MORE POWER TO BALFOUR !

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 37, 19 June 1891, Page 20

MORE POWER TO BALFOUR !

Mb Pabnell (says the Nation of 25th April) has at length gone the whole hog. He throws himself at the feet of Balfoar, beseeching him to accept the quondam Home Rule general as a bravo for the destruction of Mr Gladstone and his party. The speeches at Ballina on Monday formed one stream of panegyric on the botcher of John Mandeville and the gaoler of John Dillon and William O'Brien. " I am not at all jealous of Mr Balfonr, but I say more power to his elbow as long as he is giving employment to the people of Ireland, and I hope we may be in a position to keep him to the work." More power to the elbow of the man whose grasp is on tht lock that keeps two of the best sons of Ireland in gaol simply for their work io behalf of the Irish peasants t This is what Parnell has come to. Ay, but he has his reasons. He kaew that the lies which his followers have been uttering about John Dillon and William O'Brien wera about to be answered. He knew, moreover, that they would have nothing to do with the man who panegyrises the Michelatown murders, and whose sole policy now is to weaken the forces of the British Home Rule party. Therefore he had no hesitation about crying, " More power to Balfour " and " More power to him," for the very reason that he is the gaoler of those two Irishmen. The longer he keeps them in the better for Mr Parnell. That is placed beyond doubt at last. Those brave Irishmen must have heard of the base uses to which Parnell waa turning their consideration and tenderness for him. The rumours of his recent tactics nonet have reached them, and they have now anthorised the most emphatic and public repudiation of the slanders that have been uttered about them to be made. Fr. Keaveney, the Administrator of Ballaghaderia, where Mr John Dillon's friends reside, and where Mtb William O'Brien is at present sojourning, has been authorised by them to mike the repudiation At the great demon* stration of Bontb Sligomen held at Gurteen on Sunday, Fr. Ktaveney said that " he came there from one of the most prominent fighting districts of the country, where the principles of John Dillon vibrate in the national life, and the people were one and all in support of the Irish Nationalist party. He could tell them that those who had any doubt about the attitude of John Dillon in this struggle are making » mistake. It was the business of Pflrnell and his brigade of liars to try and deceive them, but their lies had gone too far, and he was in a position there to-day on the authority of John Dillon himself— almost from his own lips — to tell them, or any body of Irishmen who may doubt it, that there is not within the four seas of Ireland a man more determinedly opposed to Mr Parnell than John Dillon. And to those who shake their heads and say, ' Dillon is gone astray ; we have O'Brien ' — to such he had this important statement to make, that John Dillon with his own Ups sent out the message which he had delivered to them and asked to have it also added that William O'Brien is at one with him in his opposition to Mr Parnell." No wonder that Parnell calls, " More power to Mr Balfour."