MR. PARNELL IN GALWAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 403, 31 December 1880, Page 9

MR. PARNELL IN GALWAY.

The following speech is in reply to tbe toast " Irishmen Abroad ":— Mr. Parnell, M.P., on rising, was received with enthusiastic cheering, which was renewed again and again, the company standing. When silence had been restored, tbe hou. gentleman said — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I feel very much iudebted to you for having permitted me to reply to this toast, because I almost think that I have not had an opportunity of paying my tribute of gratitude and esteem +o our fellow-countrymen abroad since I returned from Ameiica just before the last general election. Now, I was during my trip in the United States brought in contact with the Irish people abroad in a way, perhaps, that no one ever has been before me. Th« circumstances were very peculiar and exceptional, and I must confess that I waR t-iirprised at tbe experience which met me there. I had no notion of the position to which our people had attained in America, not the slightest ; and when I saw them in every city, when 1 became acquainted with their strength and power, and when I recognised the great love which they have for their own country, those of them who were born in Ireland and those of them who were born in America of Irish parents (cheers), and I draw no distinction between the two except in so far as a practical education which those of our people born in America have received enables them to be of even greater use to Ireland, and to place their talents to a greater extent for the advantage and service of Ireland than those of our people who were born here and driven into exile in times of famine, I say 1 draw no distinction between the two save in my admiration and wonder that those men and women who bave never eeen Ireland should feel the affection and love and devotion to this country quite equal to that of any man living in this country (loud cheers), When I started for America on the trip by which I obtained this experience Ireland was threatened with a great famine — a famine of which we had given warning for many months previously ; and we had repeatedly entreated the Government ef England to come to our help, and by affording employment to our people to Bave them from a repetitioi of the scenes of 1847 and 1848. Up to tbe date of my departure there had boen no response (loud cheers, and cries of " No ") ; but immediately it was announced that I and my friend— Mr. John Dillon, the member for Tipperary (cheers)— were to sail for America on this begging expedition, the wife of tbe Lord Lieutenant for Ireland also issued her appeal to America (some hisses). The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the first time, through his wife, admitted the imminence of famine, and his Government had done nolhing to prevent it, but the Government were not ashamed to beg to the world for our people

