THE NATIONALIST PROGRAMME.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 26, 23 October 1885, Page 11

THE NATIONALIST PROGRAMME.

At a meeting of the league held in Dublin on August 25 Mr. Parnell spoke as follows :— I think that the example which Mr. Harrington has just alluded to, and the result of our policy and exertions with regard to the tenants ou Colonel Tottenham's estate, show the justness of the line that the National League took up when, as successor of the Land League, it endeavoured, and with considerable success, to carry on the work of t at body. The policy which we purged with regard to the case of evicted tenants was this— whenever w e found ao estate the tenants on which had stood together and had been evicted, or whenever we found any considerable number of tenants who had stood together and been evicted for the sake of principle on the lines of the Land League, we determined to support those tenac.ts to the utmost extent of our resources (hear, hear). We believe that in doing so we were performing a most valuable work for the lest of the Irish tenantry (hear, hear) ; that the result of sufficient support on our part to such tenants who had held out and boen evicted on principle could not fail to be of enormous gain to the rest of the tenants throughout the country (hear, bear). And I am Rl-id to say that our policy has been both directly and indirectly successful. It has been directly successful because, of the estates which we took three years ag > on to our list for support— estates which required an annual contribution from the 1 eague ot £10,000 — fully one half have in the interval obtained satisfactory settlements (bear, bear). We were in the habit of making grants to the tenants on Colonel Tottenham's property to lh- amount of something like £110 or £120 a month, annual grants of about £1,400, and they have now obtained a successful settlement. The Tottenham estate is one of sfveral estates which have obtained these successful settlements. There bave bt-en restored to their original holdings 49 families after they had been suppoited by the Irish National League for three years, and after they haa beon supported by the Lades' League and the Land League previously for about a year or eighteen montLs. These foily-moe families have been restored to their homes. All the arrears bave been wiped off (applaute) ; fonror five years" arrears of

