The Irish standard., 1903-08-08

call themselves the party of retrench-
ment and Of economy (hear, hear. The
second weak point in the bill, as
regard it, is what Mr.. Dillon reminded
the House of-namely, that the bill
fails to provide the new purchasers
with those three ten year reductions
which the land conference recommend
ed, and which would relieve the new
purchasers Of any substantial anxiety
as to the future. The third point was
that the bill failed to give the time
which we suggested in the conference
report. 1 don't want to go back OH
these things. 1 make every allowance
for the difficulties of the chief secre-
tary OIL this question of the bonus in
dealing with the treasury, and perhaps
with some of our own friends, who
did not for long time realize that the
handspring of the report was that any
diminutiOn in the inducements for the
landlords to SELL so far from serving
the tenants injured their prospects
Chear, hear). 1 only record these things
to show that it is no fault of ours on
those benches if the bill is to some ex-
tent marred by those defects, and if in
eXplicable troubles or the exigencies
of the treasury drove the chief secre-
tary to reject various other amend
ments upon which Irish opinion was
absolutely united. I don't care to
dwell on those topics at all, for fully
agree that whatever may be the short
comings of the bill the bill as it stands
is great bill, and is capable of pro-
Gucing better and wider results than
any act that was ever passed by this
English Parliament for Ireland
(cheers). That much may be said
with certainty, and you will not en-
pect us to forget that one of the
secrets of its success was that the
bill was debated and discussed, not in
an English Parliament, but in an Irish
Parliament. The time has not come
for pressing this government to take
the one further step for the purpose
of transferring this Parliament from
Westminster to College Green; but
find no fault with the references of the
prime minister this afternoon to the
subject 1t is at all events certain
that it will be the fault of English
statesmen and not of the Irish people
If the future of the Irish cause does
not develop itself on these lines of
Cancellation and peace of which 1 hope
this bill will be only the starting
point Qrsh cheers) From the very
outset the Irish people. as proved by
the great national convention. regard
ell this bill in a friendly and not in Il
hostile spirit. They entrusted the
Irish party with unlimited authority
to work for it's amendment, not with
any sinister or hostile design, but with
the honest intention of making it's
peace-bearing operations as widespread
as possible Qrish cheers). That is the
spirit in which we endeavored to work
in our debates this session. am
sometimes amused to see how English
men and English newspapers marvel
ut the moderate and reasonable spirit
now prevailing on the Irish benches.
1t never seems once to strike them
that it is in themselves and not in us
that the change has come about Chear,
T( 7 r,f %bo+ ~
to give Englishmen more pause as to
their capacity for governing us, or for
ever fully understanding u.s. for what
is the undisputed fact? There never
was moment in this long and bitter
struggle Of ours when you might not
have had peace ON exactly the same
terms as now, SO far as the Irish
representatives were concerned
| (cheers). and you might have spared
yourselves and us twenty years of mis-
cry and blood (cheers) For my own
sc'all part, it is now eighteen years
since, under the inspiration Of our own
great leader of those days, I gave
frank and loyal assistance to the
Liberal party in Mr.. Gladstone's great
and never-to-be-forgotten project of
reconciliation between Ireland and
Great Britain. 1 am acting in the
same spirit now Ql'ish cheers), and
nothing will deter me from giving an
equally frank and loyal assistance to
the present government in their less
great, but only less great, project of
the abolition of lnndlOrdism in Ireland
hear, hear. They will have the sup
port of ninety-nine in every hundred
men in Ireland, and of the Irish race
TIL GE9hout the earth, and especially
the support of the men who fought
you hardest when there was nothing
fer i! but to fight you Irish cheers.
If this bill is only administered prop
erly. and if the mass of the Irish land
lords only display the wisdom and re-
gard for their own interests which
some Irish landlords have displayed ut
more than one trying moment. when
the life of this bill hung by !, thread.
| all | can say is that the chief stcre-
| tary and his associates may we'll be
envied. and they will not be grudgcd
by us any triumpls which hope and
trust will await the policy with which
their names will go down to history
general cheers.