Dublin Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 11, 6 July 1888, Page 21

Dublin Notes.

(From the National papers.) Mb. DIOKBON's candidature received another fillip at the enthusiastic gathering in the Ancient Concert Booms on Tuesday evening, May 8, under the auspices of the Protestant Home Rule Association, nearly all the leading members of which were present on the occasion . Protestor Galbraith, who presided, made a ringing speech, ia which he remarked that he did not care about Whig, Tory, Liberal, or Conservative—what be cared about was old Ireland. He remembered twenty years ago, when his voice was first heard on these platforms, that he said — "I dom't care where any man or woman or child comes from provided I know it is from one of the thirty -two counties." He knew elder peej le wko had said, " Oh, lam ac food an Irishman as you ; I love Ireland very well." " Ah," continued tke Professor, " but what was the difference f I love the people ; but what did these other fellows love t They loved the green grass that fed the cows that paid the rents that £nt the money into their pockets that they might spend anywhere else over the surface' of the globe except in Ireland." Mr. Dicksoa's speech was a powerful criticism of Mr. Balfour's doings in Ireland, and was keenly relished by the assembly. Another enthusiastic gathering in support of Mr. Dickson's candidature was held on Wednesday night in the Workmen's Club, York street, and was addressed by Mr. Dawaon, T.C., and other eloquent speakers. The municipality of Drogbeda has just placed on record its keen appreciation of the political virtues of one of Mr. Balfour's impenitent " criminals " by conferring on htm the freedom of its ancient borough. Mr. John Dillon was on Monday, May 7, the recipient of this welldeserved homour, which, by-the-bye. be shares in company with Grattan and otaer illustrious Irish patriots. In acknowledging this token of the hearty good-will of the Corporation, the hon. gentleman said that no man in Ireland to-day looked forward more eagerly than he did to the hour when the Plan of Campaign and boycotting might no longer exist. That nour would come ; but it could only come when the 1 Irish people had the power to make their own laws and administer them. Tnese weapons, he continued, were the resources of a race who were deprived of the ordinary rights of every Christian man, and so long as they were deprived of those rights the Irish people should not lay down their arms in faca of the enemy. Mr. Dillon concluded by announcing that on that principle he waß prepared either to stMtd er fall. On Wednesday afternoon, May 9, Mr. Gladstone was presented in Loldon with e>n address from no less than 4,000 Nonconformist ministers. The ex- Premier in reply said that the coercion policy of tke Government had not been against crime but against combination. Referring to the phrase " Remember Mitchelstown I" the right hon. gentleman maintained that every member of the Constabulary ought to have been committed for his offenoe on that occasion. Mr. Gladstone furthermore said that the present Government were the real authors of the Plan of Campaign. On the whole the ex- Premier's speech was marked throughout with a raking criticism of the Tory Cabinet and its policy. Mr. Parnell was on Tuesday evening, May 8, the honoured guest ef the Eighty Club, in London — a mark of distinction, by -the- bye, which is oaly accorded to the most distinguished statesmen. The Irish Parliamentary leader made ou this occasion one of the most remarkable speeches ever delivered. For days previously the event was looked forward to with the deepest interest and concern. The enemies of the Irish cause were hugging to their bosoms the sweet delusion that Mr. Parnell was about to pass a sweeping condemnation on the Plan of Campaign, and dissociate himself completely from its advocates. A split in the Irish party was confidently predicted. The Plan of Campaign was the wedge that would split the League, one section of which would continue to follow the fortunes of the present leader, and the other the fortunes of Messrs. Dillon and O'Brien. Lost might, however, theae evil prophecies disappeared as mists do before the rising sun. Mr. Parnell's utterances were couched in the kappiest style, and proved tbat his party is still as united as ever. The reception accorded the hon. gentleman was of a very flattering : character, and his speech was worthy of the occasion that called it forth. In replying to Lord Carnarvon's strictures, Mr. Parnell had no difficulty in refuting the