famished by their laws while they themselves refused to jrfve one penny or to allow our people to work for a living (cheers). Well, we sailed for New York, and it was only on my entry to New York that I first commenced to appreciate the undeveloped power that is available for your succour, not only in the matter of charity, but in other matters of a very different nature, if you call upon them (loud cheers); and I was perfectly amazed at the extent of the sympathy which the name of Ireland obtained m every quarter of the United States of America (hear, hear). Now, it was not very pleasant for us to beg for Ireland. I have many times carried my hat (loud cheers), personally and literally, through the crowded meetings in America, and I have received the ten cent pieces of the poor and the hundred dollars of the rick (cheers) ; but when we were making this application to save the heart of our people from being broken, as it was broken in '47 and '48. we promised that it should be the last time, and that our people would never again consent to pay those rackrents to the landlords or to pat themselves in the position of having to starve (cheers, and " Never"). We promised this in their name, and nobly the West of Ireland has redeemed that promise (load cheers). Recollect there have been three bad harvests. The harvest of '78 was worse than the harvest of 4.1 '£ am iuclined to think that the harvest of '77 was as bad as the harvest of '79, which was supposed to have produced the distress in Ireland last winter. Our governors, who were watching all these things— who had all these statistics at their fingers' ends, made no sign. They set on foot no r«lief works, and, as I said before, we Were simply 1 Jt an object of charity for the nations of the world— for every nation except England. Well, I pass from this subject of our countrymen abroad with this remark— that I feel convinced that if you ever call upon them in another field and in another way for belp, and if you can show them that there is a fair and a good chance of success (enthusiastic cheering), that you will have their assistance—their trained and organised assistance— for the purpose of breaking the yoke which encircles you, just in the same way as you had that assistance last winter to save you from famine. I pass, I cay, from the subject of our countrymen abroad, and I come to matters which, perhaps, more immediately concern us at the present moment. You know there was a change of Government. The Liberal Government came into power. That Government was supposed to be friendly to this country. It knew that we had passed througk this period of distress, and that if we had another bad harvest our distress would be intensified twice, or perhaps three or four fold. Did it, on its entry into office, do anything for the purpose of providing against a bad harvest? (No.) Did it set on foot any relief works ? (No.) The only Belief Bill it introduced was simply a repetition of that of its predecessors. The Conservative Government asked for £750,000 for the Irish landlords. The Liberal Government asks for £750,000 of your money for the Irish landlords. That was the only difference between one Government and tbe other ; and, so far as the imminence of famine went, had it not been for the bounty of Providence in sending a good harvest and the determination of the Irish people in refusing to pay rackrents, we should at this moment be in just as much if not a great deal more extremity than we were at this time iast year (loud cheers). Well, we have got the Liberal Government to thank for the present state of affairs. They have done nothing ; they tried to do something for a while in a half-hearted kind of fashion, and of course they failed, as everybody who tries in a half-hearted manner must fail, and the people have put their own shoulder to the wheel, and we are going to help ourselves perhaps for the fiist time in our history. I do not think there is anything more I can talk to jou nbout this evening. I said almost all I had to say at your maK'iincent meeting — one of the largest, I ever attended in this or any other county, ami wbiih we all had the pleasure of witmesing to-day. We are. perhaps, but now on the the eve of an attempt <m the part of tbe Government to close with the people of Ireland. It is like >ome of the mmy attempts that they have beun making for the eighty ytars ihat have elapse I since the Union. The theory of coverti'mc'iit in Itehtnl in a pretended constitutional aysteua, but at every time when it suits the convenience of England— that is to say, when it finds it cannot govern Ireland in its-own way without the suspension of the constitution — it never scruples to show the sham of the constitutional system of government in Ireland by suspending the constitution (cheers). At one time it is the suspension of the Habeas Co-pus Act j at another time it is a Coercion Act ; again it is the sending of extra police into countii sor the proclamation of martial law. They cannot suspend the Habeas Corpus Act without an Act of Parliament, and tbey can't pass a Coercion Act without an Act of Parliament, and so long as we are able to stand in Parliament I will undertake to say they will pass neither one nor the other (loud and prolonged cheering). If they desire, for tbe purpose of governing Ireland in their own way, to pass coercion laws, to suspend tbe Habeas Corpus Act, and to set in motion all the other paraphernalia of exceptional law which tbey enact from time to time for the purpose of ruling this country, they must do it without us. They must get rid of us first, and they understand this perfectly well. Now, I don't mean to say they can't get rid of us, but if they manage in any to convict the leaders of the Irish Parliaments y party, tfaea I say we shall resign our seats into the hands of our constituencies, as a solemn and sacred duty, to elect men in our place who will cany on our work, and who will offer just as stern a front in the HouNe of Commons to coercion, so that, although they may get rid of half-a-dozen troublesome Irish agitator*, and although they may be able to meet Parliament with projects of coercion free from the opposition of those agitators, I tell them that they will have other men to meet in tbeir places worse than those who went before them. Now. in case we have to face a prosecution, I should like to do it with a light heart (laughter), and the way in which my heart can be made light is by the knowledge that I can be done without. Now, you can only do that by organising yourselves in every parish in Ireland. When you have a branch of the Land League established in every parish of Ireland you may laugh to scorn the attempts at coercion of this Liberal Government (cheers). And I would ask all those who are listening to me to-night to strain tverr

exertion to set on foot such an organisation in this country as will show the Government the absolute futility of attempting to nrose"nged'cheeSg). 0 ** ** ° f ** PreßeDt -Button &<md andVo-