MR. DILLON IN DUBLIN.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 20, 11 September 1885, Page 19

MR. DILLON IN DUBLIN.

Mh. John Dillon's address to the people who received him with such euthus-ia«m in Dublin on his return, was the following .- — Men of Dublin and fet low-country men — I cannot find auy words to exprew to you how deeply I feel the more that) kind, t .c undesem d weicome (Liud cries ot "No " and cheer-*) with wb cti you have welcomed me b ick to the old country, which you and I are proud to call our native Uud (cheers). I feel it all the mor- deepiy t ian 1 can tell. I feel it all the more because nothing coul I have happened to me more unexpected, coming back as I did wrhout m any way announcing my arrival, after three years in which I had wandered in lands far away from that old country iv which we stand io-nigut. And although, like many another liisnman, banished by one cause or another to remote parts of the surf Co ot ih>: c irtu, my interest never s,ackened in the fortunes of the party who were struggling to raise this old couutiy to her once proud position (cheeiv) — - A Voice — Parnell (renewed cheering). Mr. Dillon — Yet, through circums. am.es which were irresistible to me I had for three long years giveu theaj no h ip m that struggle. A Voice — You will again (mudaud cnun ied applaus.-). Mr. Dillon— And I had no idea that the mem uieaof my countrymen would piove so long as to ttjink ot tne old dajs wh«.n 1 was able to stand shoulder to shoulder (cheus) wuh Parnell and with Uavitt (cheers), and with the other men woo hive earned mi ibe htruggle with unflinching vigour and undaunted couiige, while I was condemned to idleness in a foreign land. I teel, fellow-citizens, at a losa— utterly at a loss— to know what to say 10 jou heie to-night, because I will not speak toyou on Irish politics and tor this leason that I have all my life abstained from criticising tne deeds and words ot men who aie bearing the bruut of the batue. I believe that no man is eutitled to criticise them who is not doing anj work himself (cheers). One thing there is on which 1 cati cuugiatulate you, and that is the enormous triumph which hrn carrieO tue renown ot a small party of Irish members and of the Irish people all tnrough ttiat great country where I have recendy lived, and that is tue taumph which drove Mr. Gladstone from < ffi c (cheer,-). A Voice — And Spencer and Bucksuot (loud boos and hisses). Mr. Dillon— And drove Eail Bp.uo-r lioin the Ca&tle (renewed booing). The last time tbat I stood in this hotel it was to see this street lined by military and police ; it was to hear ihe measured tramp of cavalry who had come to clear the «tr<.ets at t~e older of Furster (gioans), and to inaugurate a policy wmeh. aver truce veara of stiuggle, the Irish people struck down by the vote of the "other night. Men of Dublin, those siraugeis wuo ouuie lroin a distant country

A Von c—Youe — You are no stranger Mr. Dillon— Well, I am uoi ex^oily a etranger. but we who have been absent from this couutry for thre^ yi-ara s^e and notice more clear. y the vast changes which have been wiou^ht witniu tnose three years. And when I recall the opening days of the Ct lines Act, when no man's liberty was his own tor a single iiay, and when I have watched— as I have watched from the pctptrs, though in a lonely pait of Amtrica — when I have watched tn« p.tieut, Sdgicious, and long-enduring struggle which the Insb ineuibeis have waged on the Crimes Act, and wnen I see the cruwnu.g victory by which the Government, who passed that Act weru went >o ruin (cheers) — I say to myself, and I said to the Irisb people in Aunri^a whirever 1 met them, ''If Parnell can do that with 39 men, ani wuhvery liule means at his control, send him eighty men and scud him means, and the liberty of Ireland will be in our hands ' (cheer*). 'ihe Irish people in America believe that this victory over the coercion Government has been one of the greatest uiuti.pi.a in the past history of Ireland, and that when ihe hour cornea tnat an oppoituuity will be given to the ma. hood ot Ireland wtio are now enfranchised to proclaim their opinion on the question < f meir ireedom, believe me when I tell you that the Irish manhood of Aoier.ca— that outnumbers

the Irish manhood in the old country — will be found at your back with money and with sympathy to carry on that struggle to a glorious termination, which we are fully convinced is not far distant (cheers'). I will say farewell, and I will only say in conclusion — the faiih which I have always had in the ennobling influence of liberty has been strengthened and confirmed by residence in the country where liberty is the life-blood of the people. Men say that democracy and liberty lead to abuses — and so they do, for human nature is not perfect, and even you, my friends, and I, here to-night, are not all saints; but believe this — it is the lesson of history— that the abuses of democracy are as nothing compared with the abuses of a rotten tyranny. For my part, it always reminds me of a comparison between the wild and stormy tossing of a tempestuous sea, which, by the very agitation of its waters, keeps itself pure and fresh — so does democracy, even by the agitation and storm of the passions of the people, keep public life in the end pure and fresh ; while in the rank and stagnant pool the hideous corruptions of such a despotism as reigus over this city fester, unseen and unnoticed, until they spread desolation and havoc amongst the citizens (cheers).