The Irish standard., 1913-02-01

stone has introduced, whatever may
be its ultimate fate i'll the House of
Commons or in the House of Peers.
whatever l. notifications, improve.
ments, extensions it may be found
capable of sustaining are all but de-
Calls, vastly Important in themselves.
but for the moment unimportaat in
contrast with the stupendous. the
,wonumental Importance Of the recog-
milton by the foremost os English
statesmen of that right of ireland. to
make her own laws for her own peo-
pie, which for so many centuries has
been so persistently, SO b!oodily. de-
thied to her.
There are certain hours in the
lives of great men which are in them
selves epochs, hours when single
speech ia more momentous,- more far.
reaching, than half dozen revolu-
tons. Such was the hour which but
2 week ago reversed the verdict of
seven centuries; such was the speech
In which Mr.. Gladstone apologized for
1.-THE folly of eighty-six. years Of false
.:tnd fatal union. and frankly recog-
4nized, late in the day, indeed, but not
.too late, that ireland contained a peo-
pie rightly struggling to DC free"
80
es-ssrs- ~. V - -
8 The great Prime Minister had the
advantage Of addressing the greatest
speech Of his life to the largest audi
ence that was ever gathered together
Within the. precincts of the popular
assembly. But crowded though the
CHAMBER was, and crowded. too, with
perhaps the most remarkable throng
together within the walls Of West
minister. 1t was for me more closely
crowded and with yet more eminent
CONGREGATION. Ny minds eye. gifted
,.tor the moment by my fancy with the
~powers Of second sight. pcop]ed it with
further presences.
IAN observer in one Of the choking
spaces set apart for strangers, look
ing down. upon those packed benches,
upon that floor where, for the first
time within the memory Of man, seats
chad. been placed for members upon
the blocked gangways. upon the
- ,thickly- clustering groups behind the
Speakers. chair and below the bar;
upon the overlooking passages, and
grooming galleries. might well have
fina gined that SO full House could
Scarcely be made fuller even by the
!. addition of a solitary individual. |
+. In sober fact, it would have been
4 hard, indeed. to find room for another
: human being in the dense assemblage,
or for the over-taxed and enervating
atmosphere to afford him a life-gus-
tanning supply of oxygen, IL room had
4, been found for the sole of his foot.
l 1t was. not, however,. with living,
ni)oreathtng entities, but with the body
aiess creation Of fancy. that my mind
created the assemblage within that
swarming Senate House.
The white-haired, blind, old maa,
>, Whose stalwart frame, was bowed by
% sorrom, and whose sightless. gaze had
'tfn 1t such wistful pathos was not
-" the exiled Earl whose grave in Roman
earth is now the shrine Of SO many
.pilgrimages? Near him, his soldiers
.s: face writhed with pain or poison,
2 game the great kinsman of his house,
sOwen Roe. sarsfield, with the blood
Fof Landea on his breast and hand;
Talbot Of Tyrconnell's weary, naughty
race; Roger Moore. handsome chival-
), ,1 Ttous, devoted; William Molyneux,
with the Case Of Ireland" in his
Grasp; the small. fervid figure of the
rcDean of ST., Patrick's with fierce in
'faignation' blazing in his wild. dark
eyes; Lucas. with his volume clasped
In his embrace: the gallant bearing of
Charlemont; Grattan, in the uniform
;sQf the Volunteers: Flood, 1estless and
6fepentant; Curran, swaying with
stormy eloquence - these and many
others tioated before me ii proud sue
cession.
With them We're yet livelier and
anloftier presences: Edward Fitzgerald,
s'aris comedy body gashed with more
.sscars than Caesars. and by baser
hands; Tone, with that grim wound
I'm his throat: Basenal Harvey and
Father John: the Brothers sheares in
ssdeath as in life undivided, and EN-
F'"met, with the livid, circle round his
young neck. On they came. the Ions
line Of martyrs who had died to de-
sfeat the fatal principles which the Act
81 Union formulated, and who seemed
. NO TO- rise from their graves at the
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