assertion that it was only a twopenny ha'penny local government bill which the Tories were offering him when they were last in office. An Irish Parliament was Mr. Parnell's express stipulation, and to that stipulation the Tory Lord Lieutenant personally subscribed. Mr. Parnell did not attribute the actual difference of his version of the negotiation with Lord Carnarvon's to the latter' t want of truth, but to his want of reoolleotion. The Irish leader's logic on this subject was simply irrefutable. The ex-Tory dignitary stands ceadenned, moreover, out of his own mouth in the correspondence between the late Mr. S. D. Gray which has been given te the public. Amongst tke meetings addressed by Mr. Dillon in Clare towards the end of tke week ending May I, was am immense gathering at Miltown-Malbay, whicn was convened without public notice. If after the events of the past few weeks any proof were needed of the lalaehood of Mr. Balfour's statement that the League was a thing of the past, it would be found in tbe great multitude which came together in Miltown-Malbay, at the verbal intimation that their pre■enoe was required. Mr. Dillon dealt very severely with Colonel Turner, who, he siid, is rapidly becoming a kind of bead-bailiff to Mr. Richard Stackpoole. " When Lord Aberdeen was the Lord Lieutenant, and Mr. Gladstone was in power," said Mr. Dillon, :'": '" Colonel Turner used to go about the drawingrooms of Dublin and declare that he was so strong a Home Buler, and so much in favour of the national party tbat if he had been an Irishman he would have joined the Fenian party. Tnat lasted so long as he was paid by Lerd Aberdeen ; but when Mr. Balfour came into office Colonel Taw!* jflWd. otffc that, the Iriih, Nationalist parity were the greatest gcotUwSm the world, aad that nothing was fib** tfcwi except his

dragoons and the bayonets of the police. And lam informed, on the belt authority, that Colonel Tamer now, nearly every week, sends up a report to Dublin Oastle, recommending that the people should be ridden down and batoned and bayonetted at every attempt they make to meet together." The charges made in the foregoing are serious and tangible, and we shall be anxious to know whether the gallant Oolonel Turner has anything to say by way of defenoe or explanation. The new " trial " of Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., was commenced at Lougkrea on Thursday, May 3. It was far shorter than was f enarally anticipated ; for the evidence of the Grown having olosed at noon, Mr. Bodkin, for the defence, asked the Bench to dismiss the oaie— a request to which the magistrates turned a deaf ear by seatencing the aooused to three months 1 imprisonment with hard labour. An appeal was, of course, immediately entered. Mr. O'Brien's bearing throughout the trial was characteristic of the man. One remark of hit addressed to the Grown officials : " I want nothing from you but wkat I can hammer out of you," evoked suob loud cheering, and incensed the presiding Bemovablss to snoh an extent, that the court was cleared by the policemen. Once more kave we to chronicle the release of Mr. Gilhooly, M.P., from Cork Oonnty gaol. On last Thursday, May 3, ac was liberated in due form, having completed his term of fourteen days' imprisonment for the atrocious orime of having addressed his constituents at Schull in October last. Mr. Gilhooly looked well, and is in good spirits after his plank-bed and bread-and- water experience*. A meeting was convened at the Mayor's office where Mr. Gilhooly, after having received a hearty weloome said that the Plan of Campaign had been successful wherever it was adopted, and that the National League was stronger and more powerful than at the inception of the Coeroion Act. The Plan of Campaign was, he continued, the Bhield and safeguard of the oppressed and rack-rented tenants, and he was sure that the priests and bishops of Ireland who understood the wants of the people, and their condition would never be parties to depriving the people of the only weapon they had against landlord tyranny. Mr. Gilbooly's extended acquaintance with her Majesty's prisons ia, evidently, not diminishing bis hostility to Balfonrism. The hon. member's subsequent speech at Bautry was couched in equally uncompromising language. Mr. Frank Hugh O'Donnell's action against the Time* has been so long floating over the political horison that many people had begun to regard it as a kind of a Hy Braiil, too good a thing ever to be brought within the limits of reality. Now, however, there are Bigns and omens whioh tell us that