:MMi.r0/: 
 
/o ^3 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 Lord DUNRAVEN 
 
 AT 
 
 LIMERICK, 
 
 W^EDNESDAY, MARCH 22nd, 1893. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE IRISH UNIONIST ALLIANCE. 
 
 DUBLIN":— 109 GEAFTON STEEET. 
 
 BELFAST :— 1 LOMBARD STREET. 
 
 LONDON :— 26 PALACE CHAMBERS, WESTMINSTER. 
 
HUMPHREY AND ARMOUR, 
 
 PRINTERS, 
 
 CROW STREET, DUBLIN. 
 
 .Dll 
 
My Lords, Ladies, and Gentlemen — 
 
 We are met here to-day in a very critical moment in the history 
 of our country — perhaps the most critical that it has ever passed 
 through — and we have a very solemn duty to perform towards her, 
 and towards ourselves. We, Irishmen, who are filled with the 
 profound conviction that our civil and religious liberties and rights 
 will be seriously jeopardised by the Repeal of the Union, are met 
 here to protest against the most iniquitous measure ever sought to 
 be imposed upon free men. We who believe, we who know, that 
 the material welfare of our country, and her industrial prosperity, is 
 inseparately bound up with the preservation of the Legislative 
 Union that now exists between Great Britain and Ireland, are 
 here assembled to make our voices, our sure convictions, and our 
 determination heard in the only constitutional way open to us. 
 
 We have no direct representation in the House of Commons. 
 Our opinions are represented, most ably represented, by members 
 returned for other portions of Ireland, but as far as this county, and 
 the South and West are concerned, we have no direct representa- 
 tion of our views in the House of Commons. The Unionist voice 
 is silent in that chamber ; but it will not be silenced. We can by 
 meetings, by petitions, and by resolutions give evidence of the faith 
 that is in us, and make our fixed resolve known to the Legislature, 
 the constituencies, and the electorate of Great Britain ; and that 
 we intend to do. 
 
 JVHO ABE THE 3IINORITY? 
 ' : ■ We are in a minority, but that minority is, numerically, of a size 
 that entitles it to be heard ; and it is a minority which, when you 
 consider the elements of which it is composed, and its constituent 
 parts, deserves and must command great consideration and respect. 
 
 "'°It is usually supposed by the constituencies of Great Britain that 
 Unionism in the iSouth is the political creed of a few fanatical 
 country gentlemen — an utterly false conception of the situation 
 diligently put forward by the advocates of appeal. It is not true. 
 Consider that petition against Repeal sigsicd by many Roman 
 Catliolics of position in the country, and by numbers of their co- 
 religionists. Look at this great meeting — of what is it composed ? 
 Both religious creeds represented on this platform, and representa- 
 tives of all classes and creeds in the body of the hall. It is absurdly 
 false to pretend that devotion to the Union burns in the breasts of 
 
country gentlemen and Protestants alone. And what about the 
 country taken as a whole ? By far the greater part of the indus- 
 trial population of Ireland — that is to say, the population engaged 
 in manufacturing industries, is on our side. It is no exaggeration 
 to say that property, the foundation of prosperity in any commu- 
 nity, and capital that started our industries and keeps them alive 
 is on the side of Union ; and we can fairly claim a practical mono- 
 poly of the cultivated intelligence of the country. It is absurd to 
 suppose that a minority so constituted ought not to receive more 
 attention than it is entitled to by its mere numbers because it com- 
 prises within its ranks all the qualities, characteristics, and elements, 
 which are essential to the well-being and which combine to create 
 prosperity in any community. And our numbers are not insignificant. 
 We are far stronger merely numerically than is currently supposed, 
 and no man who knows anything of the condition of the country 
 would pretend to deny that our numbers would receive an immense 
 accession of strength if the farmers and the labourers dared to 
 speak out. But, alas, they dare not. They understand and know 
 and dread the organisation below the surface most carefully con- 
 cealed from the electorate of Great Britain by the subterfuges of 
 the Government. They feel, and regret, the difference between the 
 firm and just grasp and administration of the law by the late Gov- 
 ernment, and the treraWling and uncertain touch of those who, to 
 the misery of Ireland, have succeeded them in office. Public opinion 
 is not free in the South and West. It is intimidated, coerced, and 
 gagged, and the Executive Government, to their infinite shame, 
 condone the intimidation. Still some men have dared to speak out, 
 and I greatly honour them for doing so. Animated by a strong 
 sense of duty to their country, they have spoken out their minds at 
 an undoubted risk to themselves. Thej are brave men, and I 
 honour them. 
 
 3IB. MOBLEY S PETTY SPITE. 
 
