The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-08-24

There was a weird episode in the
House Of Lords the other evening when
the Peers were debating the Irish
Evicted Tenants bill. says the Irish
World. Lord Atkinson, the Attorney
General foe Ireland, was making his
maiden speech. He had just remarked
that in Ireland all human virtues are
supposed to concentrate in man di-
rectly he refuses to pay his rent and
was describing the bill as an attempt
to empower the Estates Commission
ers to take any land they liked. where
they liked and when they liked and at
any price they liked" when a shrivelled
figure, with a wien face. passed, spec
tral-like, from behind the woolsack to
an empty bench in full view Of the
House. What was it?" older Peers
Whispered; "Clanricarde?"
For the last quarter of a century the
Irish Hand battles have ragged round the
name and i1aisdeeds Of Lord Clanri-
carde, but for twenty years he has
been figure of mystery. His name
has been byword in Irish .agrarian
agitation for the last quarter of a CEN
tury. He had so often figured in Irish
debate that younger Peers and many
members of the lower Commons had
become accustomed to- regard him as. a.
myth or a political Flying Dutchman,
"a being they never expected to see
in the flesh. of whose existence they
were not entitled to doubt"
Only few weeks ago a prominent
member Of the House of Commons hu-
morously professed his grave doubts
as to whether the Marquis Of Clanri-
carde was not purely mythical per-
son. but he was actually in the House
Of Lords, a little shrunken man with
STOPPING shoulders and emaciated
body. on which seedy suit of antique
cut hung loose and limp. His figure
was frail, very frail, but in his face
one could see no weakness of resolu-
tion. Other members Of the House
seemed to shrink from him as an ap-
partition. ....-.
AS if something made preternaturally
visible. he perched himself primly on
corner seat on a bench below the Min
isterial gangway, and his appearance
suggested some gnome whom Rip Van
Wrinkle had left on the Catskill noun
tains and who had escaped from the
mountains and was found in the House
Of Lords. His face, as pallid and ex-
pressionless as that Of a waxen eff1gy,
was crowned with high forehead
from which dusty. gray, lank hair was
brushed severely back to fall in mid
Victoria style over the back of his
coat His features were sharp and
delicate, his eyes were deep set and in
scrutable, and his close set mouth and
stubborn chin were fringed with a
dusty gray mustache and beard
For while this weird figure looked
neither to the right nor to the left, but
sat with a fixed and stony stare at
wooIsack. This was the man, next to
Oliver Cromwell, whom Irish Nation
alists in Great Britain and America
most objurgate and hate. AS the
voice of this uncanny apparition be-
came audible in the sullen silence that
had fallen on the chamber. creepy
feeling passed like a wave across the
spectators.
He had come to scold: his language
was bitter and scathing. Only the older
Peers knew Lord Clanricarde was no
novelty. yet older men in common with
the younger were deeply interested in
Fthe Intervention of this uncanny per-
sonage The younger set We're all agog
Was this the individual who had de-
fled Irish agitators and British states
men? After the. utterance of few
sentences, delivered with vigorous ges-
ticulation and in energetic. full blooded
phreses. they could see that he was q