Irish, and we have thus become the spoiled children of struggling nationalities, and, as a necessary consequence, backward in our political education as a people, as well as behind the progressive march of the age. Holding these opinions, I will endeavor to-night to show you how we ourselves are to blame for past failures, and how essential it is, that the causes which led to such failures be guarded against in the future. The indestructibility of Irish nationality is no more its distinguishing characteristic, than is its past inapplicability to the working out of its own success, or the winning of an advanced social and political position for the people who profess it. We can boast that hundreds of years of the worst rule that ever cursed a country has failed to crush it; but can we say that Ireland is to-day in a condition commensurate with the struggles and sacrifices of her sons on her behalf during the past seven centuries? I think not; and the "why and wherefore" of this fact is what should focus upon it the thought and studies of practical Nationalists of the present. That there has been an unmethodical application of energies, or rather, a reckless waste of national strength in this long contest, is but too patent from a comparison between the position, social and political, of our country to-day, and that of other peoples who have struggled successfully against the same enemy. The very strength of our purpose and determination of our resolves were the means which invited defeat. We grasped at liberty in the intoxication of sincerity, and blindly discarded every other practical consideration. We "resolved," and swore," and "determined" to avenge Ireland's wrongs! but took no essential method to win her liberty. We were actuated as much by revenge as by patriotism, and received the penalty which follows the obeying of a passion instead of the dictates of a virtue. While recognizing that it was a war of races, Saxon against Celtic, we refused to shelter ourselves behind the ramparts of expediency or employ any of the many justifiable means by which a weak people might utilize their strength; and we therefore marched into the open plain inviting destruction. Instead of watching our enemy from behind the Torres Vedras of Ireland's imperishable national principles, and determining our action by his weakness or strength according to the powers arrayed against him, we left our position exposed in order to challenge him to single combat, and we never

marched to the Paris of the British Empire to see him relinquish his spoils or surrender his conquests.

No greater mistake could be made by Fenianism than the drawing of but a single line of distinction between a West Briton and the Irishman who accepted its programme of action as the safe, certain, and only means of winning independence. The assumption that all Irish Nationalists were included in the Fenian organization was a piece of disastrous folly, as it engendered a bitter hostility to earnest Irishmen who only refused to follow a leader whom they did not know in a movement which confined itself to a single class of their countrymen. Thus, a host of enemies were created where the reserve force of a real national movement should find strength and support.

Now, a fault-finder or critic has no claim to a fair hearing, unless he has something reasonable to substitute for or amend in what he condemns. I will, therefore, with your indulgence, attempt to point out what, in my opinion, would place our national cause upon a stronger footing, and multiply its chances of success in the near future.

As I have freely ceusured the past policy of my own party, it may have created a suspicion in your minds that it was the party itself or its principles which I attacked under cover of a review of its past history. I trust it will not need my assurance to convince you of my belief in and adherence to the doctrine of physical force, and that whatever other agencies, expedient, moral, or diplomatic, which I may desire to see added to the factors at work in the national cause, I am convinced, that it is only the manhood strength of Ireland which can give the coup-de-grace to her enemy's rule over her. This belief does not exclude the employment of any of the other means I have just alluded to as an auxiliary to the final dernier ressort as being unjustifiable or antagonistic to the principles involved in the contest; and it is on this ground I rest a claim for the utilizing of every safe and justifiable expedient in the working out of our country's social and political redemption. It is well, therefore, to look outside the National party in Ireland, to reconnoitre our friends or enemies, and see how far the one can be counted upon and how much the other is to be dreaded.

The Ireland of the present may be divided into four distinct

sections of political strife, presumably in her interest: the Nationalist or party of action, "National" Constitutional, West British, and neutral, or rather non-participant, Irishmen.