 I cannot help thinking that the growing strength of feeling in 
 favour of the Union in the South is creating considerable uneasiness 
 in the minds of the party who advocate repeal ; in the minds of 
 those ingenious gentlemen who manufacture public opinion for 
 exportation to England. It has been seriously alleged in the House 
 of Commons by three honourable members, all of whom have been 
 convicted of conspiracy and practicing intimidation, that landowners 
 are compelling their tenants and labourers to sign the Petitions 
 against the Bill. If the occasion were not so solemn, I might 
 truthfully say so tragic, there would be something irresistibly comic 
 in the idea of men who for years have tyrannised over and intimidated 
 their countrymen, getting up without a smile on their faces in the 
 House of Commons, and pretending that the ferocious landlord, 
 brandishing evictions, and hurling writs, is abroad in the land, 
 bullying those unfortunate slaves, his labourers and tenants, into 
 signing Petitions againsii their will. And there is something very 
 sad in the meek acquiesance of the Chief Secretary in the unwarrant- 
 able insinuation of his political allies — an insinuation which he had 
 
•no reason, whatever, to suppose contained a single grain of truth in 
 it. What did he say ? That he did not knoAv anything at all about 
 the matter, but thought it very likely. If he did not know 
 anything at all about it, what right had he to say anything at all 
 about it? If he did not know, well it was his duty to have known. 
 He might, perhaps, be excused for thinking that owners of land 
 would do such a dishonourable thing if they could, for doubtless 
 he considered that all Irishmen were of the same complexion as his 
 political allies. But as a reasonable man he cannot think that 
 landlords can afford the luxury of evicting tenants for political 
 motives. Eviction is an expensive process, and landlords are not 
 in very affluent circumstances, as Mr, Morley well knows ; and he 
 must be perfectly well aware that even if a landlord wished to do 
 such a thing, and could afford it, he has absolutely no power 
 whatever in the matter. I was pleased to see this ebullition of 
 spite — glad to note this absurd attempt to discount the value of 
 pubhc opinion — because it proves positively that the supporters of 
 tbis iniquitous Bill are finding the ground growing very shaky 
 under their feet, and are beginning to perceive that the class of 
 small owners and occupiers of land have more sense and more 
 courage than they gave them credit for. Yes, we are in a minority, it 
 is true, but it is a strong one ; strong, and growing stronger every 
 day in numbers ; strong in the elements composing it ; strong in the 
 strength and sincerity of the motives that actuate it; strong in the 
 certainty of ultimate success, and I am glad to have the honour of 
 participating in a meeting such as this, so thoroughly representa- 
 tive of that minority ; assembled to set out our unalterable 
 opposition to the subject matter of this Bill. 
 
 AJV UNWORKABLE BILL. 
 
 What is the nature of the issue before us ? Nothing less than 
 the dismemberment of the- United Kingdom. It is projDosedto tear 
 up the instrument by which, in the opinion of a large minority in 
 Ireland, their civil and religious rights and liberties alone can be 
 secured. A Bill is before the House of Commons of the most 
 perplexing and complicated kind. A Bill full of absurdities and 
 anomalies, of simulated safeguards, and restrictions so rotten that 
 they are not even worth considering. A Bill utterly unworkable, 
 dangerous in every clause, revolutionary in every line. A Bill 
 which proposes to deprive us of our birth-right, to rob us of a 
 constitution which we passionately love ; to take from us rights to 
 which we have an inalienable claim ; rights to which we were born, 
 and which we will not abandon as long as we have life. A Bill 
 which seeks to break up the Union that we hold to be essential to 
 . our material prosperity, to narrow down our nationality, and to 
 transfer our allegiance from the Parliament and the laws and the 
 constitution to which we cling to a constitution and a legislature 
 which we will never accept. 
 
 Never before has a treachery so gratuitous been contemplated ; 
 never has a proposal so contrary to the essence of constitutional 
 government, so intolerable to the natural rights of men, been 
 
formulated by responsible miuisters. Of course, nations Lave 
 before now been broken up under the stress of some great 
 national calamity, such as the shock of a great and 
 disastrous war ; but never before in the history of the Avorld has 
 dismemberment ))eeu deliberately proposed to a people free to act, 
 never before has a nation been asked to cast adrift a population 
 loyal in its allegiance, and protesting vehemently against the unjust 
 cruelty of divorce. Well, gentlemen, what, under these circum- 
 stances, is it our duty to do 1 As Irishmen, and as I claim patriotic 
 Irishmen, it is our duty to look most critically into this matter ; we 
 must strip from it all the fanciful flights of oratory and the mere 
 verbiage that clothes it ; we must turn off the coloured lime lights 
 that disguise the true proportions and details of the 13111, and look nt 
 this bundle of anomalies, absurdities, and enormities, in the clear 
 light of reason and common sense. What effect is this Bill likely 
 to have upon our beloved country ? What chance has Ireland of 
 making a living, of paying her way, of raising income and obtaining 
 capital to carry on National affairs and to develop the resources of 
 the countiy 1 that is practically the most important question before 
 us. What will be the financial effect of the Bill upon Ireland ? 
 I believe the Bill will, in that respect, be entirely disastrous, 
 absolutely ruinous to the country. 
 
