A Member of the House of Commons on Fenianism.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3229, 25 June 1879, Page 2

A Member of the House of Commons on Fenianism.

U lit&.'Big&iijii/L I»., addressed a meetipg of Irishmen in Bermondsey, on Suridiay evening on " The Future of the Irisli Eace." By " the Irish race "Mr Biggar said he meant to include all Irishmen of the Ijoman Catholic faith wherever the* were to be found. Protestants he did not consider Irishmen at all. They wer4 merely West Britons, who had by accij dent been born in Ireland; and from his own experience he could say they were the bitterest enemies of Ireland.; He rejoiced that Irishmen had clung to their faith. It was that which had.prej served their nationality, and - had »jprei Vented their being absorbed and. lost sight of in the great English Scotch towns where they had s§t*ledf By Mr Gladstdne's.Land Act the tenant: farmer of Ireland had been considerably benefited. He could obtain compensation for his improvements, and thereby escape the workjaouse in his old age. But how was that' Act obtained ? By feai*.|[ Mij Gladstone himself admitted that it was the Fenian rising which compelled him to it] JSow,;,he •;(Mr .Biggar)'iwould Inot .say ( whether he himself was or was not a Fenian, but'if any one called *! him; ti Fenian he would answer that he did riot think that any disgrace. Physical force was the one thing for which the English governing classes cared. They cared nothing for justice, they care nothing for reason, they cared nothing for the rights of the people, either Irish or English] They were moved only by their fears. He did not mean their fears for their-personal safety. They knew they had the police^ and the military to protect them,, [atid they did not fear personal violence. Bu| it was possible—he would riot say proj bable—that some fine day the democracy, would break loose, that the London warehouses and the Lancashire factories would be reduced to ashesi,: and f ; the shipping iv the Thames and in the Mersey set on fire; and that was an outlook which the English governing classes did not like. At present the English democracy was entirely unreprei sented in the House of Commons. That was owing to the fact that the management of Parliamentary elections was still in the same corrupt hands as before the passing of the last Reform Act. But he thought it would not consent -' to remain unrepresented much longer, and it was the duty and the interest of the Irish party—itself essentially democratic' —to ally itself with the English democracy: ■He urged all his countrymen to unite in! some organisation—he did not care which' —rand make as much display as possible. They might be few in numbers, but wheri they remembered the great results which flowed from the determined action of the handful of men at Manchester and. Clerkenwell, they could not doubt of their! ultimate success. Mr Biggar was ire-

quently applauded throughout his speech aud at its conclusion received a vote of thanks.—Times. /