THE Daily Southern Cross.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXX, Issue 5135, 5 February 1874, Page 2

THE Daily Southern Cross.

LUCLO, NOX X. HO. If I hz\e been t\tni',iii bci!, \et tlitrt n-o A UlOUs 111(1 iKULUllK flOlll tilt sjuili. 1 1)1110

Til U USD AY, FEBRUARY 5, 187-4.

Whatever may have been the veal expectation of the principal leadeis of the Home Rule agitation in Ireland, it is evident tlm f the result of their great effoits to secure ;m -influential monster demonstration in Dublin in favour oi the nio\enient, on the 18th of Xo\embei List, must have proved very disappointing to the more initiated among tluir followers. It wa: announced for Homo time befoie that the meeting ot the (liaud Conference, convened, it was said, on a requisition of 21,000 signatures, and which was to be held in the Round Room of the Rotunda, would probably occupy three days. We cannot a.iy how long it lasted, but the fhst day's meeting is represented as consisting of about 200 gentlemen, who formed a ring in th" middle of the vast are,-, s. at d on chiiiis near some table-*, sin lounded by a sea ot empty benches on all .sides " The occupied centre," we are told, "■ bore about the same propoition to tho whole area of the room as the pan. ted centre of a taigtt loi areheiy pxactice would to the apace hi omul " With the exception of a few members of Parliament, sixteou in all, the Council of the Home Kule Associa-

ton >» t. a in> 10 pi 1 .iin I .t ioh memueis of Corporate bodies, there was no person oi :mv note m the Assembly. Admission was b)- ticket, and each was j distinctly marked, so that a con pet aceouut of the number might, bo easily made out. The list prepared for the press at the close of ihe meeting was under 200 names, many of them unknown, so that there could not have been anything like a general representation of the country. The gallery it is stated, Avas filled with well dressed spectators of both sexes, evidently come there to look on as a mere matter of curiosity ; but the absence of anything approaching popular interest in the proceedings was remarkable. Not the slightest curiosity was shown by the commercial classes, or by the working men outside. Captain King Iiarman read the " requisition," which he said was signed by 21,000 persons. It is remarkable that this requisition, which it was said, occupied two months in preparing it for the press, when it w»i punted was found to contain only some 5,U)0 or 7,000 names, "selected," however, as the secretary states, " from a roll of over 2-1,000 signatures." It is certain that no exertions were spared to swell the array of names, whatever the real number may amount, to, but it cannot be said that the result is by any means satisfactory. After all the labour which they cost to produce, and all the boastful predictions which heralded their birth, neither the requisition nor the meeting which followed upon it, have proved of a character of which the Irish Nationalists and their organs have much reason to be proud, though there has been an attempt to cover their disappointment with high-sounding congratulations. The Chairman of the meeting, Mr. Shaw, M P , told his audience that their object was to " demonstrate that the people of Ireland really believed in this movement of Home Rule, and he thought the number of signatures to the requisition was a sufficient answer to anyone disposed to doubt the fact." Mr. Butt, the father of the movement, who was bound to make a lengthy oration, explained, towards its conclusion, that he and his friends " did not seek to break up the Empire," which, to say the least of it, was very obliging. " They asked nothing," he .said, '"for Ireland but what was granted to Canada and Australia — a Parliament to manage their own affairs growing up beside an Imperial Parliament, which would decide all matters of Imperial concern." But where is the parallel, geographically or otherwise between the long-established relations of the British Isles to one another, as a compact nation in close contiguity to the great Powers of Jnirope, and those existing between England and her Colonies situated thousands of miles distant from the seat of empire, and far beyond the reach of effective central legislation ? Mr. Butt must have formed a low estimate, indeed, of the intelligence of his audience when he imagined it could be convinced by an argument so entirely ono-sided, and patently futile on its face. Cheat difference of opinion existed in the Conference as to what the Home Rule demands teally included. Somo clamoured for a revival of the old Eepeal cry. Othei'3 proposed federations of various kinds. A Kev. Mr. O'Mally, after submitting various amendments without effect, rose to move the adoption of a draft bill which he had prepared, and which provided for the creation of three national Parliaments — one each for England, Ireland, and Scotland, to be referred with the formal resolutions before the meeting to a committee to report tipon during the Conference. All these proposals were withdrawn or overruled, and the original resolutions were eventually carried. The chief of them are as follows : — 11 1. That, as the basis of the proceedings of these Conferences, we declare on conviction that it is essentially nece&saty to the peace and prosperity of Ireland that the right of legislation on all Irish affairs should be k stored to our country. '■'2. That solemnly we assert the inahenaljU- right of the Iribh people to Sflf-govorn uu'nc. We declare that the time m oiu opinion, h.is come when a combined ami eueryttic effort should be made to obUin the i estimation t>f that right. " ;i I'haf, in accordance with the ancieut <.nd Constitutional rights of the Irish nation, we claim the privilege of u.anaging our own a (I airs by a Parhameut assembled in licl.ui'1, .iiul composed of the Sovereign, the L'juI-j, and the Commons of Ii eland. " Th.it the absolute impracticability of wh.it is here proposed, consistent with the unity of the empire, is as obvious to the leadeis of Home Rule agitation as to most other people, cannot be doubted foi a moment. All that can be said is, Unit it suits these gentlemen and their party to inaugurate mock discussions of this kind in public in order to keep alive that spiiit of discussion which has all along wrought so much misery to unhappy Ireland. But as foi the success of their enterprise, no such dream, we are satisfied, has a pl.ico in their wildest imagination. The real .stiength of this agitation has been greatly overrated. E^en anxong the Catholics, but a very small propoition of the better classes have any sympathy with it. It is well known that with the exception of the Archbishop of Tuam and the Bishops of Cloyne and Ross, the dignitaries of tin* Church of Rmne have scrupulously kept aloof. They give the movement no active encouragement, though, as individuals, they may ayinpathise with some of the sentiments of the leading agitators. Their chrgy, as a class, follow their example. Out of about {,()()<) priests in Ireland only 120 have signed tl e requisition. Out of nearly ;5,(>i 0 magistrates in Ii eland only lO.t have identified themselves with the move ment. It was stated .it ono time that the dis-e-tablishinem of the Irish (Jhurch, and tho Iiisli I'niversities Bill, had extensively estranged the Protestant population ,.(• the North. But it is clear that >,ii(his not the ca>e. The loyalty <>t the North ha« not been shaken, .i-, the M^naturcb to the requisition fully tesLify. Out of 3,1 o0 Protestant clergymen in Ireland less than a seoie have signed the requisition, although circulars were addressed to every one

if tin hi and »Vt'i t > rlloit ]>ut lotlii to draw as many as possible of them into tho movement I lie fact is no one seriously believes in the bincenty of the so-called Home Kule faction, still less ius any one the smallest faith in the practicability of what i.s proposed, undui' the name of the Home Rule agitation.