 WE SHALL START S3IOTHEJRED IX DEBT. 
 
 Let us consider our liabilities first. Ireland owes Great Britain 
 a sum of about £8,650,000 as a direct debt — a sum due without any 
 intermediary between the Irish Exchequer and the Exchequer of 
 Great Britain. This sum is repayable in a term of years, capital 
 and interest, by an annual payment of £360,000. That is the first 
 direct charge upon our estate. But that is not all. Other advances 
 for Land Purchase and various public purposes have been sanc- 
 tioned, amounting in all to about thirty milhons, which are ultimately 
 chargeable upon the Irish Consolidated Fund. To that amount Ire- 
 land is in debt to Great Britain. We are, therefore, going to 
 begin business, to set up for ourselves with a debt of about thirty 
 millions hanging over our heads, a deljt unsatisfied, and, in my 
 opinion, unsatisfiable, because I cannot see the smallest possibility 
 of paying off The principal, or even keeping down the interest on 
 that vast sum. We are going to start for ourselves simply 
 smothered in debt. That is not a very hopeful aspect of the case. 
 Well, then, let us see what we shall lose. 
 
 HEAVY LOSSES. 
 
 Ireland will lose her share in the aggregate Probate Duties of the 
 United Kingdom, amounting to £197,000 a year, assigned to the 
 aid of local taxation by the Local Government Act of 1888, and 
 she will lose £40,000 a year contributed by the Imperial Exchequer 
 to cover possible losses in connection with the Land Purchase Act. 
 That is what we lose, and what shall we be dejDrived of ? 
 
PRESSING CLAIMS AJVD NO INCOME. 
 
 Hitherto Ireland has had the benefit of British credit, the best 
 credit in the world, and has received advances on the most favour- 
 able terms that British credit can secure for a variety of purposes. 
 We obtain advances and loans for the purchase of freeholds, for 
 main drainage and reclamation, for the erection of labourers' houses, 
 towards the maintenance of asylums, towards education, science 
 and art, towards the construction of railways, harbours, and docks 
 — in fact, towards everything that is necessary for the industrial 
 prosperity of the people. For the future, not one penny shall we 
 receive for those purposes from that source. Every farthing will 
 have to be found for herself by Ireland, or will not be found at all. 
 All these advances and loans will, afterthe appointed da;y, have to be 
 paid out of Irish revenue, or from Irish loans, and will fall upon 
 the Irish ConsoKdated Fund. How are loans to be obtained ? I 
 fancy your chairman under-estimated the case when he suggested as 
 possible that Ireland could borrow money at double the rate of 
 interest that the United Kingdom could borrow it. My impression 
 is that though the United Kingdom can borrow money at 2| per 
 cent., that Ireland by herself, deprived of the security of Great 
 Britain, would not be able to borrow money on any terms whatever. 
 And now what will our expenses be ? 
 
 After we have paid for the ordinary civil administrations 
 of the country — and by calculations we are supposed to have 
 just about enough income to do that — we shall find ourselves 
 without revenue, but with pressing claims upon us accruing 
 from various causes. We shall have to provide pensions 
 and compensation for existing civil servants, and for the 
 police ; we shall have to provide for the Judiciary and the police 
 force of the future ; we shall have to pay a small army of 
 Irish M.P's., of various denominations and kinds ; we shall 
 have to pay their travelling expenses backwards and forwards 
 between Dublin and London, and for comfortable lodgings for them 
 in London, whenever they may desire to pay a visit to the metro- 
 polis ; we shall have to maintain a large army of Excise officers, or 
 a little cloud of smoke from a private still will be seen curling up 
 from every hill-side, and our main source of revenue will disappear; 
 and we shall have to keep up an army of Customs officers, or every 
 creek and bay will hai'bour a smuggling fleet, and we shall find 
 conflicts arising between British Revenue officers and the people, 
 backed by their police — not a very pleasant matter to contemplate. 
 For all these things we shall have to pay in addition to the ordinary 
 expenses of governing the country, and where is the money to come 
 from ? Can any man tell me where we are to get the funds to do 
 this ? What income can Ireland have ? What are her resources ? 
 Practically her income would be entirely derived from Excise and 
 from income or property tax. Let us consider the elasticity and 
 solidity of these sources of revenue. 
 
WE MVST FLOAT ON WHISKY. 
 
