THE STATE OF IRELAND.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 253, 29 January 1889, Page 2

THE STATE OF IRELAND.

TRIAL OF W. O’BBIEN. HIS E3OAPE FROM COURT FOLLOWED BY RIOTING. FOUB MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT. London, Jan. 25. During the trial of Mr W. O'Brien, M.P., at Carrick oa Suir, on a charge of using inflammatory language, the prisoner escaped from open Court, the crowd covering hie flight. A riot then ensued, during which the police repeatedly charged the mob. Finding their batons useless the police had recourse to their bayonets, and twenty of the rioters received serious wounds, and many others were injured. A number of policemen were injured by stones. Further particulars state that Mr Healey, counsel for Mr O’Brien, applied for summonses against Lord Salisbury and Mr Balfour to prove that the Primrose League was addicted to boycotting. The application was received with cheers and laughter, and thereupon the Magistrate ordered the Court to be cleared. Mr O’Brien objected to the c<se being heard with closed doors, and walked out. Tho police tried to arrest him, when ths riot ensued. London, Jan. 26. *Mr O'Brien is still at large. The Court has passed sentence nn him of throe months' imprisonment with hard labor.

As Irish matters have now again come so prominently to the front the concluding portion of Mr Gladstone's speech at Birmingham will be read with interest:—Can they reasonably expect that the Irish people will change ttoeir minds, Why had tho Irish people held out for 700 hundred years if they are to give in now ? Why did they hold out when they were totally without means of action 1 And then it is supposed that they are to give in when they are abundantly supplied with the means of action. I mean that they are supplied with Constitutional privileges, supplied with a broad and general franchise, and a vote which their superiors cannot pry into. They have a more extended franchise, gentle men, than you have. It io the doeire of England, as we know by a cheer that made the walls of this building ring, to adopt the principle of one vote. (Cheers.) But if you look to the returns you will find that in Ireland substantially they have got their principle already. They are armed with the whole powerful machinery of a Constitutional system. Yet your opponents are desirous to go on fighting this hopeless battle. And for what ? Not for honour, but for dishonour. Dishonour inasmuch as most of us believe that the world looks upon the treatment of Ireland by England as dishonourable to Eng’and. (Hear, hear.) But. all must allow, from whatever point of view they approaoh the question, that the government of Ireland by England has been aperfect failure. You are invited to maintain the system, and why * la it econ-

omy ? The waste of Imperial treasure under this system is enormous. I ought to know something of the finances of the country, and I do not hesitate to say that to estimate it from three millions to four millions a year of hard money, the waste of the present system of governing Ireland, is but a moderate estimate of the facta. Thia waate —to produce what ? Not to produce content, but to produce discontent. Does it produce Imperial strength I Suppose we were in vblved in great difficulties, supposd we hid—and God forbid we should have—a crisis like that of the American War, the original American War, brought upon ua at this time, would Ireland add to our strength what it ought to add ? No. We have now got Ireland making a thoroughly constitutional de-mand-demanding what ia, in her own language, a subordinate Parliament, acknowledging in the fullest terms the supremacy of the Parliament of Westminster. How can you know that under all circumstances moderation of demand will continue ? I cannot understand what principle of- justice, and still less, if possible, what prieetp'e of prudence, it la that induces many—l am glad tossy, in my belief, the minority of the people of this country, but still a large minority—to persist ia a policy of whloh the fruits have been unmitigated bitterness, mischief, disparagement, and dishonor. Ah, gentlemen, with what weapons is Ireland fighting this battle ? She Is not fighting it with the weapons of menace, with a threat of separation, with Fenian out-breaks, with the extention of secret socletiss. IJappily, those ideas have gone away into a distance undefined. She ia fighting the contest with the weapons of confidence and of affection (cheers) —of confidence in the powerful party by whose irrevocable decisions she knows she is supported, and that affection towards the Esople of Encland. In the county I think, of imerick, not many days ago, an Englishman was addressing a crowd of Irish Nationalists on the subject of Home Bule. His carriage, or hte train—whichever it was

—was just going to depart. Someone cries out, “ God save Ireland 1” and there was a loud burst of cheering. Ths train went away. Tne cheering subsided. Another voice from the crowd was raised and shouted, " And God save England ” (loud fheers), and cheers louder still (prolonged cheering). In the language of Shakespeare, “inads'the welkin ring again, and fetched shrill echoes from the hollow earth " (loud cheers). These cheers were the genuine expression of the sentiment of the country. They, our opponents, teach you to rely on the use of this deserted and enfeebled and superannuated—(cheers and laughter)—weapon of coercion (hear, hear.) We teaoh ynu to rely on Jrlsh affection and goodwill. We teaoh you not to speculate cn ths formation of that sentiment We show you that it Is formed already. It is in full force. It is ready to burst forth from every Irish heart and every Irish voice. (Cheers). We only beseech you, by resolute persistence in that policy yon have adopted, to foster, to cherish, to consolidate that sentiment, and so to act, that in space it shall spread from tho north of Ireland to' the south, and from the west of Ireland to the east, and in tins it shall extend end endure from this present date until the test years, and the last of the centuries that may still be reserved in the Muneels of Providrass te wdrk out the destiniu of mumdi