Year: 1878

| of really earnest and useful labors on the
| part of our Irish members.


At this prospect some of the London
papers have already taken alarm. off the
conferences of Home Rulers in Dublin and
! elsewhere have resulted in nothing else,"
says the Times, "they have begOtten reso-


luton that. the policy of that party must be
pursued with greater energy IN the present
year than ever before" And this, it says,


augurs i'll for the despatch of public bus
iness." By "public business" of course,


is meant English business, aud we are free


to confess that for the despatch of that class


of business it does not augur well. We


want Irish business attended to; we are


not satisfied to have it put away out OF


reach on the top shelves or kicked into the


cellars of the House of Commons. We


want it brought to the front, and we will


not retire it for the convenience either Of


England or the empire. We are will


ing to take Irish business off the


hands of the British Parliament al
together; but if prevented from so do
ing we shall take care not only that
the British Parliament shall find that bus
ness very much in it's way, but that our
Irish members shall have much more to
say on English business also than is likely
to be at all agreeable to the House of
Commons. An advance on those lines of
action is what has been recommended and
provided for by the National Conference





such instructions that assembly has
rendered invaluable service to the cause Of
Ireland.


Some Home Rulers doubted the wisdom
of calling that conference together. They
feared that harm to the cause would result
from it. Timid men took alarm, aud fan
cied that hot headed persons were planning
adoption of wild ideas and along perilous
paths. Others feared the occurrence of
scenes of personal contention, which
might lead to the disruption of the organ
ization. And it may be that few were
trou bled by an apprehension that the as
mentioned timid and easy going classes of
persons to SO large an extent that public
spirit and patriotic energy might then and
there be condemned as detestable aud dan |
gerous. Happily all euch fears have been |
proved to be unfounded. The Conference
supplies proof conclusive that no section |
of the Home Rule party have been seeking
either to disrupt the organization, OF di-
rect the movement out of it's legitimate |
course. And it has given assurance also
that any large and representative assembly |
of patriotic IriSbmen may be relied on not
to place ban upon the exercise of courage
and energy in the cause Of ireland. The
Conference which sat in the Rotundo on
Monday and Tueeday last had not the
taiutest notion of doing anything OF the
kind. Prudence, combined with courage,
was the motto of that large gathering of
patriotic Irishmen; union they desired,
Out not the union OF apathy, not the union
Df the grave ; union il a bold and vigo-
rons conrse ot action was their ideal. The
esoutons which they passed were mode
rate, but the tone of the meeting was firm
There was no mistaking it, Why do we
mention these things Just to give merit
where it ia due, and to bid our country be
Of good cheer. For ourselves we can
truly say that nothing we have witnessed
IN Ireland for many year has inspired us
with such confidence in the future of the
Irish cause as we have derived from the
of that Conference. 1t was
good beginning of the new year; we hope
It will De worthily followed up by
spirited action on the part of orr Irish
mem bere and should that hope be real-
.ed we feel certain there will be some real
progress to be reported to the Home Rule
Conference Of January, 1879.