 It appears to me that Excise is a somewhat unreliable source 
 of income with a diminishing population. Its value obvionsly 
 depends upon the drunkenness of the people, and their drinking 
 capacity depends upon their physical constitution. I daresay our 
 constitutions are very strong, but there are limits to human endur- 
 ance. It is impossible for any man to consume more than a certain 
 amount of whisky, and nothing but universal individual drunkenness 
 can save us from complete collective insolvency. It is a question 
 whether alcoholic poisoning or national bankruptcy will overtake 
 us first. Surely the Government might have appointed a medical 
 commission of enquiry to try and ascertain what is the maximum 
 capacity of the Irish people for drink ; and they might have set out 
 in a schedule to the Bill how many bottles of whisky per head per 
 day might suffice to keep the nation out of the workhouse, in order 
 that the Irish Legislature might have some idea as to the nature of 
 the criminal code necessary to propose, and of the character of the 
 punishment to be inflicted against temperance and total abstinence. 
 The penalty would needs be severe, because it is perfectly obvious 
 that, under this Bill, temperance would be high treason, and total 
 abstainers would be the most dangerous enemies of the State. Drink 
 we must if this Bill becomes law, and drink to the utmost limit of 
 human endurance, for if the nation is to float at all it is on a sea 
 of whisky that she must swim. 
 
 FARMEMS TO BE HUGELY TAXED, 
 
 Then there remains an income or property tax. My impression 
 is that income will be conspicuous by its absence in a very few 
 years, except, perhaps, in the North ; and if capital remains there 
 it will simply put its back against the wall, and with thatpohteness 
 that distinguishes the Ulster people, but also with that firmness 
 that is indigenous to the soil, will refuse to pay the tax. You know 
 what the capitalists of the country have said. What do you 
 suppose will become of all the British money in Ireland ? Of the 
 ten millions of money belonging to insurance companies in 
 England for instance ? What will become of all the capital 
 invested in breweries, distilleries, linen manufactures, ship 
 building, and the other industries of the country? Capital 
 will pluck up her skuts, shake the dust off her feet, and go. 
 Capital will take wings and fly. Insurance companies and other 
 investors will clear out, preferring to realise at a loss rather than 
 risk losing all. Mills, breweries, distilleries, will be closed and 
 removed to Great Britain or some other country. Millions and 
 millions of money will leave Ireland, and thousands and thousands 
 Irishmen and women will be thrown out of work to starve. There 
 will be very little income left in Ireland to lose after a year or two 
 of Home Rule. But you may say there is the land, the land cannot 
 take wings to itself and fly away. That is true. Landowners can 
 be taxed, and suppose they are, and taxed out of existence ? What 
 then ? Will that profit labour, or will it in reality profit anybody? 
 
Bear in mind that the tax must fall ultimately upon the land. It 
 must fall upon and be borne by -owners and occupiers, both great 
 and small alike. It must fall upon the soil itself . How is the farmer 
 to live, much less thrive, with the whole burden of the taxation of 
 the country upon his shoulders — with no assistance from the Im- 
 perial Exchequer, deprived of the benefit of British security, and 
 with everything to find for himself? Farmers would find them- 
 selves compelled to pay double and treble the taxation that they 
 now do. Perhaps they think they would be compensated for that 
 by getting their land very cheap, or for nothing at all. Perhaps 
 they would get it very cheap, but not so cheap as they expect. 
 The Irish Legislature cannot deal with land at all for thi'ee years. 
 The Irish Legislature cannot at any time deal with it, except 
 by due process of law, nor can it deprive any man of his 
 property without just compensation. The estimate of an 
 Irish Legislature of just compensation may be a low one, 
 and their processes of law may be peculiar processes, but 
 you may be sure of this, that nothing in the shape of con- 
 fiscation would be attempted, because Great Britain, as you 
 know, retains the right of concurrent legislation, and it would not 
 do to stock public opinion in Great Britain too much. Assuming 
 that farmers get their land at the very lowest price at which even 
 the kind of Irish Legislature we are to have could give it to them, 
 they would have to pay compensation for it. Where is the money 
 to come from ? British credit and British loans would no longer be 
 available as they are in the Ashbourne and other Acts dealing with 
 Land Purchase. The Irish people would have to find the 
 money for themselves on their own security. The money for 
 compensation could only be obtained at ruinous rates of interest, 
 if it could be obtained at all ; and all those interested in land, 
 occupiers and farmers, large and small, may be perfectly certain 
 that with the huge income tax that they would be compelled to 
 pay, and with the enormous addition of local rates consequent 
 upon the withdrawal of Imperial grants and loans, and with the 
 interest on money that the Irish Legislature would have to borrow 
 at usurious rates in order to enable them to purchase their hold- 
 ings — they would, I say, find themselves paying infinitely more 
 in interest, rates, and taxes, than they are paying now in rent, and 
 taxation put together. And what is to be done for the labourers ? 
 Do you suppose they will not want land to be provided 
 somehow for them, and money for the purchase and stocking 
 of it? The country could not stand it. The land could not 
 bear the load upon it. This miserable Bill, if it become law, 
 whatever else it would do, would be the ruin of every farmer in 
 the country. It would break the neck of every industry, and crush 
 agriculture to the ground. And now a word as to our borrowing 
 powers. 
 
