JUSTIN M'CARTHY AT LONGFORD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 34, 21 December 1883, Page 23

JUSTIN M'CARTHY AT LONGFORD.

Mb. Justin M'Catthy, M.P., on coming forward was received with tremendous cheering and waving of hats. In the course of his address he spoke upon the work of the past Parliamentary session It was a very difficult one for the Irish members. When they met at first, things looked very much against them, many even of their friends were not hopeful, and their enemies were wild with exultation. They were told at the beginning of the session that it was to be exclusively for English business (laughter), that nothing was to be done for Ireland. "Enough," it was said, "has been done already ; we have given you too much time, and we will waste no mo , re E f n f* 18 . h time over Irista business." The Government said they had put their foot down very well, and the Irish party said "You must take your foot up again " (cheers). Mr. Gladstone looked sternly at them, and set bis face like a flint against them. Lord Hartington kept his face against them, Sir William Harcourt (groans) drew up Ins full height and scowled at them, and declared that ?he starchwas taken out of the Irish party and that the Government cared nothing about them. They, however, soon showed him that Jt e jGT WaS not - by any> means taken oufc of the Irish party, and £2,^!l r r^ gOlDg Sbe a !u Stiff aad M reßolute M ever they had S P^.nff ce rer c r lfc ,T-l hatthey the Government and P rliament to listen to Irish questions. Again, he was proui to Sl^rfft? 88 S nn G3G 3 eßt Palt Of last fießßion with Irish business. They compelled the Government to pass the Labourers Act, the Fisheries Act, and the Tramways Act, as amended by them. In £*™i%w ?£ mm T ay «c« c ?% glad t0 Bee b y advertisements in the papers that the Longford Board of Guardians had been the first to come forward with a regular systematic plan for carrying out the S£f2?w ? We S n f Act ' He <* atm the comiSg session they would be able to amend and extend the principles of the S It "thi 0 r « V ft mUch mo^7 aluable meas «'c "tan itpromised to be pUtmErv n m r nt> T ? e X ? Sh peOple by the Irish E~ Ua y P^ty won also during the past session from the English Government three of the most important seats in the whole

of this country. The victory won in Monaghan by his friend Mr. Healy floud cheers) would be remembered in Irish history almost, he was going to say, with the Clare election. It was the beginnine of an entirely new chapter in Irish history ; it was the beginnine of the re-conquest of the North by the Irish people and by Irish principles. On that line they intended to proceed, and they were not even discouraged or deterred by the powerful and impassioned oratory of the mild and gentle Sir Stafford ttorthcote. If they were to be frightened at all come stronger mantban Sir. Stafford Northcote must be sent to alarm them. These things then the Irish people had done in one session in a few months, and these victories they accomplished in spite of most tremendous obstacles, m spite of the Government, who fought them at every step with all the force at their disposal, with what Mr. Gladstone called the rescources of civilisation "; with policemen, and the plank bed, and the prison. The Government began by putting Mr. Healy and Mr. Davitt in prison * A Voice— Thank God they're out again (cheers). Mr. McCarthy— And thank God also they came out just as eood patriots as they went in (cheers), and stronger, if possible, in the affection and confidence of their countrymen. He could not help expressing a word of regret for the unfortunate and degrading position taken on all these questions by Mr. George Trevelyan (here there were some uncomplimentary expressions from the crowd) He did not want to say anything personally against Mr. TreveLyan. He was a man of culture and character, and one from whom at least he had very high hopes at one time, when he became Irish Secretary after Mr. Forster, whom the Irish party flung out ef power (eroans and cheers). He (Mr. M'Carthy) had some hopes that they at least had got a man of sympathy with the country ; but Mr. Trevelyan was not his own master, and he made the fatal mistake of staying in an office which he could not direct, and in which he was compelled to be the agent, and the ignoble agent of a shameful policy of repression A poetic friend of his had suggested to him three or four lines concerning Mr. Trevelyan in parody of a song very familiar to them all. Mr. Trevelyan was supposed to be accosted by somebody as he was hurrying somewhere in great haste, and the lines were these— " Oh ! then, tell me, George Trevelyan, tell me why you hurry so •" " Hush !" he answered, " there's a meeting— there's a rising, don't you know ;" (laughter). "I have orders from Lord Spencer— l'll stop every meeting soon " " Even the meeting of the waters and the rising of the moon " ' (great laughter). "Well, that was the position taken, he was sorry to say, by Mr. Trevelyan. Any of them who had ever had the misfortune to be ia a London public house would know that there was a kind of official kept on the premises who was called " the chucker out." Ihe business of this person was to chuck out into the street anyone of whom the owner of the publichouse was tired, or whom he wanted to get rid of. The chucker-oub had no opinions of his own he flung into the street everyone whom his master told him. Mr. Trevelyan was in the position of chucker-out to Lord Spencer (laughter), or rather he should say Mr. Treviyan was chuckei-in ta Lord Spencer. He chucked into jail everyone whom Lord Spencer was afraid of, or whom he believed was powerful with the people (groans). What they must steadily set themselves to do was to show that they conld not be governed by force (cheers)— that they were not to be ruled by an official chucker-out or by his master, or by the system he represented. The resolution they had asked him to second declared that the Irish people would not be content with any system short of National self-government That declaration he endorsed with all the earnestness and force he i could give to his words, and he would warn English statesmen and ! Ministers— and he only wished they would listea to his warning— that no concession they could make, even were they to grant every Land Bill and every Local Bill they asked, would satisfy the Irish people so long as the Irish people were not allo wed the right— the natural and inborn right— of a nation to govern itself (cheers) What they intended to do in Parliament if the people supported them— he knew tae people of Longford would support them (cheers) —was to show the English people that Ireland cannot be governed by English rule. They would turn against the English people the weapons of their own constitutional system, and use them for their discomfiture and for their own strength. They would show them that although the English people might encamp in Ireland they could not govern it (cheers) ; that although they might build fortresses here and send troops to the country, quarter their cavalry, and station their police— for they were English police they could not get at the heart and sympathy of Ireland and could not govern the Irish people. That was hia faith and theirs, and for that the Irish party now in Parliament— the first really independent Irish party in his time, at least— would strive with all their might and effort (cheers). They must not believe any stories about disunion in Irish party— these were stories invented constantly by their enemies in the English Press and in some of the Irish Newspapers. The sun that rises every day brings light and heat and reports of brenkings up in the Irish party. Tnat they would never see ; it was loyal to its leader, Mr. C. S. ParnelJ, aad Mr. Parnell was loyal to his principles, his party, and^his country (cheers). If it were in the power of man to accomplish anything, the Irish party, aided by the Irish people, would accomplish national self-government for this country, that ought to be prosperous, that could be prosperous, but that was depressed and unhappy because of the r ule of a foreign Government and a foreign people (loud cheers).