IRISH AFFAIRS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2202, 19 August 1886, Page 3

IRISH AFFAIRS.

'HiLAimPHiA, June 25. The treasurer of the Irish American Land League yesterday pent Mr Parnell £12,000 by cable for his Parliamentary fund. This League has collected £'225,000 since its creation, about £25,000 .being placed in Mr Parnell's hands before the last election. The chief contributions have come in from Boston and Philadelphia. Mr Alexander Sullivan, late president of the Land League, has granted an interview to a reporter at New York. Being asked " Does the League support Mr Parnell ?" he replied :— "It is not worth \yhile to answer that. We have sent him 8(50,000, and our treasurer, Fathnr O'Reilly, will, I think, send to-morrow .sf>o,ooo more. We are doing, and will do our best to further the cause of Home Rule for Ireland." The New York World has started a ■special newspaper fund for the Parliamentary elections, which amounts to-day to 5542. The World says of the fund:— "This is but a beginning. Witbin the next ten days a handsome addition should be made to the treasury of the battling Liberals. Mr Gladstone's success is contingent upon the aid which he receives from America."

Dublin, June 29. The fortnightly meeting of the National League was held this afternoon in their offices in Upper Sackville-street. Mr T. M. Healy was in the chair. Mr Harrington announced that the receipts since the last meeting to the Parliamentary fund amounted to £(i,lSa. This was almost entirely from America, and in addition he had received a telegram that day stating that an additional £12,000 had been placed to their credit by their friends in the United States. The Chairman said that he hoped every man in Ireland would go to the poll in the coining election, and prove that he was in favour of Home Rule. It was distressing to think that the question of the rights and privileges of the Irish people should be dependent upon the fortunes and accidents of a general election. No less than three members who voted against the Home Rule Bill were now posing as Ministerialist candidates. The helplessness of Ireland could never be more strongly proved than by the fact that her fate depended upon the votes of misinformed or uninformed gentlemen of this class. They would contest every seat in Ireland, excepting, perhaps, where Mr Swart was being opposed by a more extreme Conservative still, Captain Somerset Maxwell. They would in this case act the part of interested lookers on. After Home Rulers no men did better work in the House for their cause than the Orangemen, for thiy made themselves and the cause they fiifht for ridiculous. Mr John Dillon said that the long purse was being shaken in their faces again, but they had the purse also this time, and had little fear as to which would be the sooner exhausted. (Hear, hear.) The Conservatives would give them Home Rule if they came in. The question the people of Ulbter had to consider was whether they would have Home Rule and cheap land from Mr Gladstone or Home Rule and dear land from Lord Salisbury. On that issue they would have to vote. Mr E. D. Gray urged every Nationalist to vote and so increase the majorities of the last election. Any Nationalist who failed to record his vote was a traitor to the cause (if his country. The Tories would take the Liberal support whenever they got it, but they would not give them any share of the honour or power to be gained.

The address of the Irish Protestant Home Rule Association to the Protestants of Ireland states that the association h formed to unite all passes and denominations of Protestants in promoting a safe, equitable, and permanent settlement of the great problem of the better government of Ireland. It goes on to say:— "lt is not our desire to separate ourselves from our Roman Catholic countrymen ; but we ank for your co-operation and support in order to counteract the gross misrepresentations which allege that the Protestant* of Ireland are unanimously opposed to the Irish policy of Mr Gladstone. We reject with scorn the calumny that the lives or liberties of Protestant Irishmen will be imperilled by the restoration of an Irish Parliament. Mr Gladstone proposes, by creating a responsible Iri'ih Government, to enable us to re-establish social order in Ireland and to provide free scope for the advancement of the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial industries of our country. Against the great statesman are marshalled the combined forces of those territorial and class interests whose influence in maintaining the social conditions which have tended to rise rents and reduce wages has perpetuated pauperism and crime, driven away capital, discouraged manufactures, and disorganised commerce. Let us unite with our fellowcountrymen in a f-pirit of tolerance and trust. Let us work together for the common good of this fair land, and bring to bear upon the greatest work with which we are to be entrusted the united intelligence, knowledge, and skill of our whole people."'

Mr Chamberlain having been asked by a Scarborough elector whether as a Unionist Liberal he ought to vote for the Home Rule candidate, remain neutral, or vote for the Conservative, writes that he cannot undertake the responsibility of advising other people how to vote, as that is a matter which every man must, decide according to the dictates of his conscience ; but he commends to his correspondent's consideration the following language used by Mr Gladstone in a recent speech :— " While you value your party as a gopd effective instrument for the government of the country, you will always hold the supreme ends of patriotic policy to be above the ends of party. "

The following telegram from Mr Gladstone was read on Tuesday at a meeting in support of Professor Meiklejohn, the Gladstonian candidate for the Tradeston Division of Glasgow : " I heartily wish your

success in the cause which I visited Glasgow to support, which Lord Oaruavon improved, and which even Lord Salisbury smiled npon until beaten at the last election, when he changed over to the policy of resolutely enforcing; special repressive legislation in Ireland for 20 years."