 COULD NOT HAISE A £5 NOTE, 
 
 What credit shall we have, what chance of negociating a loan? 
 How do we stand now in ficance ? We have the whole resources 
 
lO 
 
 of Great Britain at our backs, the best credit in the world available 
 for our needs ; any amount of money required for any legitimate 
 purpose can be obtained at a lower rate of interest than is possible 
 in the case of any other community outside the United Kingdom. 
 What could an Irish Parliament do ? It is true that an Irish Par- 
 liament has before now had fairly good credit. Grattan's Parlia- 
 ment could borrow, and did borrow, money at about 4h per cent. 
 But how was that Parliament constituted ? Entirely of men of 
 property, of men having great interests in the country, the class of 
 men in short that form the Grand Juries of the present day. Property 
 was absolutely secure under that Parliament, and the credit of the 
 country was proportionately good. And Ireland was richer then 
 than now. The long war had put up prices. England was 
 becoming an importer instead of an exporter of Wheat. 
 Wheat growing land in Ireland was worth infinitely more 
 in those days than it is in these, and last, but not 
 least, the whole Executive was in the hands of a British Parlia- 
 ment. That Parliament was ultimately responsible for property, 
 law, life, and liberty. Now it is proposed to place the whole 
 executive, judiciary, magistrates, sheriffs, and police in the hands 
 and under the control of the Legislature in Dublin. And of what 
 elements will that Legislature be composed? Facts cannot be 
 ignored. Capital, property, industrial enterprise, business capacity, 
 are almost exclusively opposed to the policy of repeal. The Irish 
 Legislature will be composed of those men who now represent 
 Ireland in the Imperial Parliament — very able, very talented men 
 doubtless ; but it must be admitted, to put tlie matter as mildly 
 as possible, that their close association with American 
 societies, their own methods of seeking to encompass their 
 ends, their own social and political opinions, and their general 
 attitude towards property and legal obligations, have not been 
 such as to inspire contidence. In the war that they have waged 
 against property they have forgotten one little thing — that the 
 credit of any country and of any community rests absolutely and 
 entirely upon the sacredness and security of its property. They 
 have deUberately deprived Ireland of any possible security, any 
 possibly borrowing power that she might otherwise have had. A 
 Legislature so constituted might possibly raise half-a-crown as a 
 matter of charity, but I do not believe- that it could raise a £5 
 note as a loan in all the financial centr.-s of the civilised world. 
 
 THE CRAZIEST CONCEPTION. 
 
 With a large and unsatisfied debt hanging over our heads, with 
 no income to pledge, no security to offer, no friends to back our 
 bills, what chance should we have of negotiatiug a loan? We 
 should only subject ourselves in the attempt to the insult of_ being 
 kicked out into the street as an impudent impostor, and having the 
 door slammed in our faces. To cast Ireland adrift _ from 
 the solvency, the capital and credit of Great Britain is the 
 craziest conception of the craziest brain. To start her on an 
 independent career as a nation ; to set her up in business for herself 
 
without plant, machinery, or credit, is a proposition so childish and 
 pre-eminently absurd that it is almost impossible to realize that it 
 can hold its place for a moment in the estimation of sane men. That 
 is all I have to say on the subject of finance. I will turn for a 
 moment or two to what I consider if possible a more serious aspect 
 of the case — that is to the danger, the infinite danger, of revolution, 
 and of tbe greatest horror that can happen to any people— civil and 
 religious war. 
 
 BLOODSHED FOB IMELAND. 
 
