HOME RULE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1920, 23 July 1889, Page 3

HOME RULE.

Thusly spoke Sir Thomas Esmonde at Hamilton, Victoria, recently, on one phase of the Home .Rule question : “ It was said if the Irish were granted Home Rule they would oppose the Protestant minority. A great deal had been said about the province of Ulster being ultraProtestant, and about handing over this ultra-Protestant minority to the tender mercies of an Irish Roman Catholic Parliament. But there remained the fact that the people of this Protestant province sent Home Rulers to Parliament—(cheers) —and that was a sufficient answer to the objection raised. The fact was that there really was no enmity between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. Those who said there was must have left Ireland a long time ago—so long, indeed, they must now be entering upon their second childhood. The days of riots and faction fights wore over, and it should be remembered that these faction fights and riots wore invaribly fostered by political parties for their own purposes. It was no uncom-

I moi) i'.ifs; for members of opposing I factions be pul up against each other, I am! at election times for the followers of one candidate to s-1 to work end crack the skulls of those of the other candidate, (Laughter), But for a long time past Protestants and Roman Catholics had got on a good deal better. They wore better educated, and recent agitation in Ireland had convinced ihe people that unless all sections joined they could not hope to secure the national welfare of Ireland, (Cheers}. Since he had been in Australia, a little over two months, he had heard more about Orangemen and Roman Catholics than he had heard before all bis life in Ireland. (Cheers). He could assure them that they did not care two straws in Ireland whether a man was an Orangeman or not. An Orangeman was as good as any other, and he would prefer an Irish Parliament composed entirely of Orangemen to being misgoverned by the Parliament of England. (Loud cheers).” £ir Thomas Grattan Esmond is himself a Protestant of the best kind, being grand-nephew of the immortal Grattan.