The Irish standard., 1910-12-17
Mrs" j. H. Mcclure, Mrs. P. j. Kir-
wan, Mrs. John Devenny, Mrs. ]. M.
Burns and Mrs. I'D. Casey.
THE ISSUE
The House of Lords at Last Battling
for Existence.

The House of Lords at Last Battling
for Existence.
There is no obscuring the issue of
the fight; the Irish nation is face to
face with it's hereditary foes at last,
says the Weekly Freeman. The pow
or that made the nineteenth century
in Ireland a century OF struggle and
suffering, of blood and tears, has now
in its turn to battle for it's existence.
Nemesis has come. The crimes of
the slayers Of liberty and peace are
to be atoned for; and the Irish ma
ton has the criminals at the bar.
That is the fact which neither arts.
tocrat nor factionist can conceal from
the eyes of the Irish democracy. The
evil power can be struck down for
ever, and the might of Ireland is in
voked to reinforce the blow. In the
manifesto which the National Direc-
tory, on the motion of the leader of
the Irish party, has addressed to the
Irish people, no other call is made.
All minor issues and minor measures
disappear before the great trial that
swallows up them ALL The Estate
that interposed it's imperious "never"
between the nation and it's liberty is
itself arraigned for judgment; and the
united democracies have to choose
whether they will continue in servi-
tude or achieve their freedom. Ma
tional self government would have
been welcome to Ireland by whatever
road it came; that it should come
through the destruction of the PERM
cious House Of Peers will make it
doubly sweet. Mr.. Dillon on Tuesday
recalled the day 30 years ago when
a few Irish members gathered in the
House of Lords to see the paltry
measure that would have given a lit
tie shelter to the victims of the evic.
tor ignominiously flung out by COM
mand of the evictors. 1.-THE sentences
Ct death" were sent to the wrong adj
dress; they are returning to the au-
thors. A generation has passed since
then; but if the mills of destiny grind
slowly, they grind exceeding small.
The duty of the Irish people needs
no definition in such an hour. They
know their work and are ready. To
speed the fight and disencumber the
leaders for their task, wherever it
calls them, the usual preliminaries Of
general election are dispensed with.
The Directory takes it chat in the
sudden emergency that has arisen, it
is not necessary to trouble the con-
stituencies to repeat their selections
Of last January; and therefore, under
the special conditions of the contest,
the customary conventions are not to
be summoned. The national organ
ization, the local councils, and all en-
titled to be present at the conventions
will approve. It is a moment for the
concentration of effort, to strengthen
and defend the Irish party wherever
and by whomsoever it is attacked, and
to carry the war into the enemy's
country. The platform is single and
simple. Abolish the veto, clear the
road for Home Rule. The old Lime
rick battlecry sums up the whole duty
Of the Nationalist today. No narrow
cause is his inspiration. The demand
put forward by the Irish leaders is for
full national self government; such a
settlement as 'it will be the pride Of
the Irish Protestant and the Irish
Catholic to cherish and defend.