The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-06-17
Davitt in Aberdeen.
GREAT MEETING AND AN ENTHUsIAs-
TIC RECEPTION.

A GREAT MEETING AND AN ENTHUsIAS
TIC RECEPTION.
From Glasgow, where he delivered the
great speech fully reported in last week.
Irish World Michael Davitt travelled to
Aberdeen and addressed an enormous
meeting in the largest hall in that city. A
local paper describes Davitt's reception in
Aberdeen.
The chair was occupied by Prof. Mimic,
who, in his opening remarks, referred to a
dastardly attack in a local paper in which
Davitt was charged with having advocated
assassination II years ago. This is the
personal matter to which Davitt alludes in
the commencement OF his speech:
DAyITT's ADDRESS.
Mr.. Davtt, who was received with pro-
longed cheering and waving of hats, said Z:
I regret that have to allude to personal
matter before entering upon the address
which have been asked to deliver here
tonight. But | am glad that our chair
man, by his reference to that personal
matter, gave me All opportunity of answer
ing some cowardly calumnies persistently
circulated by cowardly and unmanly
enemies. Allusion has been made in one
of your local newspapers, and believe re-
! iterated by some gentlemen in the audience
to-night-(a voice-.Not gentleman y
to an incident which occurred II years ago,
when / was tried in London for principles,
or rather for adhesion to principles which
are now about to be recognized in legisla-
ton. A letter was produced at my trial,
not as evidence against me, but as an
incident of the prosecution upon which
| this charge that has been made against me
hundred times during the last five or six
years by my landlord opponents rests for
| foundation. These critics choose to take
a portion of the proceedings of my trial in
order to lend currency to their statements,
and refuse, OR omit rather, to reproduce
my indignant denial at my trial, that this
| letter bore any such Interpretation as they
put upon it. The man upon whom this
document had been found Mr.. A. M.
Forester presently of The Irish World
staff, I who would have been a criminal if
| the document bore the Interpretation that
| is now put upon it, was examined as
/ witness upon my trial, and both he. before
my conviction for treason felony, and my.
| SELF. after sentence had been pronounced,
| indignantly rtpu1iated the 1nsinuatiOn
| that WI Mere connected with any such
outrage. ii,lr atedly since my release from
| prison. both III England and in Ireland and
| in America, aud several times in Scotland
| before. | have hmled ali indignant denial
at these call! niators, but they choose to
appear tre again III Aberdeen. l have
ponents who honor me by their opposition
| that their Interpretation of the letter is a
lie and cowardly SANDER. 1t is quite true
and here lies the head and front of my
otfending-that | was tried seventeen
years ago on a charge of treason-felony. 1t
is also true that l have undergone nine
years and three months imprisonment for
| that offeIse, and tell this man here to-
night that if it were necessary for the vim
dication of liberty and Ireland's cause to
undergo the same trial and the same pun
ishment would undergo it willingly to.
morrow.
| Coming to the question of Home Rule
Mr.. Davitt proceeded to say:
What think the people require to be
satisfied about in order to come to right
| conclusion on the question is, first
rs HOME RULE NECESSARY FOR IRE
LAND 20
Secondly Does Mr.. Gladstone's measure
| give What the advocates of Home Rule
require? In answer to the first question,
allow me for Il few brief moments to state
the case for Home Rule. We contend, We
| who demand this measure, that the Act of
Union passed in the year 1901 has entirely
failed to fulfil the promises and the expec-
tations of its authors. They declared that
in closer friendship with the people of
Great Britain They promised that this
closer relationship Of poor with a
weather. country would result in enor-
nous advantages to ireland. Well, sir,
we maintain that all these promises and
predictions have been completely falsified
by the experience of eighty-six years. You
know as well as l that the relationship
between the Irish and the British people,
instead of having been made closer has
been more than ever estranged. You are
also well aware that the Act of Union,
instead of bringing prosperity, peace OF
contentment to Ireland, has had a totally
opposite effect. In addition to This, the
system of Government substituted for
Grattan's Parliament, namely.
DUBLIN CASTLE RULE,
has completely and disastrously broken
down. Notwithstanding that no less than
50 Coercion Acts have been passed since
the Act of Union III order to bolster up
the authority of this centralized system Of
Government in Ireland, they stand to-day
completely demoralized. without any polit-
ical party or any responsible statesman in
any political party in the three countries,
so poor as to do this institution reverence.
Not even the eminent statesman of the
stupid party-no, not even they-stand by
Dublin Castle. We contend that for this
state of things produced by the failure Of
the Act of Union and the decentralization
of Dublin Castle rule, the Irish people
have dem anded in thoroughly constitu-
tional manner remedy, not a revolution
airy or an unreasonable one, but perfectly
legal and rational remedy, and they have
returned to the Imperial Parliament 81
out of total 1913 Irish representatives t(
insist upon that demand. In addition tC
this the necessity for radical change il
the government of Ireland is admitted
more or less by all parties, and is acknowl
edged by all responsible statesmen. Ear
Spencer, who was twice Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, speaking the other night a
Newcastle on-Tyne, said of the Castl,
system of government in Ireland w
,relied on exceptional measures for tn
! support of law and order, but we coul'
not always maintain those exceptiona
measures. This is the position we are il
and it is grave one. We find that tn
state of society in Ireland is most serious
and there is state of uncertainty an
fear and alarm amongst all classes of tn
community, not only amongst landlord
20 t,1t oil bo