STIRRING SPEECH BY MR. WILLIAM O'BRIEN, M.P.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1884, Page 31

STIRRING SPEECH BY MR. WILLIAM O'BRIEN, M.P.

Me. Wm. O'Brien, M.P., editor of United Ireland, recently delivered a lecture under the auspices of the Irish Electoral Union, in Glasgow, in the course of which he said :—: — " The grand difference between the member of the new and the old type was that in old times it was the English Parliament that was the standard test and criterion of public opinion and the centre of attraction for the Irish members ; in our days it was Ireland that was the centre and cynosure of the Irish members (cheers). The only hope of reward to the Irish member addressing those Englishmen in the House of Commons lies in the devotion and approval of his own fellow countrymen (cheers). In the old limes the House of CommoDs was the most delightful club in. the world. The member then bought bis seat in the cheapest market, and sold it in the highest maiket as a matter of business — he never thought of securing his seat for the benefit of the Irish people. The modern race of Irish members instead of finding the House a delightful club, looked upon it as a dreary prison from which they could not escape night or day, and where it was their business to make themselves disagreeable. It was like the description in the penny catechism of purgatory — " A place or state of punishment through which Irish Nationalists must pass for a time, in order to earn the earthly paradise of Irish independence " (laughter and cheers). The only comfort was that if it was a purgatory for them (the Irsh members), they could make it a purgatory for their friends, the enemy, also (cheers). Even still the Irish member had temptations to resist, and had blandishments enough to encounter, but, nowadays, he could feel strong in the knowledge that he had a party around him and a country behind him that would cheer him and would strike down traitors without mercy. Ihe English Government wee beginning to find out that Irißh renegades in these days hurt the Irish National cause less than they hurt themselves (cheers). He would compare the old class of Irish members to the Irish tenants in the old times, slavish, going cap in hand, one by one, behind one another's back, to the agent's office with some sneaking petition ; and the Irish members of to-day h« would compare to the Irish tenants of the Land League times who went into the landlord's rent office in a body and told him plainly to his face that such and such an abatement they must have or they would know for what, and then, if he refused, marched away in a body and let him feel that when they called again he would be mighty glad to come to terms with them (cheers). Again, he would describe the path a bill had to pass in going through the House as just like a mountain defile that was as narrow and treacherous as the Khyber Pass, and he would compare the Irish members to the hill iribes who swoop down upon it at some awkward point, and see what they can carry off for Ireland before they let that English merchandise pass. Perhaps, if they bad their will their strife would be with different weapons and on a different field. There was no'use of talking of that now. They were fighting them with weapon? with which they were more evenly matched. They sometimes heard a great deal from patriots of the O'Connor Power stamp of the want of independence amongst the Irish party, who, it was said, sink their independence to follow their immortal leader, Mr. Parnell. When those men spoke of independence, they meant independence of Irish public opinion, and they were abject and dependent upon English Ministers (.cheers). He respected the man who was independent, but the man who obtained a seat in Parliament in order to work for Ireland as an

Irish Nationalist, but used it to work for himself, and tried to break the union and discipline of his own party, was no belter than a common traitor in the ranks who turned his gun against his country (cheers). In the highest and best sense of the word he claimed that the National party in Parliament were the most independent body in Parliament (cheers). They had no love for the House. They entered it with reluctance, and they quitted it in the morning with delight (laughter). There was something the Irish party valued more than their own likings and their own independence— the independence of Ireland (cheers). This he would claim for the Irish National party— for the Irish modern members— that they are totally and absolutely independent of English interest and English ambitions. He claimed for them total and complete devotion to the interests and will of the Irish people, and whatever the future might bring, whether it was dark or bright, he felt|assured that generations of Irishmen yet unborn, even though they could not Ljok back upon it with triumph, would neither have cause to look upon it with shame " (prolonged cheers).