 History cannot be ignored in these matters, and history shows that 
 whatever their origin and initial impetus, all what may be called 
 national movements in Ireland degenerate into sectarian strife. 
 There are fires in Ireland smouldering, but not yet extinguished, 
 forces slumbering, but not yet dead ; fires that might be kindled into 
 furious activity by a spark ; forces that can only be kept in check by 
 the strong, impartial regulation and control of a United Parliament ; 
 forces and fires that would die down by degrees and expire in 
 time if Ireland were only let alone. But she is not let alone, alas, and 
 the elements of danger are yet alive. Not over much is needed to 
 kindle a conflagration in Ireland that would scorch her from end 
 to end. Just and good men of all classes and all creeds would do 
 all they could, but what could they do to stem the tide of human 
 passion and prejudice that might be let loose. You know the atti- 
 tude that the plantation counties of Ulster have taken up. They 
 have spoken out their minds. They deny the moral right and legal 
 right of Parliament to break faith with them, and to break the 
 solemn engagement of the Act of Union. They deny that 
 allegiance to a statutory Parliament in Dublin can be imposed upon 
 them, and they assert that, rather than submit, they will oppose force 
 with force. That is civil war. I will not consider — it is immaterial 
 to my purpose — whether Ulster is right or wrong. In my opinion 
 e^-'eryr man has an inalienable right to the Constitution, laws, and 
 liberties under which he was boru • but that is not a practical 
 consideration now. What we have to consider, what every man 
 who loves his country has to consider, is the nature of the elements 
 ihat have to be dealt with. Right or wrong, these men say that 
 they will not submit, and they will not. Rightly or wrongly, in 
 spite of all that just men may do on both sides, the cleavage will 
 be on religious Hnes. Race and religion will spht the country. 
 Whether Protestant intolerance bring it about, or Catholic in- 
 tolerance ; whether it be due to race animosities in the North, or 
 race animosities in the South, is of no practical consequence to us. 
 What matter which party is to blame ? It will not be a question 
 to be decided in a court of law, but by the fearful arbitrament of 
 force. The first blood shed, whether justified or unjustifiable, 
 whoever and whatever is the cause, will be the signal for the worst 
 horror that can befall a people — civil and religious war, God 
 knows that no man can wish more earnestly, or pray more 
 earnestly, than I do that this awful calamity may be spared my 
 country; but this I maintain, and I am justified in maintaining it. 
 
that if it does happen the consequences will be upon the heads of 
 those who are endeavouring to force upon us a measure and to 
 create a situation infallibly certain to bring it about. 
 
 DISPUTES with: ENGLAND. 
 
 And there are many other causes of inevitable friction that must 
 arise between the Irish Legislature and the British Parliament. I 
 have only time to allude very briefly to them. Questions connected 
 Avith the payment of debts, with the collection of customs, 
 and with great Imperial matters, such as peace, war, and 
 neutrality. Suppose that we do not pay our debts, won't 
 pay them, or cannot pay them. What is Great Britain to do ? 
 Put a man into possession? That would mean putting a couple of 
 army corps into possession and selling up the counti'y. What is to 
 happen if the customs duties cannot be collected ? If their collec- 
 tion is opposed by the people, and the police, and the 
 Legislatnre ? Well, I suppose the Lord Lieutenant will be 
 instructed to collect them, and what is he to do ? He might attach 
 the person of his Prime Minister. He might serve writs upon his 
 Cabinet, and sue the whole Irish Ltgislature. What then? He 
 won't have a single officer of any kind whatever to carry out his 
 warrants and to execute his decrees. jTou must remember that if 
 this Bill becomes law the Crown, the British Parliament, and the 
 Privy Council, and the Exchequer Judges, and all the other 
 contrivances of the Bill may say whatever they like but they can 
 do nothing. They have no civil process, no constitutional means 
 whatever of carrying out their decrees, judgments, and vetoes, 
 they won't have a single policeman in the country to carry out 
 their behests. 
 
 PBEPOSTEBOUS ABSURDITIES. 
 
 Is it unreasonable to suppose that in a great European war in 
 which Great Britain maintained an attitude of neutrality that Ire- 
 land might favour one side or the other? How is she to be com- 
 pelled to remain neatral ? What is to prevent her opening her 
 poi'ts to one of the belligerents and closing them to the other ? 
 Suppose Great Britain herself to be at war how could she collect 
 her contribution from Ireland ? There is absolutely no machinery 
 whatever in the Bill for doing so, and even if machinery were pro- 
 vided what is the good of machinery if there is no hand to set it in 
 motion. There are several checks and safeguards and contrivances 
 in the Bill. There are two Exchequer Judges, for instance, to hear 
 revenue cases, and who can decide whether an act of the Irish Legis- 
 lature is legal or illegal. Anybody who feels themselves aggrieved 
 can appeal to these Exchequer Judges ; and the Bill, with sweetly, 
 touching simplicity, enunciates that if the Exchequer Judges decide 
 that the Irish Legislature has done anything wrong, committed 
 any injustice, they can enforce their judgment by despatching an 
 officer to do so. Well, the officer would be very soon despatched. 
 Nothmg shows more clearly the utter absurdity of this Bill than the 
 proposal that two Exchequer Judges should exercise a protecting 
 
