O’Brien's “Invasion of Canada.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 10, 2 July 1887, Page 4

O’Brien's “Invasion of Canada.

William O’Brien, M P., had a bad time on his Canadian crusade against Lord Lansdowne, Governor-General. The Press objected that he had no right to attack as he was doing a man wno from his position could not reply. O'Brien was allowed to speak at Montreal and Quebec, but Toronto set its face against him. The Corporation refused to let him any public hall, and an open-air meeting passed resolutions against him, and of confidence in Lord Lansdowne. When O’Brien arrived there on May rBth, he was attacked by a mob, principally composed of Orangemen who used sticks and stones amissiles. Shouts all the while of" Kill the traitor ” assailed the lecturer, and he was forced to take refuge in a laundry to save his life, and was conducted thence by a police officer to his hotel. In Ottawa the demonstration was mixed in character, but the preponderance of feeling was in favor of the speaker, and was regarded as an answer to the Toronto attack. On the evening of May seth he reached Kingston, the “ Kerry of Canada,” as it is called, with a population of 15,000, of whom 5000 are Catholics. O’Brien spoke at a skating rink. Calm was maintained for some time, but it was broken when Kilbride, Lord Lansdowne’s evicted tenant, commenced his statement. An immense crowd outside began to shout “ God Save the Queen,” and to groan O’Brien. When the meeting had enu 'ed and he came out in the street he wk s Sheeted by shouts of “ There he is.” “ Dri a ? him out here,” “ Kill him,” “ Choke inIH/”“Tear him asunder,"and amid showers of missiles the lecturer and his friends fled for their lives, the newspaper correspondents going with him. Kellogg', of the N. Y. Sun; Wall, of the Associated Press; and Connell, of the Chicago N’ews, were badly hurt. The Canadian Freeman, an Irish Catholic organ, Fas wrecked. Mr O’Brien found refuse in the house of a man named Peter Devlin. An examination showed him to be pretty well used up. A boulder had struck him on the back of the neck and felled him just in time to prevent a blow that was aimed at his head with a club taking effect. His throat was full of dust, and his clothes bespattered with blood. His body was bruised and battered in several places, and a touch of inflammation of the lungs had appeared. When he got on the train he fainted away from sheer exhaustion. At Hamilton on the 23rd eight shots were fired at the vehicle conveying from the station, but nobody was hurt except the driver, whose wrist was smashed. It is considered that O’Brien's real object in his mission was to stir up the Irish Canadians to disaffection. The League’s quarrel with Lord Lansdowne is because he gave very liberal remissions of rent to his tenants in Kerry, one of the poorest parts of Ireland, but declined to treat in the same way people like Kilbride, who are paying a rental of 000 in Queen’s County, one of the richest districts. The Irish tenants have been acting on O’Brien’s advice during his absence in Canada, and the few evictions that were carried out caused great trouble and expense to the authorities.

The Governor-General in an address at Ottawa afterwards made a jocular allusion to O’Brien’s mission as the recent “ invasion of Canada,” not numerically strong, but making up in intrepidity for the lack of numbers. He said the only trouble was that the invaders had been completely misled by their “ Intelligence Department.”