The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-08-24
Speaks on Home Rule to Vast
Crowd of Englishmen on Their
Native Heath.
Elicits Enthusiastic Applause by
Reference to the Loyalty Of
the Liberals.
The Irish Had elasped the Hand
of Friendship Extended by the
British Democracy.

At great gathering in Yorkshire
on Aug. 8, John e. Redmond, NJ. P,
delivered an address to Englishmen
on the Home Rule question. He was
preceded by the Postmaster-Genera1,
Mr.. Herbert Samuel, who said in part:
IF they were truly a United King
dom such a statesman as Mr.. Red
mond would have been a Cabinet Min
lister long ago. In no country of the
world except ours would it be possible
for the chief city Of one Of the great
provinces like Dublin to be unvisited
by the Prime Minister of the country
for over hundred years. The es-
arrangement which had SO long con-
tinued between Great Britain and Ire
land had been the fault, not of the
people-for they had no quarrel with
one another-but of statesmen who
had not had the success of bringing
them together. He noticed that a
Unionist speaker in that district had
said that Ulstermen opposed to Home
Rule were born and bred under the
Union Jack and under the Union Jack
they would die. If that was all they
required they would be very easily
satisfied laughterl, for the Union
Jack would remain floating over Ire
land when Home Rule was granted,
Just as it waved over Montreal or
Quebec, or Sydney or Melbourne. If
by the side Of the Union Jack there
waved in Ireland the Green Flag with
the Golden Harp where would be the
harm?"
Mr.. Redmond, who was enthusiastic
cally cheered, said he was glad to take
the opportunity Of expressing to the
Postmaster-General, in the name of
Ireland, gratitude, not merely for his
sympathy with the Irish cause but for
the fact that he brought his clear
mind and powerful intellect to aid of
the Government in preparing the de-
tails of the Home Rule bill, which had
both politically and financially given
satisfaction to the Irish people, and
which safeguarded the financial and
political interests of Great Britain and
the higher interests of the Empire
(applause).
So far as he could gauge public
opinion in this country the justice and
necessity of Home Rule for Ireland
had come to be accepted as their set
tied conviction during the past twenty
years. A blessed changed had been
brought about in Ireland. The great
principle for which Parnell had stood,
and which twenty years ago was de-
nounced as robbery, conf1scation and
anarchy, almost had been enshrined
in an Act of Parliament, and the peo-
pie were becoming owners of the soil
they titled. In more than half of Ire
land landlordism had disappeared.
With it the crowbar brigade, evictions
and the destruction and burning of
the houses of the people had also dis
appeared and in place of that system
they had a smiling, happy and pros
porous peasantry.
Peace and crimelessness were to be
found today all over Ireland, and
while this was SO they had the people
busy carrying out a system Of local
government which they would remem-
Der, Lord Salisbury had said was
more dangerous than Home Rule it.
self. It had worked admirably, and
the people had shown themselves able
and efficient governors Of their own
affairs. In addition, the Catholic Uni
agreement. But there was one thing
which remained unchanged, and which
was Interchangeable, and this was The
demand of the great mass of the Irish
people that they should have the right
to govern themselves in their own
purely local affairs. All the arguments
of their opponents had lost their
cogency and flavor. All the old fears
had disappeared, and the efforts which
had been made to arouse the elec:or-
ate to state of excitement in oppost-
tion to Home Rule had absolutely
failed. Twenty years ago the ques-
tion In Great Britain used to be-why
d 81 -. = 4 -. 4.