13 
 
 influence over the minority by sending out an officer to enforce 
 their decrees in the face of the opposition of the people^ and the 
 Legislature, and the whole police force of the country. Tliat is a 
 good example of the preposterous absurdities that this Bill contains. 
 Then there is the judicial committee of the Privy Council, and 
 the British Parliament has concurrent power of legislation, and, of 
 course, the Crown has the power of veto. But what civil process 
 exists for carrying out the judgments of the Privy Council, for 
 putting in operation the legislation of Parliament, for enforcing the 
 veto of the Crown ? None. Absolutely none ; nor can any 
 efiective administrative means be introduced into the Bill as long as 
 the whole Executive is appointed and controlled by the Irish 
 Legislature. What is the use of all these clauses and contrivances 
 when there is no means of enforcing them ? They may serve to 
 deceive the British public who are ignorant ; they are simply • 
 insulting to the Irish Loyalists who know. They are merely 
 the decorations, the trappings, and plumes of the hearse that 
 is to carry Irish liberties to the grave. Force, military 
 occupation, martial law, constitute the only means whereby 
 the restrictions and safeguards of the Bill can be made operative. 
 The tenure of the Crown will be the tenure of the sword. The 
 will of Parliament, if writ at all, can be written only in letters of 
 blood. I protest against degrading Ireland into this condition of 
 vassalage, into the state of a poor, tribute-paying province ; 
 jind against the intolerable thraldom involved in thus substituting 
 physical for legal, constitutional actiori, I vehemently protest. 
 
 CIVIL WAR FOR THE WHOLE EMPIRE. 
 
 There is only one other point I wish to call your attention to. 
 That is the Imperial aspect of the case. Consider for one moment 
 what may happen. I have alluded to the position tliat has been 
 taken up by the plantation counties in the North, and you know that 
 offers of assistance to them are being sent from Canada, and from 
 other colonies. If such a terrible calamity befall us as is involved 
 in the repeal of the Union, and civil war ensued, as it undoubtedy 
 would, help would assuredly be sent to the North from Canada 
 and other colonies, and help would probably be sent to the 
 other side from the United States. The whole power of Great 
 Britain could not confine civil war within the limits of this island. 
 Great Britain would find herself confronted with fratricidal strife 
 throughout the whole British Empire. She would not only have 
 to strive to keep the peace here, but she would ba compelled to 
 restrain British ships and British subjects from coming to the 
 assistance of one side in Ireland, and foreign ships and foreign men 
 from coming to the assistance of the other side. The whole Empire 
 would be involved in the struggle ; and it is more than probable that 
 civil war in Ireland would lead to a great and general European 
 war. Gentlemen, if you come to examine this Bill, even casually, 
 you will be convinced that it involves not only the financial ruin of 
 Ireland, but that it contains within it the seeds of disasters and 
 
14 
 
 catastrophes of the most far-reachino; and appalling kind. And can 
 any reasonable man suppose that Ii eland would be unmoved amid 
 such a shock of circumstances? Be sure of this, the natural and 
 acquired relationship and community of interests between Ireland 
 and Great Britain and the Empire are too closely interwoven to 
 permit of that. Ireland must acutely feel anything affecting the 
 stabiUty of the Empire and oi Great Britain. 
 
 AME WE CATTLE ? 
 
 Has Parliament any right to inflict these infinite evils upon 
 ns, to force upon us this Bill? Has she any right to refuse 
 to fulfil her part of the bargain entered into with our fore- 
 fathers, and which we, their children, wish to fulfil and see 
 fulfilled 1 If Ireland were absolutely unanimous ; if uninfluenced 
 by American agitators, she witii one voice speaking fiom 
 one heart, petitioned for this change, Parliament might then 
 consider whether, in the interests of Great Britain, it was 
 possible to gratify her. But Ireland is not unanimous. A very 
 large and powerful minority, a minority which, it must not be for- 
 gotten, contains the majer part of the industrial population, and 
 represents the greater portion of the capital and cultivated intelli- 
 gence of the country, is bitterly opposed to it, and says that to this 
 suicidal and disastrous change it never will be a party, or submit. 
 The power of Parliament to bind and loose may be difficult to gauge. 
 The moral sanction of resistance may be hard to define ; but this 
 I will say, that there are principles and rights antecedent to forms 
 of Government. There are moral rights inherent in a community, 
 human rights and privileges, primitive and essential, underlying the 
 whole foundation upon which organized society and systems of 
 government are reared. We are not protesting against an 
 ordinary Act of Parliament, which we even bitterly object to ; but 
 we are protesting against being outlawed from that Parliament. 
 We object to having our allegiance transferred from a Parliament 
 and a Constitution which we trust, to a Parliament and a Constitution 
 that we do not trust, and which we will not accept. Allegiance is not 
 a marketable article to be transferred like a bale of goods in satis- 
 faction of a Prime Minister's promises to pay. Freemen cannot, in their 
 allegiance, be sold like cattle in the market. There are human 
 rights and human liberties underlying all systems of Parliament or 
 Government, and upon those primary, essential, and primordial 
 rio-hts we take our stsmd, conscious of the integrity of our position. 
 This Bill never will become law ; but if it did, and if its operations 
 were resisted, who could deny that the felony lay with those who 
 wish to rob us of our rights and liberties, and that the treachery 
 
 and the treason lay on the heads of those who sought to deprive 
 
 us, unwilling, of the laws and the Constitution of the United 
 
 Kingdom, whose citizens we are. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 They taunt us who hold to the Union as being unpatriotic and 
 untrue to the interests and aspirations of our country. They 
 
