MR. HEALY, M.P., ON ENGLISH RADICALISM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 29, 16 November 1883, Page 23

MR. HEALY, M.P., ON ENGLISH RADICALISM.

_ _ (Abridged from the JVetvcastle Chronicle.) On Thursday, September 13, Mr. Healy, M.P., delivered the inaugural lecture of the Winter course of the Newcastle Irish Literary institute in the lecture-room, Nelson street Newcastle-on-Tyne The title of the lecture was "Ireland and the Liberal Party" ihe chair was occupied by Mr. John Barry, M.P., and upon the platform were several clergymen of the town and neighbourhood, and Messrs. M'Anuity, Savage, Bryson, Clark, Bradley, Newstead, Smyth, M'Dermott, Anderson, M'Nab, Diamond, L. Barry, and others. There was a large attendance, and the proceedings throughout were of an enthusiastic character. «v Mr * BB larry> 1 arry> M ' Pl) who was moßt cordially received, expressed the deep pleasure he felt, as a member of the Irish Literary Institute at being present that evening. He paid an eloquent tribute to the great services which the institute had rendered to the national cause since its foundation. Having referred to the help which the Irish people in Great Britain gave to the Liberal party at the last general election, and to the conduct of the Liberals in return, he said that he as one who had worked at the time to defeat the Tories, felt inclined 0M*?!0 M *?! "God forgive me for the work I did for the Liberal paity in 1880. He believed the great majority of the Liberal party were merely marionnette politicians, men who were moved by a wire (cheers). He then introduced Mr. Healy. -^ ro jfh M^t? ce * ly Z- °V ising to address the meeting, was received ■|with enthusiastic cheers. In an eloquent and exhaustive address ne traced the connection between Ireland and the Liberal party which he said, had always been a very close one. He would ask -bnglibhmen to remember, when they charged Irishmen with beine wanting in gratitude towards the Liberal party, that during the whole period since the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed, except at the general election of 1880, there had never been once a Liberal majority returned from England. He, therefore claimed that all the reforms gamed for England had been gained by the men whom Ireland a-nt to rarliament. As to the composition of the present Cabinet. Mr. Healy chose Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Chamberlain as the best of the lot and expressed an opinion that if Mr. Gladstone aud Mr. Chamberlain had the control of the Liberal party they (the Irish people) should not now have fallen out with the Liberal party (hear! hear). But, as a matter of fact, he believed the history of the connection of the present Liberal Government with Ireland was this— that men who were sincerely anxious for Ireland's benefit, the men who were men of popular fibre, and whose hearts pulsated with the hearts of the masses, were utterly outweighed aad utterly outvoted (cheers). iae member for Monaghan then proceeded to pass in review the Coercion Acts passed by the present Liberal Government, and th

frmfc they had produced. The Irish party and Irishmen everywhere, he thought, in their dealings with the Liberal party, would be guided solely by care for the interests of Ireland. Therefore, if English Radicals and English Liberals thought they could get on without them in the future, as they had not got on without them in the past, let them take their own. road and the Irish party would take theirs (cheers). With men of democratio feeling in the two islands separated.and antagonised, a yawning gulf between them.it is extremely unlikel ythat English Radicalism would ever assume the proportions in the near future which latter-day Radicals desired. With the Irish party —and heaven knows the Radicals are not so powerful a body that they can afford to do without allies— they might do something ; without them they would simply be smothered by Whiggery, Whiggery was m the ascendant in the House of Commons. There was practically no such.thing there as Radicalism. If English Radicals were content that the measures which were passed by the House of Commons should be measures which passed the gauge and the standard of the Tory inspector, then well and good ; hut if they wanted measures which would be distasteful to the Tories, and which would be acceptable to the masses, another course must be pursued. It was simply rant to say that the interests of the democracy and the interests of the Landowning class and bureaucracy of this country were identical. That was part of the stuff and nonsense which was written for them in certain penny newspapers ; and he might say that the system which had given that control of the Press to the capitalistic aristocracy and bureaucracy minority— the system which practically dictated the form of thought into which their children should be moulded in schools, and which made the school-books the bearers of their own crafty platitudes with regard to various social and political opinions, and thus enabled the aristocratic and bureaucratic minority to set its stamp and give currency to these opinions — was a system which in his opinion every English Radical should struggle to free the nation from. But they could not do this, in his opinion, so long as the two great armies of democracy were divided (cheers). If there were any man in the House of Commons, or out of the House of Commons, who said lie was a Liberal, hs (Mr. Healy) said he was as good a Liberal (cheers). If there were any man there or elsewhere who called himself a democrat, he said the members of the ParnelUte party were as good democrats (cheers). Bat for abstract Liberalism and abstract democracy he cared not one snuff, if he had to support them at the expense of liberty in Ireland (cheers). They could not abandon the principles of Irish liberty, the principles for which their fathers suffered, because of what might become of English questions. Their interests were first Irish interests (cheers). He thought more of the opinions of the poorest dozen of Irishmen, smoking their pipes round a tap-room in the Seven Dials, than he did of the opinion of the imited Cabinet of England (cheers). He thought more of the feelings of any boly of his own countrymen, no matter how poor and how humble, that h.3 did of the most exalted assembly in the world (cheers). The usual votes of thanks having been passed, the proceedings terminated.