MR. COWEN'S SPEECH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VIII, Issue 417, 8 April 1881, Page 9

MR. COWEN'S SPEECH.

The following is the principal portion, of the speech against coercion made by the member for Newcastle :—: — In dealing with this question there had been much warmth of feeling expressed on different sides. They were told by members of the Government, and he believed perfectly honestly, that they meant to deal generously with Irish grievances. But it was not the deed, it was the spirit in which it was done. It was not the gift but the temper in which it was given. The Government told them they were going to deal generously with the Irish grievances, but they had prefaced the performance of it by as hard and harsh a Coercion Bill as had ever been introduced into the British Legislature There had been an acrimonious temper t-hovra in the house and throughout the Press of England that would not be soon forgotten. The feeling that had been aroused and the sensation that had been created would not, he feared, expire vrith the generation that now lived. (Cheers and cries of " Oh.") Hon. gentlemen said "Oh," but experience testified, and he thought they would admit history showed that, for every one war undertaken for material interest five wars had been undertaken for sentiment and wounded honour. As an illustration of this he mentioned the second war they had with the American Republic, which was undertaken not for the vindication of material interests, but because of the conduct of Canning in Parliament and the attacks on the American people which had appeared in the English Press. He was sorry to hear the shout of self-satisfaction which went from those benches the other night when Michael Davitt's arrest was announced. The effect of that shout would not die out until many generations of Irishmen had passed away. There were few Irish peasant* and Irish workmen who would forget the words spoken in this House. The temper of the discussion on this Bill had not only been bad, but its influence had been worse throughout Ireland. The Chief Secretary had justified the introduction of the measure on the ground of the number and extent of the outrages that had been committed. He would not weary the House ty going into the returns in detail, as that had been done by hon. gentlemen opposite. They had riddled them with their criticism, and destroyed tlie influence of a large ettent of these statistics. He had gone over the blue books deliberately and carefully, with an anxious desire to arrive at the facts, and a correct appreciation of the situation, and he rose from the perusal with a distinct impression that the people who had compiled these books had been anxious to make out a case. (Irish cheers.) The statements were grossly exaggerated, and the most insignificant occurrences were magnified. Some offences were divided into two, three, and four outrages ; others were included which had no connection with agrarian outrages. If he might use a homely expression, he might say that the Irish Secretary had rather over-egged his pudding. (Laughter,) There had been outrages unquestionably, and had a clear and dispassionate statement been made without this attempt at exaggeration the position of the Government would have been on this ground much stronger, but the question of outrages in Ireland was one that required to be carefully considered and the evidence sifted. The present position of affairs in Ireland was merely a repetition of what had occurred every ten or twenty yeais for the last two centuries, and persons acquainted with the government of Ireland knew the general unworthiness of its information. He would not in support of this contention cite the opinion of Mr. Drummond, the only Englishman who when as an official to Ireland, won the Irish heart (Irish cheers), he would not cite the opinion of Lord Normanby or Lord Eglinton ; but he would give the opinion of a great Conservative statesman, a great commander, and better than all, a great man. He asked the Chief Secretary to consider the wise and weighty words of the Duke of Wellington. It frequently happened, the Duke said, writing about agrarian crime, that the evidence as to disturbances was most untrustworthy. Either with a desire to get the Government to build a barrack or to get troops into the country on account of the increased consumption of the necessaries of life or the increased security which thfcy would give, and which would occasion a general rise in rents and the value of land, letter after letter was written to the Government. The result of the inquiry was that the outrage complained of was found to be by no means of the nature and extent complained of. The obvious remedy for this evil was to call information on oath as to the transactions complained of, but that was not certain, as it frequently appeared that information on oath was equally false with ordinary representations. This was the testimony of the Duke of "Wellington in proof of the general unreliability of these statistics. The Government had during the discussion rather receded from the position they took at the beginning of the session. They did not now attach the same importance to these statistics. They had found that tbe ground was shaken beneath them. The Chief Secretary explained that the falling off in the crime was due to fear of the Coercion Bill. That wa3 a matter of opinion. There were many people, who bad as good a knowledge of the Irish people as the right hon. gentleman, who held an entirely different opinion. If he had to offer an opinion he would say one of the causes of this falling off in crime was the man. whom they had sent to a convict prison. (Irish cheers.) His influence had been more potent than that of any other. He said it with perfect respect, but there were two distinct nations in Ireland, and the Chief Secretary, or anyone who held that position, spoke the voice of one nation — of the landlords, of the police, and of the police agents ? but an independent member of the House was in. a better position to form an opinion than one in an official position. He asked any one to take tbe statistics handed to them this morning. They would find that fur one month there were no homicides, no rtcurdera, no offences of a serious kind against the person. He asked any an© acquainted with the position of Europe, if there was a single nation with five millions of people— even Switzerland, Sweden or Norway — which could produce so clean a bill. (Irish cheers.) Admitting there was no exaggeration, his point was this — that this record of offences was not sufficient to warrant the suspension of the ordinary civil liberties

of the people. No statement had been made which would justify that great exercise of despotic power. The right hon. gentleman and his colleagues said that a system of terrorism existed in Ireland. Well, that was a subjective statement, and the question was, whether there was any justification for that fear. Men were afraid of trifles — of Bpectres— political and social spectres. Borne people were afraid of their constituents (cheers and laughter) ; some were frightened of Mrs. Grundy (cheers) ; but he could scarcely conceive anyone being afraid of threatening letters. Threatening letters were only sent by fools and fanatics, and they were only feared by cowards, He would undertake to say he had received more threatening letters of a political character within the last three years than any landlord in Ireland, because he had not agreed with certain portions of the Liberal policy. Only that day he had received a letter of a very offensive character, telling him that his house in the north of England would be burned down, his machinery destroyed, and the mine which he owned injuied. He did nob take any steps in the matter, hut if he met such a man lie would dip him in the horsepond. (Cheers and laughter.) Such things are not worthy of consideration. There was the fear that the right hon. gentleman spoke of — the fear created by exclusive dealing, and he had not a word in extenuation of it. It was a species of social tyranny he had no sympathy with. It gave persons power to act with great injustice, and though he in no way extenuated that practice be thought it fair to say that whenever and wherever people had been engaged in a great controversy, such as the Irish people were now carrying on, there had always been proceedings of that kind. In the peasant war in Germany when a. man would not act with his fellows, a stake was driven into the gronnd before his house, and the house of that man was ever afterwards shnnned, and they all knew in this country when workmen were engaged in conflicts either to raise or prevent wages being lowered, there was no engine they resorted to with greater zest or power than the application of exclusive dealings and the system of " blacklegging," and boycotting •was only another system of blacklegging. (Oh, oh and cheers.) He He did not believe there was in the world a more generous assembly than the English House of Commons under all circumstances, but sometimes feelings got excited, distorted, and then, even they might push things too far. Had not even they boycotted men 1 (Cheers.) He would call tbe attention of the House to the fact that there was an hon. member who sat behind the front Opposition bench in the last Parliament, a post of some eminence, a scholar of some distinction, and as a lawyer not altogether unknown. That gentleman sat in the House for five years, but although he was in the House he was not "of" it. (Cheers) He was effectually and completely boycotted. He committed himself to an agitation, and in connection with that agitation he said and wrote things which were grossly offensive to members of that House. He owned that the position of tbat unfortunate man led him (Mr. Cowen) often to speak to him, and he remembered the last time he spoke in the House he came from a bed of sickness