15 
 
 arrogate to themselves an exclusive right to the title of patriots ; 
 these men who think that Ireland, poor distracted country, can 
 stand alone. Well, they may be patriots but they are very mistaken 
 patriots to my mind. Nationalists, they call themselves those men 
 who would degrade Ireland from the proud position of equal 
 enjoyment and equal partnership with a great and wealthy nation, 
 and would make of her a ragged, starving, poor relation, cringing 
 for charity, or bullying for black-mail. That is not my idea 
 of patriotism or nationalism. I yield to no man living in my 
 ove for my country. There is not any man aUve who has more 
 reverence for her past history and her,, traditions ; who is more 
 saturated with her legendary lore ; but I am not such an un- 
 mitigated fool as to be deluded into founding dreams of an 
 impossible future upon an improbable past. Bitter hatred of 
 England, the dominant passion of those Irish-Americans who, under 
 the guise of friendship, have brought such misery on Ireland, won't 
 put one penny in the Exchequer. Tall talk about the past glories 
 of Ireland won't feed the people. It is not in abstract ideas of 
 national existence that you can clothe and educate them. 
 However fond I may be of the past, I will never forget the 
 necessities of the present day. What does Ireland need ? Her 
 needs and difficulties are not political, they are economic. What 
 Ireland wants is capital. Capital to develop her industries, and 
 to give employment to her people. What is the condition pre- 
 cedent to capital? Security. for property, full sense of the absolute 
 sacredness of property. That is the only thing that will bring the 
 fertilizing stream of capital to our shores and to our industries. I 
 wish my country well. I want to see that security for property 
 which alone can supply the life-giving stream of capital to her 
 undeveloped wealth. I want to see employment for her sons and 
 for her daughters, and that development of industries which 
 British capital alone can effect. And would this Bill do it ? No, 
 indeed. In a few short years after the appointed day — the day of 
 doom for Ireland it would be — her mills would be closed, her 
 manufactories transferred across the Channel, her lands would be 
 untilled, her labour unemployed, her people flying from starvation, 
 suppliants for charity in other lands. This is no class question. 
 Yes, it is a class question to this extent. It is a question that 
 affects every tenant-farmer, every small freeholder, every artisan, 
 and every labourer in the country far more than those who are 
 possessed of capital and wealth in money. Capital can be trans- 
 ferred to more favourable localities, but the population, the people, 
 the labour, of the country cannot. Capital can take care of itself, 
 but who will take care of the people dependent upon that capital ? 
 I love my country far too well to believe in any such nonsense as 
 that contained in this Home Rule Bill, I long to see her prosperous, 
 contented, and happy. I will not sit silent and see her become a 
 pitiful, but not a pitied mendicant, among nations. I will never 
 agree to a measure -which will bring degradation upon my country, 
 ruin to her industries, and misery upon her people. I only wish 
 I could make my voice heard by my fellow-countrymen all 
 
i6 
 
 through the South and West. I only wish that I could 
 appeal to them, to their sense, and to their patriotism ; their 
 sense of what is due and necessary for themselves, and to 
 their love for their country. I would appeal to them 
 to retain for Ireland what is now her's through participation in the 
 wealth and strength and power of Great Britain. I would appeal 
 to them not to reduce her from the present proud and honest 
 position of equal partnership, equal right, and equal responsibility 
 in the present and future of the United Kingdom, and of the greatest 
 empire that the world has ever seen, into that of a tribute-paying 
 province, a wretched poverty-stricken hanger-on, begging 
 for charity where now she has the right to ask for 
 help. I protest against the Bill because it would over-turn civil 
 society, because it will bring financial ruin upon my country, and 
 because it will let loose forces of disorder that the Irish Legislature 
 will not be able to cope with. I denounce it because it involves the 
 forfeiture of our liberties, civil and religious, the destruction of our 
 industries, and the beggary and bankruptcy of Ireland ; and as 
 long as I have got a voice to raise I will raise it against a Bill 
 which will bring ridicule, disgrace, and disaster upon the country I 
 love so well. 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
 3 9031 024 78024 9 
 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AUU 1 5 
 
 lih'] 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS, INC. #859-5503