SEDITIOUS LANGUAGE AT POLITICAL MEETINGS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2364, 14 October 1880, Page 2

SEDITIOUS LANGUAGE AT POLITICAL MEETINGS.

SECOND EDITION

. A meeting to protest against the rejection of the Disturbance Bill by the House of Lords, and to farther the land agitation was held on August 15 in the market place, Kildare. About a thousand persons were present. A letter was read from Mr Mcldon, M.P., in which the hon. gentleman declared himself in favor of fixity of tenure, fair rents, and free sale, and stated his inability to attend the meeting. The letter was received with hooting and derisive cheers. Mr John Dillon, M.P. for Tipperary, who spoke in support of the first resolution, condemning the present land system, and demanding the establishment of an “ occupier proprietary,” said the men of Kildare were assembled together to pledge themselves that they would undertake to reform the landlords of Ireland, even if the British Parliament and the House of Lords refused to do so. (Cheers.) He warned them not to put their trust either in the English House of Commons, nor, he would add, the Royal Land Commission which was about to sit. The speaker then gave his hearers the following remarkable advice ;—“ Let them get two active young men who are not afraid of anyone. Let these young men go to every farmer in the townland, and see if he would join the League, and if any man did not join when he got into a difficulty they would leave him in the difficulty. If there was an attempt made to evict a man who had joined, the members would have a meeting called to denounce the landlord who should attempt to put him out, and the Land League would take care of him, and see that he did not starve. Thus it would be the duty of those organisers to tell how many men they could inarch to a meeting, and they would march those men like a regiment of soldiers. (Cheers.) There was more effect in 200 men marching to a meeting than in a great deal of speaking. Such action, if carried out through the country, would make the landlords a great deal better. (Cheers.) The League was almost in its infancy, and the people had not been sufficiently made aware of its objects ; but he would tell them what the League would do if the landlords refused them justice. After another six months or a year, when they had enrolled in Ireland, as he hoped they would have before long, 300,000 members of the League, if the landlords persisted in refusing justice, and in moderating their claims, they would give out the word to the people of Ireland to strike against rent entirely—(loud cheers) —and to pay no more until justice was done to them. With 300,000 Irishmen enrolled in the National Land League, all the armies of England would not levy rent in that country. (Cheers.) How did they resist the tithe-charge ? Why, at the point of the bayonet. They in Parliament would see that Irishmen had a right to be out after eight o’clock, and all the night if they thought They would see that they had a right to inarch to meetings and to obey the commands of the leaders if they chose to do so. They would see that every man in Ireland had a right to have a rifle if he liked to have a rifle. (Cheers.) All ho could say was, that if the manhood of Ireland were not enough when they had their rights to win, and their freedom to gain, and to put down landlordism, then he would be ashamed to call himself an Irishman. (Cheers.) Let the people of Kildare, then, not be behind the other counties during the coming autumn. Let the manhood of Kildare show itself, and show that neither Tories, Whigs, nor any of the factions could terrorise or intimidate the manhood of that great country. * (Prolonged cheering) Other speakers followed, and the proceedings soon afterwards terminated.