The Irish standard., 1892-05-07


argument of common sense Thay ar
admittedly a minority, and they adnl
that they cannot win anything like a ma
jority of the Irish seats If they canno
do that-if they cannot win the ma5orit.
of Irish seats in the English Parliament
fortiori, they are likely to be in a mi
nority in the Irish Parllament-lap
plause] and the people, according t<
that view, whose interest it will be tt
have the largest powers in the Irish Far
lament are the majority Of the Irish
party. [Applause.] They say they will
be victims of clerical dictation under an
Irish Parliament; that it will be Par
| lament under ths priests; and l ask sens"
ible men if they think the Irish Parlla-
ment will be an Institution under che
Irish priests, and, therefore, one OF op-
preston of them, is it likely they are
very sincere in looking for and working
for those enormous powers fer that Far
lament. Accordingly, applying ths test
OF common sense, as in all probability
the men who now form the majority OF
the Irish party would be the first party
in power in the Irish Parliament, J. take
it that if we we're willing to accept a
small bill when we could get a big one,
we should be cutting against our own ln~
terests. Is that a likely proposition? No.
And say and maintain that these cries
about big Parliament and little Par
lament. about pledges from Mr.. CHAD
stone. about assurances from the LioeE-
ais. about q big Home Rule and q little
Home Rule are the growth and excres-
cence Of fungus grated upon the di-
vorce court, and that the cries that have
been invented subsequent to that date
have been invented to cover the shame
and the nakedness Of pledge breaking
Accordingly, as far as am concerned,
when Mr.. O'Connor talks about the hon
esty and the principles of nationality OF
our opponents, I am willing to admit that
as the ,okmen say, am willing to ad-
NIT it sub modo. Agreed to all these de-
clarations upon tllat point. Agseet4 that
these men are as good Natlonalists as we
are. Martin Luther was as good Gath
lie as the Pope until he started on his
downward career. He initiated q great
many reforms after that, but every prin-
ciple laid down by him was laid down in
bad faith, and with desire to iljure the
church he had quilted. In the same way
every principle now laid down by our
friends on the other side is produced aud
trotted out. not ia the interests of Ire
land or the interests of Irish nationality,
but is Matched for the moment for tie
purpose of taking a temporary twist
or turn against us for some party, parti-
san, and factionist object, and that the
purposes these gentlemen have in view
when talking about Home Rule and the
land and the police, and everything of
that kind, say they are not put forward
bona fde, and that they are mere catch
cries, and SO far as / am concerned I treat
them as the idle wind. i think if any
thing were needed to psovs the insincer-
ity of the attachment of these gentleuen
to Home Rule it is shown by the course
they are taking with regard to the action
of the priesthood in Ireland. Yesterday
DR., Kenny declared in the National
League that the mention of the Irish
priests and priestly influence was Ike a
red rag to a bull before the English Non
conformists. Now, accepting that as true,
what are those gentlemen 1.-THE Parnelites
doing? You see them in the House Of
Commons every day of the week ear
wigging English Liberals and poisoning
their minds with regard to the Irish
priesthood. Their whole time is taken
up in the lobbies and corridors of the
House Of Commons pouring SANDER into
the ears of those Liberals with regard to
the Irish priests, those Liberals upon
whose votes Home Rule depends. Only
last night a cutting was sent to me from
the Evening Mail [Orange paper], which,
I think, proves how much bona fdes
there is in this cry of clerical dictation
raised by these gentlemen. The mail ed
itor takes as his text statement in the
Independent [Parnellite] newspaper,
which it described "as Roman Catholic
as we'll as National Journal descr;p-
ton of which I will say that one limb
of the sentence is as true as the other.
The statement in the Independent is as
follows: "Consider in the light of recent
revelations, what material would be left
behind for the building up Of a nation.
We would have the archbishops and
nearly all the bishops a large majority
Of the clergy, a great preponderance OF
religious orders, and some hundreds of
thousands of poor people who dream that
If they d,sobey the local cnrate in the
matter of voting for Poor Law Guard
ian, they will burn in hell or all eter-
,oifv - Thof ronf1on,an uoo not uritton