Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1880-02-22

lHarpsr's Magazine for March
What Wouter Van Twller or stout old
Peter Stuyyesant, or Dominic Everardus
| Bogardus would have said Of political
meeting on Sunday evening, In New Am.
stsrdsm may be surmsed; out their min
atory ghosts could not pr vent reat as
| sembIy in New York to greet Mr.. Parneil
on the Sunday evening after his arrival in
this country. and 70 hear q speech from
| him upon the renewal OF the Irish agitations,
| TIE huge Enclosure called Madison square
garden is the only place in the city for
such n purpose There were I've or sig
thou sand people assembled. but large areas
of the space was bare. The long CALLER
| ies on the sides wsre tw0-thirds filled, and
there was q dense crowd standing closely
| for some distance around the platform.
| It was evidently that onlya practiced
speake or could make himself Ineligible in
| the rather dim and desolate building, and
| it was equally evident to the curious hearer
who turned in from the street and moved
toward the platform that the TALL full
| bearded, high browei, geutlemanly man
who was speaking was 3 practiced speak
| or.
1t was impossible not to look with in
| terest at the leader of what is acknowl-
edged in England to be the deepest and
most general agitation in Ireland since that
of O'Connsll for repeal O'Connell, as
Phillips depicts him, was atypicai Irish
man. Other Irish leaders strike the i'm
| agination as more heroic, as romantic as
more unselfsh. The name O'Connell, for
| instance, will never be irradated with the
tender poetic halo that surrounds that Of
| Robert Emmett But no Irish leader, not
even Grattan, was ever such q master of
| Ireland. No man in modern times so
swayed q whole people as Daniel O'Con-
| nell swayed the Irish. 1t was something
| to see his successor in the leadership OF
| agitation. But in the place of the burly,
r1bicund, willy, rollicking, wholly Irish
| face and form of the famous agitator, her,
was grave. thin, thoroughly American
looking man, speaking easily, with perfect
| self-possession, with consummate prudence,
but without oratorical fervor-earnest ain
cere, direct, but without magnetism" yet
American, and with the tempered air of
one trained to Pertinent debate in min
ority. He held copicus notes in his hand,
TO which he referred without being in the
least constrained by them; and with great
skill, acquired by the habit Of addressing
large crowds under difficult circumstances,
he thu ew his.voice TO the farther edge of the
audience, and was heard, by attentive lis
tening, by everybody in the building
| There was no bitterness, no denunciation
| no scsrcasm; no kind of rhetorical or per
sonsl display, in the speech. 1t was the
plain statement of a man in earnest but
without inglecharacteristic to be expect.
ed of q noted Irish agitator.
This is not surprising when the nearer
| discovers that the agitator is but half Irish.
and that the other half 10 American. de
| Ia the grandson of our Commodore
Stewart. and he has not come for the, first
time to America; and it is agreeable to
think that the tone and the prudence OF his
| speech were due to the American drop 10
his blood. Early in his addr. IS be said
distinctly that the agitation ola not pro-
| pose revolution; but STOOD within the COLI
stitution and the laws; and the most dis-
matte passage in the speecb,was his aluslon
| to armed instruction. There were, doubt
less. he ssid, many who believe the sgi-
tstion to m an open rebellion, and there
were many 10 Ireland who would gladly
raise in arms. At this suggestion OF pos
sible war waged by other people, three
thousand miles over the sea, there was n
wild and long tumult OF cheering, Ana
very possibly, continued the speaker, there
there are tho 9 in this country who would
sympsthize with an armed movement.
This remark was greeted with another pro-
| longed shout. But not a single penny
| which is raised in this country, said the
sgilator, quietly and torcibly. will be de-
voted to any such purpose. The response
was very moderate and limited applause
but the speaker was not in the least con-
certed. He evidently understood bis au..
dience and himself When he mentioned
an Irish landlord who according to the re-
port, has neither hands nor feet, and who
has severaly criticised the agitation, some
enc ia the crowd called out, He's the
lixless man" Mr.. Parnell turned and said,
"He may have lost his legs, he has strong
clear headn II was generous and gentle
manly, and the remark WAS instantly felt
by the throDg.
The merits Of the agitation we do not
discuss bers. 1t grows out of the unhap-
DIV relations that have always existed be-
tween England and Ireland, and it now
makes the most radical of demands
that of the redistribution OF the land, te
begin bv the erection of the government
into the gigantic Irish landlord. who shall
| let the land in email holdings to tenants
who rent in thirty years and will pay for it.
and. as Mr. Parnell said. the occupiers OF
the land shall become its owners. This
wi seem to may minds mere Irish states
mansbip; but is John Bull willing that
the condition of the Ireland of to-day
sh uld be regarded as AN illustration Of
Briti.h statesmsnship9- EDITORS EASY