The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-02-11

not one of these. I have preached I'M
der every contingency, and 1 have again
and again declared my intention to
abandon the cause Of repeal If a single
drop of human blood were shed by those
who advocated the measure. made the
same principle the basis for the move
ment in favor Of Catholic emancipation;
and it was by rigid adherence to that
principle that I conducted the move
ment to a glorious and triumphant is
sue.
ut is my boast that Catholic emanci-
patton and every achievement of my po-
litical life was obtained without vio-
lence and bloodshed; and is it fair. 1
ask you that you should be called upon
at this hour of the day to interrupt a
man who had laid down as the basis of
his political conduct, and who at no pc
riod of his existence was ever known
to deyiate from that maxim? Is it right
that men Of honesty and intelligence
should be called upon to brand now as
participator in conspiracy the man
who has been preaching peace, law and
order during his whole life, and has in
variably deprecated and denounced the
Idea that the objects of his political life
were TO be attained by an appeal to vio-
lent means? belong to Christian per-
suasion with whose members it is a
principle of doctrinal belief that no adj
vantage to church or state-no, not
even heaven, can be sought to be at
tanned at the expense Of any crime
whatsoever-that no sin is to be justi-
fled or palliated by any amount of ad-
vantage, however enormous, that may
possibly be attained by it's commits
sion.
II now come to the evils of the union.
and 1 would look to every honest man
to exert himself for it's repeal. Would
1t not cure the odious evils of absentee
ism? 1t was calculated by an able man
that 100000 pounds a year pass out of
this country. The railway commission
ers reduce it to 100000 pounds. Take
the reduced amount, and ask did ever
country suffer such an odious drain
of 100000 pounds Of absentee money
100000 pounds raised every year In
this country not TO fructify it, not to
employ the people of the country, not to
take care of the sick, and poor or desc
late, but 100000 pounds are trans
planted to foreign lands, leaving pow
erty to those who enriched them. Take
100000 pounds for the last ten years
n
unhappy country-take it for the next
six years. Can you, in conscience, Gu
courage this? There is Il cant that agi-
tation prevents the influx of capital
What is the meaning of that? We do
not want English capital; leave us our
own 100000 pounds and we shall have
capital in abundance. We do not want
that left-handed benevolence which
would drain the country with one hand
and let it in niggardly with the other.
There is another item which eX-
hausts the resources of this country, and
that to the amount precisely of 1000, 900
pounds annually. In the last year it
was as low at 100000 pounds but
drawn out Of this country never to re-
turn. There is, again, the woods and
forests-tbat department receives a.
900 pounds a year out of Ireland in quit
rents, etc. How was that expended for
the last ten years? Between the Thames
tunnel and to ornament Trafalgar
square. We want an additional bridge
at Dublin. Why have we not $4,000
pounds for that purpose? Have we not
as good a right as that it should be eX-
pended ON Trafalgar square? If we had
the parliament in College Green would
that $4,000 pounds be sent to adorn a
square in London?
'''Fherc are other evils attending this
continued drain on the country. re-
member the work of Mr.. Young, a po-.
litical economist, who journeyed in Ire
land in rs, who, in speaking of the in
crease of population accounted for it
by the never failing belyful of potatoes
they had all a belyful of potatoes
and to that he attributed their increase.
But is this the case now? Has not the
country sensibly declined? Is not even
one meal of potatoes Il treat and a
treasure; according to the evidence OF
the commission of poor law inquiry the
people are now iii rags. Was this my
language? No, gentlemen, l appeal to
yourselves. Are they not reduced to
misery and wretchedness; frittered
away by periodical famine, and there
We're six or eight since the union; there
was relief from England while provis-
ions were in quantities transported to
this country provisions were in the
country while the people were perish
ing with hunger, but these provisions
We're exported from the country Let
me tell you that the population comrsis-
sioner's report show the aggravation of
the evil. The gentleman who made the
report is a military officer-Capt. Lark
hama man Of science, of integrity and
of honor. He reports the state of the
population to be this: That 80 per cent
of the town and city population were In
abject poverty and that 70 per cent of
the agricultural population were in alb
ject poverty.