to propose a certain resolution. No sooner did he rise than nearly every member left the House, and he gave up his resolution. He met that gentleman in the passage, and he expressed himself as feeling keenly that he could not stand against such treatment. He said " I thouglit I could stand against it, but I feel I cannot." He staggered into a cab, and he (Mr. Cowen) felt that the hand of death was upon him, and while he did not say or think that the treatment by the House of Commons led to the result, he would say that the attitude of the House of Commons to tbe uni fortunate individual was not much different from that assumed by the Irish people. (Oh, oh, and hear, hear.) They disapproved of the. action of that member, and they showed it by tueir treatment of him. The Irish peasants were doing the same with respect to tbe landlord and the agent. Boycottiug was a condition of tbe mind, and they could not exhaust it or pat it out of the people's mind by a Coercion Bill. The only way to exhaust that feeling was by kindly counsel and generous and beneficial legislation. That was the only | wa 7 to btop the present state of things. He was sure it would not be done by furbishing up the musty instruments of political oppression through the instrumentality of the Coercion Bill. His cardinal objection to the bill was that it generated a spell of lawlessness. Tbe statement might appear contradictory, but it would bear investigation. The English people had to a large extent helped the state of things, that whenever they wished to accomplish a thing they suspended the law. The law in this country was supported ostensibly on the shoulders of policemen, but really on the spontaneous inviolate goodwill of the people, and in Ireland it ousjht to be the same. The past coercion bills had created that spell of lawlessness which the House and the Government largely complained of. They had better tolerate the outrages — admitted that they existed to the extent that the right hon. gentleman said they did, and put them down with the ordinary law — than to revert to the old practice by which we increased, sustained, and intensified the feeling of the Irish people, that wherever necessary the English Government would exercise those powers. The right hon. gentleman asked them to trust the Government. So far as he was concerned in the matter, he would trust no Government — if the head of the Government were an angel and all his colleagues were saints (laughter) — he would trust no Government in a matter of this kind for the simple reason that they might do injury to the country. The Government asked the House to trust them. He regretted to say that they had scarcely given any good cause to be trusted by their recent proceedings. (Cheers,) He did not wish to speak harshly — he felt too keenly to speak harshly ; but he knew of no incident in modern times that was meaner or more cruel than the arrest of Michael Davitt (loud cheers from the Home Rule members) — than the sending back to a convict settlement of this man. The right hon. gentleman at the head of the Government had obtained deserved renown for the way in which he exposed the treatment of the Neapolitan prisoners. He deserved all the honour he got, and more than he got for that. But he (Mr. Cowen) knew some of the men for whom the right hon. gentleman pleaded. Ha had heard from their own lips the recital of their sufferingi. He

also know Mr. Michael Davitt, and had no hesitation in saying in this assembly, and before his countrymen, that he was proud to call that convict his friend. (Enthusiastic cheers from the Irish members.) He had heard from Mr. Michael Davitt; a recital of the ptinishmeut and sufferings he had endured in English dungeons (cheers) ; and right hon. gentlemen might accept his declaration of fact that the punishment that Poerio and bia colleagues Teceived wrb (cries of " Oh " from Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Mundella, and other right hon. gentlemen on the Treasury Bench) in many instances (loud cheers from the Irish members) — the sufferings that they endured were in no sense an exaggeration of those which this unfortunate man has had to bear. (Renewed cheers.) The right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Bright) said the other night in answer to some charges that were made by the hon. member for Tralee (The O'Donoghue) that the agitation that -wag now being carried on in Ireland bore no relation to, and was altogether different from, the agitation with which, his own name was 6O honourably identified in the earlier period of his life. In fact, he was somewhat indignant with the comparison that was made between the English and the Irish agitation. He (Mr. Cowen) could scarcely accept the right hon. gentleman as an impartial witness. (Hear, hear.) He was a friend of the Anti-Corn Law League. He is the enemy of the Land League. (Cheers.) If they we to take impartial evidence they should have the evidence of the landlords