HOME RULERS’ MANIFESTO.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2232, 13 May 1880, Page 2

HOME RULERS’ MANIFESTO.

TOWN EDITION.

The following Manifesto was issued by the executive of tbe Home Rule confederation during tbe elections in Great Britain :—To the presidents, officers, and members of tbe Associations of the Irish Home Rule confederation and the Irish people in Groat Britain. FellowCountrymen, —The Prime Minister of England has issued, in the guise of a letter to the Irish viceroy, a declaration of war upon you, your country and your friends. At a loss for a cry with which to go to the electors after six years of feebleness and cruelty abroad and sham legislation at Home, u ministry of misfortune are seeking to obtain a renewed term of office by sowing dissension and haired between Englishmen, and Irishmen, and the vicious manifesto of Lord Beacousficld directly appeals to the worst passions and prejudices in order to stir up the English people against Irish nationality. To what avail have the Home Rule League and Confederation urged upon Irishmen to pursue the attainment of our national demands by constitutional agitation, if a despotic and rancorous minister is now to be encouraged to drive Irish discontent outside the pale of the law in order thus to drown disaffection in the blood of the people. Lord Beaconsfield’s Administration neither knows nor cares how to relieve our fellow-countrymcu. Even though no upright and manly Englishman had ever spoken words of kindness and sympathy to the Irish people, it would be our duty to oppose the minister whose policy to our country is summed up in coercion codes, and who could jest at the starvation of the western tenantry admid the toasts and feastings of the London Guildhall. _ In the presence of the atrocious and criminal manoeuvre that has now been attempted, that duty is doubly imperative. Vote against Benjamin Disraeli as you should against tic mortal enemy of your country and your race. Vote against the unscrupulous intriguer whose character was so exactlydefined by the groat O’Connell, when he detected and denounced the faithless adventurer who had first crept into public life by begging the favor of the Irish liberator. Let no nominee or supporter of his bo aided by any vote of yours to swell the strength of his evil power. Every Irishman who loves Ireland, every Irishman who seeks and appreciates the friendship of honest Englishmen and Scotchmen, will oppose to the utmost of his ability, the common enemy of the peace and concord of Ireland and Great Britain. Lord Bcaconsficld will neither grant to Ireland the right to manage her own affairs nor grant to Irishmen the common rights and privileges of British citizens. Every effort that has been made in the Parliamcntjwhich is now expiring to place the Irish people on an equality with England and Scotland has been crushed by the brute strength of an unscrupulous and insolent Tory majority. Fellowcountrymen, tho foreign policy of Lord Beacousficld lias been an inglorious and disastrous failure. The record of his domestic achievements tells of shams. This is why he chooses tho Irish people, and to hound on, as he hopes, the passions of the ignorant and unreflecting against our country . Lord Bcaconsfiold fears that the British people will decline to applaud the destruction of tho unfortunate Afghans and Africans. Ho dreads the verdict of public opinion upon the waste of the public resources. With the same sort of courage which always makes him avoid a difficult contest, he issues a proclamation agianst tho Irish people because they are in a minorit}”-, because they arc misgoverned and oppressed, and they are plunged in tho miseries of tho famine which iniquitious land laws rendered inevitable.

(Signed) John Barry, vice-president F. H. O’Donncl, M.P., hon. vicepresident; T. Lysaght Finigan, M.P., bon. vice-president; A. M. Sullivan, M.P. ; James Kelly ; J. P. House ; E. Morney ; J. O’Connor ; Povrer, M.P., lion. sec. A. O. O’Connor, treasurer; W. J. Oliver, acting secretary. Olllce of the Home Eulc Confederation, March 10,18S0.