proceeded to declare that no measures of relief for
the starving people of Ireland were to be expected
from this House, and a proof of this was to be seen in
the fact that the measures proposed by the Govern-
ment for the temporary relief of the people from the
injustice of harsh landlords—a measure shown to be
necessary by the action of the Duchess of Marlborough
—had been rejected by the liousetf Lords, and the
lives of countless numbers were again pla.ced depen-
dent upon the charity of the civilized nations of the
earth. The speaker declared that the sufferings of
the Irish people were increasing, and that the House
of Lords had refused to give ear to the necessity for
the proposed legislation. It was frequently ,declared
that Great Britian was the freest nation on the face
of the earth, but this was the reverse of the fact.

At this juncture the crowd swayed to and fro with
great violence and the platform broke down, but,
fortunately, without injury to any one.
Mr. O'Connor finished his speech by declaring that
those who were the servants of the public( were those
who obstructed the necessary legislation. He con-
cluded by calling upon Mr. John Barry, M.P., to
propose the first resolution, and, under the circum-
stances of the increasing turbulence and excitement
of the crowd, the resolutions were put very hastily.
They were as follows :
" That in the opinion of this meeting the action of the
House of Lords in rejecting the Irish Compensation for
Disturbanc.e and Irish Registration Bills affords a last and
signal proof of the iniquity and absurdity of the principle
of hereditary legislation."

- -
"That it behoves all lovers of liberty and justice to take
this optortrulity of demanding such a reconstruction of
the tipper Chamber of Parliament, in accordance with the
natural course of progress in the nation, as shall reserve it
for men whose genius and virtues are their genuine patents
of nobility.

"That we deplore the present condition of • Ireland, and
call on the Government, notwithstanding the rejection of
their measure, to use the powers in their hands to prevent
capricious eviction during the recess."

Dr. Lyons, M.P., was supposed to second the first
resolution, and Mr. O'Kelly, M.P., to propose the
second; but this part of the business was transacted
very hurriedly, and the Irish members of Parliament
escaped from the crowd, when the proceedings broke
up in great disorder,—Monday's Times,