THE HOPE OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 29, 7 November 1884, Page 9

THE HOPE OF IRELAND.

We (Pilot) take the following eloquent extract from the letter of Mr. Alexander Sullivan, ex- President of the Irish National League, which was read at Chickering Hall. New York, on the occasion of the Farewell Reception to Messr?. rfexton and Redmond, August 28 :— It is impossible to restrain a frank expression of the solace the Irish people feel in contemplating in the presence of these, our accomplished brothers, the change which ba.B taken place i i the relations of the children of Ireland to their caplive but glorious mother. Moore wa9 compelled to leave his native land to obtain admission into literature. Goldsmith wandered abroad, lost for ever to his country. Despoiled of her Parliament, the brush of Maclise embellishes the Parliament of her tormentor. But a new age is upon us ; what was the shame of the coward or the cruel necessity of landlord- made poverty, has become the glory of a race (applause). That they are Irish is the boast and the challenge of these representatives of Ireland in an alien Parliament. Their genius is dedicated to her chains ; their aspirations are their mother's hopes ; their ambition is Ireland's liberty (prolonged cheers). A Sheridan and a Burke may gem a British diadem ; but in the history of pure and splendid modern eloquence the Trish Parliamentary Party have placed two Irishmen who would scorn to be designated British— A. M. Sullivan and Thomas Sexton (cheers and applause). How diverse the gifts, how Irish the pride of the colleagues they have had in that body. A Healy presses the thorn incessantly in the side of despotism (applause). A McCarthy unmasks the Tory Premier to reveal an impostor in statesmanship and a tyrant in a charlatan. Ireland's greatest journalist, Edmund Dwyer Gray, defiantly exposes the inconsistency of a Liberal Premier who defines liberty of the Pres9 on the principles of George Wilkes in England and in Ireland regulates it by the code of a Cromwell and the conscience of a Scroggs (great cheering). William O'Brien (applause) compels even England to avert her face from the morals of the deputies of her Crown in Ireland. For T. D. Sullivan (applause), who has so finely written the ballads of his country, let us wish nothing so much as that he ehall live to take a hand in writing her laws. These are only a few •—for I must be brief — of the Irishmen who have made Ireland admired, bated and feared in a hostile Parliament, because they will be Irish and will not be British. Let us exert every effort so to augment their numbers that they will not be tolerated after the next general election ; and when the moment of their triumphant expulsion comes, we may safely assume that neither of Lords nor Commons will they afik "compensation for disturbance " (laughter and applause in which Mr. Sexton joined). One name remains to be added to this parliamentary list for the unique reason that he never sat in Parliament. Elected for Meath, be was refused the seat, having been already advanced to the highest dignity known in the British Empire. lie was an Irish felon. The weary years of imprisonment of Michael Davitt (loud cheers), although they modified his views on economic questions, have safely guarded for him, as if they were his prison walls, the affection of the Irish race. It should be remembered that the first men who taught the world the self-respect of the Irish race were men of action. "" It was the soldiers who, compelled by overwhelming numbers to choose exile or slavery, went forth in tens of thousands and became free and stainless subjects of European flags. But wherever they f jughc and fell, their valour was inspired by Irish pride, their national emblem was borne above their clashing arms ; their victories were won with mad cries of onset in their Gaelic tongue (cheers). They gave their lives for France, for Spain, for Austria, for Portugal ; but their blood was Irish blood, and into their graves sank Irish hearts. It was these men who first taught the world the self-respect of the Irish race ; and no man of that blood is now ashamed to acknowledge it unless in his veins it has been disgraced (good). The Irish exiles who, according to an official British report, constituted more than half of the American Revolutionary army ; the fiery Irish who fought with their Jri3h Jackson (applause) in 1812 ; the distinguished officers and dauntless men who shared the perils of the deplorable civil conflict, were truer Americans because they were true Irishmen. The never-defeated soldier who is the head of our army has not hesitated publicly to record his detestation of the power that so long has blighted the motherland of his people ; and which, after being twice driven from American soil, sought a third time to destroy the Republic. Is Phil Sheridan a less true American because he boasts of Irish blood (loud cheers). Happily, in a great nation like ours—a vast composite of all races, all unchangeably devoted to the Republic— all retain their love for the sources whence they sprang. All recall in tender fancy the landscape, the traditions, the songs, the firesides, of their motherland. The only man in the United States who can truthfully affirm that he is free from these foreign associations and sympathies— that he is neither German, nor French, nor Irish — that he is simply an American—is the North American Indian (great laughter and applause). Whatever is best in all racial traits, survives, blends, and develops into the noblest national American character. Whatever is the effect of despotism, is transitory and perishes under the American amalgam (cheers). Tell our brothers. Sexton and Redmond, that we shall adhere to the precept and example of our fathers, and render to the Government and institutions of the United States our first allegiance, and bid them say, beyond the sea, that our love for our motherland shall be animated until she, too, is free.