we are within measurable distance of the wished-for cause oittbre. On Tuesday, May 15, Messrs. John Walter and George Edward Wright, proprietors and publishers of the incriminated sheet, commissioned their counsel to apply in the Queen's Bench of Dublin for permission to ransack the books of the Hibernian Bank at the Head Offloe, College-green, and at the branch offices in O'Oonnell-ttreet and in Tubberourry, in so far as they related to the account* and dealings between the bank and the Irish Land League, the Irish National League, and the Irish Ladies' Land League. Despite the fact that Mr. C. Tierney, the manager of the O'Connell street brancb, affirmed that there was no aocount kept in tke bank in the name mentioned in tke order, Messrs. Walter and Co. persisted in their efforts to see the books. Mr. Jistioe Holmes and Mr. Justioe Harrisom, however, very properly decided that, although the court is London authorised the permission requested, they 1 had no jurisdiction in the matter, and the motion comld not consequently be sustained. This move on the part of the Times is evidently meant to cover its retreat from an untenable poaition. Still another influential convert to the Home Rule cause I Mr J. W. Logan, who up to the present was a Liberal-Unionist, and who at the last election was one of the most energetic supporters of the successful Tory candidate in the Harborough division, haa abjured the Unionist creed, and entered the Gladstonian fold. Mr. Logan's change of front for the better, occurred in the most natural way, and under circumstances which reflect the greatest honour on his sincerity He made a tour of Ireland some short time ago, in order to investigate the Irish question for himself and on the spot, and he returned to England a convert. The appalling injustice which he witnessed here, and to which the people are being victimised, opened Mr. Logan's eyes to the true condition of things, rousing the generous instincts of his heart, and inducing him to prefer a policy of conciliation to a policy of ooercion towards a wrongly-treated and an unoffending race. Mr. Logan, who is a member of tha well-known firm of railway contractors, Messrs. Logan and Hemmingway, and whose local influence in Harborough is very great,, is a valuable accession to the anti-coercioa ranks. We may add that the Liberal Association of the town have adopted him as their candidate for the next election, The barbarous sentence on Mr. Dillon is exciting very deep indignation in Liberal circles in London. Bvery impartial authority admits its extreme vindiotiveness ( and there is a probability of the entire question of coercion sentences being brought at an early date before the House of Commons. It would be no mere guess to foreshadow the result of six months' incarceration on such a delicate frama as that of Mr. Jokn Dillon. Mr. Balfour's famous conversation with Mr. Blunt will be vividly remembered by the Irish people when the hon. " criminal " crosses tke prison threshold. The Chief Secretary must he lost to all sense of decency if he should have recourse to such a base course of action in regard to an honourable political adversary, whose only crime has been that he has stood between the tenants of Ireland and their ruin. It is do wonder that reflecting Englishmen should shrink in horror before a cold-blooded policy which has nothing but brute force to recommend it, and which uses that force in diabolical attempts to remove from its path every man who has the patriotism to champion a defenceless peasantry Mr. Balfour, however — whatever else he way do — will never succeed in removing the Irish people themselves from their present poaition of deiance to him and his satellites. From that citadel they can never be dislodged — let his thunderbolts fall as they will. The grotesque folly of his opponents was that they believed that, at best, Mr. Dickeon would only get to the top of the poll by the