rent have been wiped off, and they have obtained, I believe, a permanent reduction of rent amounting to some fifteen or twenty per cent, per annum. But it is not only as regards the direct results in the case of these tenants that our attitude and action is to be commended. We bave achieved by this action beneficial results, enormously beneficial results of an indirect character for the rest of the Irish tenantry. Wherever a landlord saw the tenantry on an evicted estate supported by the funds of the Leazue, that estat-. was a sign and a mark to the rest of the landlord* of lieland that if they did likewise— if they m, justly evicted their tenanta— those tenants would be maintained by tbe League, and that in the long run the landlord would get the worst of the transaction (applause). And I believe tbat tbis policy which we have pursued has enabled hundre is of thousands, certainly a hundred thousand, Irish tenants to make settlements out of the Land Court with their landlerds, and that it has saved many thousands of families from the eviction which would have been otherwise their cruel fate. I regret that we have not been able to awaken in the minds of the tenant farmers of Ireland a sufficient sense of the importance of supporting the victims of the land war. It would have been very much betier for them if they aided our exertions, exertions which were sustaiaed by nuney from Australia chiefly (applause).— lt would have been of untold benefit for the farmers of Ireland generally if they had shown themselves sensible of the importance of supporting the tenants on evicted estates; and I trust that the example of the settlement that the Tottenham tenants and other tenants have obtained by standing together in a body will instruct the rest of the Irish tenantry, and that they will com? forward suitably at the commencement of this winter, and subscribe to the funds of the League, which are mainly used for the relief of evicted tenants, and so show the landlords that in the present depression of prices, they do not intend to allow themselves to be trampled upon (applause). Now, gentlemen, we have held to-day a very important meeting of the Irish party. I tnink quite the largest meeting of that body which has ever had a session in Dublin, and we have arrived at very vital important resolutions with regard to the question of the selection ot candidates during the next two or three months for tbe general election. Thesa resolutions will be published in the Press to-morrow, and I do not intend to read them or to refer to them in detail, but I may tell you that geneially the resolutions invite the country to select as candidates men of approved worth and reliable character (hear, hear), men who are well fined for ihe work in hand, and who may be depended upon to maintain and secure the unity of the party of the country (hear). The resolutions further advise the constituencies to select their candidates in consultation with my colleagues and myself (hear, bear) at conventions to be duly summoned for the purpose (hear, hear). A pledge has been further formulated in detail (loud cheers), and the constituencies and the conventions are urged to refuse to consider the c .ndidature of any Candida' e who retuses to take the pledge (loud laughter and applause). With regard to tbe calling of conventions for the purpose of making the selection of candidates for the different constituencies, I propose, whm the prop t time arrives— and it is not desirable that the conventions in many of the more important districts should be held until we are able to approximate more closely to the result of the revisions than we can now do I propose, when the proper time arrives, to take steps from this office to enter myself into oommunic-ition, as the chairaun of the Irish Parliamentary Party, with the different constituencies throughout the country, in order to fix suitable and convenient dates— dates in sequence to each other— for the holding of these very important delegate assemblies. I have said that the dates for holding the conventions will not be during the next two or three week^, but°af ter that interval I trust Jiat we shall be able to arrange for several important conventions as a lead-off throughout the country. And the mode of pioceduie adopted at the proceedings of these bodies will be a guide io tne other assemblies of a similtr nature, which will have to be convened in the various constituencies fur tbe important work in hand. I desire to take the opportunity which has been affjrded to me in the presence of such a very large and representative gathering as this, composed of the m^moers of the Central Branch of the League, many of whom have come from diff jrent parts of Ireland to .xpress to you my convietiou, which has become, if possible, mjre firm thau ever, of the veiy near approach of the speedy triumph of the National cause (loud applause). Thera can be no shadow of doubr, gentlemen, that if you üßd your recent victory with judgment and with moderation you will have the two English paities vyin^ with each other in tbe settlement of tne Insi qu'stion (hear, hear) I believe ihat we will get a s ttlement of the National question from whichever Government or whichever party may be in power, whether it be Whig or whether it be Tory (hear, hear). There may be slight v anations in the terms which we may succeed in securing from the one body or the other ; but I believe that the settlement which we shall be able to obtain from the Tones will be as valuable and as important for the mterets of Ireland and for the prosperity of the nation, as the settlement that we shall be able to obtain trom the Whigs or the Radicals (applause). We are therefore in the position that no mater which of tbe English Bides loses or which of them wins we are bound to win (cheers). We ask, gentlemen, from you in return tbat you should insist in your different districts upon absolute unity of purpose (dear, bear) and I think thar we are entitled to claim for ourselves- ind we claim nothing more— the right of consultation and of advising with the different constituenc es throughout tbe country (cries of "Quite T \ ght ,' "X A K eatral has always some voice in the choice of his offictrs (loud cheers). .None of us desire to dictate to the constituencies (hear, bear). We should be only too glad to have the difficult burden of selection lightened by the judgmeut and experience of the different localities interested in this very important quebtion ; but we do think tbat there should be absolute union in out ranks ('hear hear) ; and that if we have shown ourselves in any way worthy of your regard that you should continue to depend upon us (cries of " We will ") until we Bbow that we are unfit for the trust we have held up to the present (cries of "Never "). I thank you, gentlemen for the patience with which you have listened to me. I desire nothing

more thau to place in the power of Irishmen and of the people of Ireland the right to govern themselves and to manage their own aff a rs When we have restored to us our own Parliament it will be pjssib'e for you to discuss aud thresh out every question. Every man of different ideas will then have a stage on wnich he will be able to exemplify and enlarge his views, but for the present solidity is necessary in our ranks (loud cheers). Our desire is to restore to you the power of making for yourself and working out your owa destiny (cheers). When you have got that power, gentlemen, I believe you will use it rightly aud bravely, and that the Irish nation will prosper and be perpetual (loud cheers).