“The First Act.”
HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.
SIR EDWARD CARSON’S LATEST.
EIBOTKIO TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT] [United Press Association.] London, May 29.
Sir Edward Carson, speaking at Mountain Ash, admitted that within five hours they landed 35,000 rifles and , three million rounds of ammunition in Ulster, but the Government had not dared to punish them. “The Home Rule Bill,” he said, “may become the law of the land, but it will never be the law of Ulster.” If the Government imagined that the third reading was the last act of the drama, lie could tell them it was only the first act of the gruesome tragedy.
Mr T. P. O’Connor states that the Nationalists are willing to give Ulster such a strong political power as will make them masters of their own fate and armed against oppression of every form. PRESS COMMENT. The Daily Telegraph says the Government contemplates fixing the Ulster boundaries by the religious census instead of by the county boundaries, in the exclusion from Home Rule. _____ . >v In view of the passing df the Act securing Ireland’s political severance, it is of interest to recall the scene at which the Irish Parliament i was extinguished, which was graphically described by Sir Jonah Barrington, LL.D., K,C., in his classical work “Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation.” “A whisper ran through the House that Mr Grattan had been elected to the House when the House was in warln debate on the Union. The Ministerialists smiled with incredulous derision,, and the Opposition thought the news too good to he true. Mr Egan was speaking against the measure, when Mr George Ponsonby, and Mr Arthur Moore, walked out, and immediately returned, leading, or rather, helping, Mr Grattan, in a state of total feebleness and debility. The effect was electric. Mr Grattan’s illness and deep chagrin had reduced his form, never symmetrical, and a visage at all times thin, nearly to the appearance of a spectre. As he feebly.; entered the House, every member, simultanepnsly rose frorq his seat. .lie moved slowly to the table; his languid countenance seemed' to rbvivo as he took those oaths that restored him to his pre-eSiinent station. The House was silent,, Mr Egan, , did not £ resume his speech, Mr Grattan, less, as if by instinct, attempted to rise, hut was, nimble to stand,Hi® paused, : and with, permission to the House without moving from his seat. This was acceded to by acclamation, , Yuid r,, he who had left his bed of sickness to record, as he thought, his last words in the Parliament of his country, kindled gradually, till his language glowed with an, energy and feeling which he had seldom surpassed. After nearly two hours of the most" powerfuUeloquence, he concluded with undiminfshed. vigour, miracmi&fii’fto‘ thosewho'Nvere unacquainted with his intellect. Never did v aUspehch 1 xn’ako a more effecting impression, but’ ; it came too late. Fate had decreed the fall of Ireland, and her patriot came only'to witness her QverthrOw. !A For tyo hours he recapitulated all the pledges that Englafid had "made 1 and had broken, he went through the great events from 1789* toHBOO, proved the more than treachery which had been practised towards the ' Irish people. Lord Castlereagh, fearing the effects of Grattan’s patrio-tic-words upon the waverers, secured 'an adjournment of the House right away by a majority of 42. This decision undoubtedly gave a death wound to the Irish nation. The adjournment was to the sth February. The vote was taken, and the Irish nation was, on that night, laid prostrate. The division was: Number of members, 3Q04; for Lord Castlereagh’s motion, 158; against, 115; majority of members present, 43; absent, 27. * The subject I#Mow ended, posterity will appreciate the injuries to Ireland. The only security England has for the performance of the Union is a radical change in the nature and genius of the people ; or a total change, of system in the mode of governing.”
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Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 33, 30 May 1914, Page 5
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653“The First Act.” Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 33, 30 May 1914, Page 5
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