The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-10-15
The Demand for Legislative Inde-
pendence is Fixed and
Unalterable.
Allti-Landlord Agitation Instituted
Thirty Years Ago is Active
to This Day.
Parnell Laid Down the Principle
Which Has Ever Guided the
Nationalist Party:

On Oct. "a, 1880, Parnell delivered
a memorable speech at Galway. The
Land League had been in existence
for about a year and half at the
time and the future of the struggle
against landlordism was dubious, pot
ent as the peoples organization had
become, says a correspondent in the
Belfast Irish Weekly" Parnell knew
that the coming winters work in Ire
land would shape the inevitable Land
Act of 1881. The session of 1880 had
concluded, and the anti-landlord agi-
tation was in full swing throughout
the country. In the midst of all the
clamor and tumult, when the minds
of most men were filled with the agra
rian battle to the exclusion of other
considerations, and when great
estate prosecution" against the Land
League officials was imminent, the
Irish leader committed himself to a
declaration of National Policy that
may be recalled with advantage near
ly thirty years later. He said:
II expressed my belief at the be-
ginning Of last session that the pres
ent Chief Secretary should not have
proceeded, very far in the, duties of
his Office before he would have found
that he had undertaken an impossible
task to govern Ireland, and that the
only way to govern Ireland is to al
low her to govern herself. And if
they (the Government) prosecute the
leaders of this movement, it is not be-
cause they wish to preserve the lives
of one or two landlords, but it will be
because they see that behind this
movement lies a more dangerous
movement to their hold upon Ireland !;
because they know that if they fail in
unfolding landlordism in Ireland their
power to misrule Ireland will go, too.
/ wish to see the tenant farmers pros.
porous; but, large and important as
this class of tenant farmers consti-
tuting as they do with their wives
and families the majority of the peo-
pie of this country, would not have
taken off my coat and gone to work
if 1 HAD not known that we were lay
ing the foundation in this movement
for the regeneration of our legislative
independence"
In this thirty years. old speech of
Parnell will be found the principle
which has inspired and guided Ma
tionalist effort since the day it was
laid down. Varied as the fortunes of
the struggle have been since 1880,
those to whom the control of the
movement was intrusted never once
lost sight of the ultimate object-"the
regeneration of our legislative inde-
pendence." It has been a long and
bitter fight-a fight waged by a small
Nation, too often divided and period
ically cursed by the untoward opera
tions of "wayward fate," against the
organized power of mighty Empire.
But while the curse of landlordism
was being shattered forever, and while
all the classes of the Irish population
were being uplifted in comparison
with their position when Parnell
spoke at Galway, no responsible lead
er of the people nursed for moment
the delusion that the most important
and far-reaching Concessions" for
which the most sanguine could look
from English administrations were
anything more than landmarks" or
"mile-stones" on the path to National
Selfgovernment. Speaking to the
Home Rule resolution moved by him.
self in the House of Commons on
March 80, 1908, John Redmond said:
"Our attitude on this question of what
is called the policy of the halfway
house has never been in any doubt.
In private and in public, formally and
informally, on the floor of this House
and everywhere where we have spok.
en- for the last twenty-five years, we
have declared our conviction that
nothing could settle this question ex.