MR JUSTIN M'CARTHY'S ADDRESS TO THE IRISH PEOPLE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 46, 15 March 1895, Page 15

MR JUSTIN M'CARTHY'S ADDRESS TO THE IRISH PEOPLE.

Fellow-countrymen, tho Session wh<ch is about to open will be one of decisive influence upon the future of tbe Irish cause. One of ita first tasks will be to amend Mr Gladstone's Irish land legi°la ion in many vital particulars in which the purposes of the Act of 1881 have been frustrated by means of lecalsuVfies and partisan ndmioistrations. Overburdened as the Irish farmers are by rents fixod apon their own improvements, by seasons of failure and low prices in almost every article of their stock and produce, and by the ruinous and constantly increasing pressure of foreign competition, immediate legislative relief ia a matter of life and death to the Irish agriculture population. Inasmuch as the necessity for the promised Lnnd Bil presses with equal urgency on the Protestant farmers of Ulster, it is unlikely that the House of Lords will venture to withhold the relief which they denied last Session to the evicted tenants of tbe South. Both the necessity and the opportunity for a measure founded on the report of Mr Morley's Commifee are, therefore, matters of paramount interest to the Irish people. The approaching Session will also probably be the last befoie the appeal to the country. On its work and history will depend to a large extent the rtsult of that appea 1 . If the Home Rule Government, with its slender majority, is to be enabled to put down Unionist obstruction and make ita appeal to the country, under the most favourable circumstances, agaiost the present iniquitous powers of the Hons3 of Lords, the daily, nightly, and almost hourly attendance of th 6 Irish Party in its full strength at Westminster, will be more than ever the first condition of the triumph of the Irish cause at the General Election. That we may be able to ensure this unremitting attendance, it becomes necessary for me, in the n«»me of the Irish Party, to make an earnest appeal to our fellow-countrymen, whose battle we are fightiDg, in whoße confidence alone lie our influence and strength, and to whose generosity we have never looked in vain for the sus'ainment of an independent and vigilant Irish representation in face cf tte power and wealth arrayed against us. I make that appeal in circumstances of urgency, and with the fullest confidence that the generous and wise patriotism which has impelled the Irißh people bo often before to give an example to all the democracies of the world in political self-support, will also impel them to rise to the demands of the present eventful crisis in the history of Ireland. The position of our kindred in America and Australia, in times of deep industrial depressioa, does not permit ur to hope for any considerable or adequate assistance from them at tbe present moment. In addition to the maintenance of the Paitj iv undiminished strength at Westminster throughout the session it will be necessary for us to undertake ao active and costly political propaganda all over Great Britain if we are to combat eff^c ively tbe mia d r sentitions with which an organisation of unlimited finauc al resources is loundating the British constituencies in view of the Geotral E!ect«on. F< r all these reasons, then— to ensure the passing of a Liod Act that will make an adequate reduc'ion < f the rental of Ireland, to again pre u s forward the Bill for re-establishing the evie'ed tenants in their hemes, and to prepare tbe way for a speedy appeal to the country und^r circumstances that will offjr the best hope of stripping the House of Lords of that veto which cow alone stands between us and the establishment of an Irish Parliament and a domestic Government of Ireland — I appeal wi h cwfidence to our fellow -countrymen at this momentous time to furnish us with thg means of sustaining a Party whose only ambition at Westminster is to secure happiness and eelfgovenment for our people, and upon whose continued unity and incessant energy it depends whether we shall in our day see the end of the dreary and heart-breaking story cf Ireland's Bufferings and wrongs. Justin M'Cabthy. 23rd January, 1893