and protectionists who had complained of the Anti-Corn Law League. The right hon. gentleman would bear him out in this, that the Anti-Corn Law League strove to influence the agricultural labourers against the farmers and landlords in their advocacy of free trade. (Hear, hear.) Meetings were attempted to be got up among the agricultural labourers in different parts of the country. There was one memorable meeting — only, however, illustrative of others that were held about the same time — a meeting at Goatacre, which the right bon. gentleman might recollect. This meeting was held at midnight, and it was held by torchlight. The torches were branded significantly near the farmers' stacks and the squire's house. An agricultural labourer made a speech in which he recited his income, and told how many shillings a week went to buy bread and how many to buy bacon. Another labourer asked, " Where do you get your firing ?" and the answer was, " I steals it, and I care not who knows it." It was a meeting connected with, and promoted through the agency of the league with which the right hon. gentleman was connected. Now the Irish Land League at least never advocated stealing. (Loud cries of "oh " from the Treasury Bench.) The right hon. gentleman said he had opposed every Coercion Bill that had been submitted in recent years. Some he had spoken against, some he had voted against, but all he had objected to. Listen t» facts. In one year of the passing of one of those Coercion Bills to whicb the right hon. gentleman objected there had been 172 murders ; in another year there had been 137 murders ; and in another year there had been 176 murders. On these three occasions the right hon. gentleman opposed a Coercion Bill, but now, when there were eight murders as compared with 175, he was advocating a Coercion Bill. He would leave the right hon. gentleman in the possession of these facts. He could take either horn he liked, but on one or other horn of the dilemma he must be impaled. (Loud cheers from the Irish members.) He should like to know what would have been the temper of hon. gentlemen on this side of the House if a Coercion Bill had been proposed by the party opposite ? Why, the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Bright) would have lectured the country gentleman of England. (Loud cheers.) " You," be would have said, ''you, the oppressors of the labourer " (renewed cheers) ; and to his hon. friends the Irish members he wouli have preached the familiar text, " Collin's, your friend, not Short." (Laughter, and loud cheer.) Gentlemen sitting on the Liberal benches had intense sympathy for struggling nationalities and for sufferings at a distance, but they had little sympathy for those near at hand. Boers and Easutos, Bulgarians and Montenegrins, Fijiane, Ashantees and Afghans, these all came within the fall of the commiserations of hon. gentlemen ; but a people near at horne — a people renowned in the archives of history and tracing into antiquity by a record of its valour, its virtues, its sufferings — is not to be thought of. (Cheers.) These gentlemen saw the sufferings of those at a distance, and the? magnified them. He would say that the present Government was greatly too fond of coercion. They were coercing the Turk ; they were coercing the Basutos ; they were going to coerce the Irish people ; they had coerced the constituencies with their caucuses ; and they had coerced Parliament with their resolutions. cheers.) There had been nickname& attached to many former Ministries — there was the Ministry of all the talents ; there was the short-lived Ministry. He feared that history would recognise the present one as the coercion Ministry. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)

Mr. Michael Sullivan, formerly of the Otago Constabulary for 14 years, and owner and proprietor of the Provincial Hotel, Bluff Harbour, for the last five years, has disposed of hia hostelry and changed his residence to the rising town of Gore, having purchased the wellknown Green's Railway Hotel, where the travelling public will receive the comforts of a home as hitherto. The hotel is so well known it needs no written recommendation. The new proprietor will be glad to see his friends as usual. Mr. E. O'ConnoT, Catholic Book Depot, Christclrurch, has received a new stock of Catholic books and pious objects. He has on hand a large supply of Holy-week books, necessary for next week's ceremonies, at most reasonable charges. Messrs. Whittaker Bros., Lambton Quay, Wellington, advertise a large assortment of Catholic works by the most eminent authors. We desire especially to direct attention to their supply of the writings of Cardinals Newman and Manning, which should find a place in every Catholic household. They have also on hand several copies of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy's famous new work, "Young Ireland." Their stock, of objects of piety will be found abundant and most moderate in price.