skin of his teeth, and that the chances were at least fifty to a hundred that he would be altogether defeated The citieens of Dublin were growing weary of the unsettled condition of things — at least so the Tory orators and penmen said. The vile spirit of anarchy should be crushed and annihilated. The de-potism of the National League ■▼.as becoming intolerable. The people would record their rotes no lo'ger in favour of O'Connel street. Besides, the Papal rescript just issued would deter many a go >d Roman Catholic from supporting the Presbyterian " Strangt-r," whose very select on by Mr. Parnell was an outrage on, and insult to the Holy Inquisition and the entire College of Cardinals. Such was the catch-penny jingle of cant rattled in our ears for over a week by these valets of the Lower Castle Yard I The answer to all this froth and bunkum was given in the Green-street courthouse last Monday, by High Sheriff Winetanley, who announced that Mr. Dickson was returned by a majority of 1,887 over his unfortunate opponent, Mr. Robert Sexton. A staggering blow was thus dealt to the hundful of busybodies who dared question the power of the Nationa ists of the St. Stephen's Green Division to send to Westminster a Home Ruler and a noncoercionist, The figures are : Dickson (Home Ruler}, i,819 ; Sexton (Unionist), 2,932 In a letter to the Times, extending over a column and a half, Lord Carnarvon elucidates bis views on the question of Irish independence. While Lord Lieutenant he studiously, he says, kept hii mind open ; sought and obtained the views of men of all parties and interests ; and finally settled on three schemes. Two of these he regarded as likely to effect a perfect settlement, the third was merely a mtchu 9vcsndi. The two, either of which offered a basis for permanency, were :—(1): — (1) A modified form of Crown Colony Government ; or (2) the concession of limited self-government. As for the flrßt, everyone knows who knows anything that a Crown Colony Government could never be established in Ireland, so the consideration of that scheme is unnecessary. As for the survivor of the preferable pair, from Lord Carnarvon's explicit statement of what he means by a considerable concession of local self-government, it is hard to see how Mr. Parnell could describe him as anything other than a Home Ruler. These roughly are the limitations and restrictions he proposed :— l. Supremacy of the Crown and of the Imperial Parliament in the ultimate resort. 2. Control of the police aud appointment of the judiciary. 3. Limitation of local taxation so as to prevent injustice, i. The reasonable satisfaction of Ulster. 5. The whole preceded by some land settlement.— Now, of these, the first and the fifth, and partly the second, were features of Mr. Gladstone's Bill. The fourth is a limitation that can hardly be called a limitation at all. Our Orange demagogues have over snd over declared that if the South of Ireland should be granted a Home Rule Government, the North would throw in its lot with the rest. The third part alone is a novelty. On his own showing, therefore, Lord Carnarvon was and is a Home Ruler, though he now figures as a Coercionist. It is he who is really the Protean politician. He and hit leader, Lord Salisbury, are well fitted to sail in the same boat. The Premier approved of all his Viceroy had done and said, even complimented him on his tact. In short, endorsed his proposal to endow Ireland with a native legislature. And now the Irish, instead, are to hare only perpetual chains, or emigration. Tbe only remaiuing alternative Lord Carnarvon can conceive is coercion. In other words, the choice for English Miuiiters lies between Home Rule on the one side and coercion on the other. This is precisely what Mr Gladsoneand the Liberal party have incessantly insisted on. Coercion Lord Carnarvon regards merely as an opportunist scheme, a means of dragging along, to outlive, we are left io supposa, the scanty remnant of an old man's life. He is prepared, willing to admit, that English rule so far is a failure in Ireland. (< The Lord Lieutenant has only too oft^-n a semblance of power ; the pub ie departments are hampered by outside control ; there is the intolerable evil of a circumlocutory and never-en'ling correspondence in one word, there are neither the public responsibilities which arise out of a free Parliament nor the efficiency of a strong executive. There is not a statesman or an intelligent observer from Lord Chesterfield to Sir George Lewis, from Arthur Young to Charles Greville, that has been bronght into relation with Irish affairs who bas not asserted over and over again the absolute necessity of raising the industrial and material condition of the people if we would remove their disaffection. Comparatively little as yet has been accomplished. Ireland is an ungrateful subject to English Cabinets. In times of unbearable difficulty money bas often been fieely and improvidently spent, but when the crisis has passed, the unwelcome question of material improvement has been thrust aside." These are not the words of any rabid, hot-headed enemy of England. They are the deliberate explanations of an ex-Cabinet Minister of the Crown. They speak for themselves.