THE IRISH PARTY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7079, 3 February 1891, Page 4

THE IRISH PARTY.

MR PAENELL AT LIMERICK. [Per San Francisco Mail.] AUCKLAND, Feb. 2. A despatch from Limerick dated Jan. 11 says :— Fully 20,000 persons assembled here to-day to greet Mr Parnell, thousands coming from all the adjoining Countiea. He made a long speech. He declared that Mr Gladstone caused the present trouble by his mandatory letter. Keferring to Mr Gladstone's denial of the accuracy of his statements regarding the interview at Hawarden, Mr Parnell read a letter he had written to Premier Rhodes at the Cape of Good Hope, a warm friend of Home Rule, only three months after the interview, making the same assertions. Another important fact yet unrevealed Mr Parnell said he would now publish. Twenty-four hour 3 before issuing his manifesto he saw Mr M'Carthy, to whom he told what he intended to do, and gave an outline of the statement he was preparing to issue a3 a manifesto. Mr H'Carthy, he had reason to know, placed his intentions before Mr Gladstone. (Hisses.) Mr M'Carthy also communicated to him Mr Gladstone's observations upon the outline of the manifesto, and there was no reference whatever then made by Mr Gladstone against the manifesto on the ground of breach of confidence. (Cries of "Hear, hear.") Touching the present position of the land question, Mr Parnell thought certain of the amendments to the Land Bill proposed by the Government showed that the Liberals had not a genuine policy. The leaders of the Liberal party, in order to conciliate the Radical section, had abandoned the idea of peasantry proprietorship and land purchase ; and in order to conciliate the Whigs refused to entertain proposals for the reduction of rents by means of amending the Land Act of 1881, and by conferring upon the future Irish Parliament power to deal with the question. It was, therefore, perfectly useless for the Liberals to talk about Home Eule at all, because Home Rule so restricted would be a sham. Whatever might be the motives of the Irish members who opposed him, it was certain that they were not in a position to sit in judgment on him, or pretend to express the opinion of the country. Mr Parnell said he could not forecast the result of the present negotiations without a breach of confidence. He thought, however, that Mr O'Brien would not object to his Baying that so far the negotiations had resulted in an agreement, and that they fully recognised that the future steps are to be taken by other men, on whom very great responsibility will rest, if Mr O'Brien and himself are not able to resume the negotiations with the assured hope of success. (Cheers.) Aa soon as the future of the Irish question was secured, he would cheerfully retire from the leadership of the Irish Party. The future would vindicate him fully. The Dublin Freeman's Journal of Jan. 9 publishes a long letter from Miss Anna Parnell, a sister of Mr C. S. Parnell. The paper cays that she is one of the most remarkable women of the time ; that she maintained the struggle against coercion in 1881 and 1882, after the Land League had been suppressed and the leaders imprisoned. In the letter she says she has no opinion as to which side is right, but suggests that if the Home Rule Association were revived on a ] national, independent basis, it would protect and prevent the interests of the country from suffering through the conflicb. She rather Bharply scorna the Irish Parliamentary members who seceded from her brother. She says that they did not say why Mr Gladstone is judged only by the last six years of his life. "What is there to hinder him and the Liberals from repeating after the next election what they did after 1880 ? They do not tell us," she cays, "why the Conservatives may not give us Home Rule. They do not explain if Eadical hatred is extinct ; why brutal Balfour is where he is ; why the British Parliament, whether Liberal or Conservative, always receives a mandate to persecute Ireland , nor why, when the Liberals are out of office, they are the only body entitled to the respect of the British race." Mr Gladstone, in a letter to Mr Furness, the Liberal candidate for Hartlepool, says : " The Irish Parliamentary party vindicated itself by putting an end to the leadership of Parnell, and has left us prepared to pursue, as heretofore, our duty in denouncing the unequal laws and the obvious system of coercion adopted by the Government as a permanent law. The Liberal gains of seats in the House of Commons, constantly repeated during the last four years, mean much more than success. They mean that a union has for the first time been effected between the British and Irish, and show that the people aim to close the controversy our opponents seek to indefinitely prolong. The people of Ireland have put their trust in the people of Great Britain to deliver them from bad laws made worse by a harsh and insulting administration. It rests on each constituency, as occasion offers, for us to show our sister nation that her confidence is not in vain."