Take the first of these parties, which, on account of its being the custodian of Ireland's non-forfeited right to independence, should necessarily be the most powerful in numbers and influence; yet we must admit that it is not so, when it is looked at either in the light of its recent past endeavors or from its present hold on the public mind of Ireland. But let it be disassociated from the consequences of sincere but injudicious or premature action, and pitted against anti-national feeling in Ireland, and it possesses at once the unquestioned representative sentiment of the Irish people, and outnumbers in its adherents all the other parties combined. The position which we occupy in the political world is, therefore, a singularly anomalous one; for while our people are unquestionably national in their inward convictions, they exhibit in their external or public aspect a contradiction to that very fact. Hence the world either misunderstands or discredits our political aspirations. Now how is it that the Nationalist party is numerically the strongest in sentiment and sympathy, while not so in action? And why does external opinion remain sceptical as to Ireland's real desire for separation?

To answer the first question, I will crave permission to place myself in the position of a tiller of the soil in Ireland, - say one of Patten Bridge's victims, on the barren slopes of the Galtees. I will assume I have just reached the level of my mud-walled cabin, on the mountain side, after carrying a load of manure on my back from the plains below. I have seen the short-horns, and black-faced sheep, from England and Scotland, grazing upon the rich land at the foot of the mountains, the land which formerly belonged to my ancestors, and the produce of which is now fattening brute beasts while my six children are starving with hunger. I might be supposed to say, "How is it that I, who have done no wrong to God, my country, or society, should be doomed to a penal existence like this? Who are they that stand by and see the beasts of the field preferred before me and my family? I am powerless to do anything but provide for the cravings of those whom God has sent to my care, and to relax my labor for a day might be a day's starvation to my little ones. If I go down to the castle and avenge my

wrongs on the head of Patten Bridge, I am but injuring him, and not the system which enables him to plunder me. I must therefore refrain from an act which would see me die on the scaffold, and my children in the workhouse. If no one else will assist me, I am condemned to this miserable existence for the remainder of my life. Who are they that have time and energy to take part in the political strife of the day, and say they are working for Ireland and me? The Nationalist party tells me that when independence is won, I will no longer be at the mercy of an English landlord. That is like feeding my children with a mind's-eye-view of the dinner that will be served in Galtee Castle to-day. Yellow meal porridge is a more substantial meal than visionary plenty, and if the Nationalists want me to believe in, and labor a little for, independence, they must first show themselves desirous and strong enough to stand between me and the power which a single Englishman wields over me. If they show they can do that, and thereby better my condition, they will convince me of their strength in Ireland, aud earnestness in my behalf; and it is not in Irish nature to refuse a helping hand to those who assist another. Let them show that the social wellbeing of our people is the motive of their actions, and aim of their endeavors, while striving for the grand object ahead, and then the farming classes in Ireland will rally round them to assist in reaching that object. They look upon a man's existence in an abstract light, and think he should be moved in their cause without consulting that selfishness which is invariably the mainspring of human actions. God only knows how much I would like to fight for Ireland tomorrow if I could only see a chance of success, or had my wife and children in a similar position to that in which I am told the farmers of France and Belgium have theirs; but every former attempt at success has failed, me and mine are still at the mercy of the landlord, and therefore I can only give the Nationalists my sympathy and well-wishes, for my labor, time, and life, is necessary to the feeding of little Nora and the other children. The Parliamentarians promise to do more for me than any other party, but they break their promises in Westminster, and show as great an interest in Turkey as in Ireland. They are also at war with the Nationalists, and consequently the government and the West Britons have it all their own way over the vast majority of the Irish people. Me and

the likes of me are told we have friends in all partie; but we never are made to feel anything but the power and influence of our enemies, the landlords. I must bring up another creel of dung from the bottom of the mountain before mid-day, and then share my bowl of stirabout with my little ones. God's will be done, but it is a hard life to lead in the nineteenth century!"

This is no exaggeration of the thoughts or attitude of the people who are compelled to stand aloof from political strife in Ireland; and this vast class, recruited alike from the one instanced as well as from all those whose avocations and actions have their root in the virtue of the honest, selfish cares of social life, are within reach of the party of action, if the necessary steps are taken to enlist their assistance and co-operation.

Turning to the political aspect of Irish nationality as it is viewed from abroad, it is easy to show how we have been, and are still, discredited with practical earnestness in our opposition to English rule. We have flattered ourselves too long with the belief that we were assured of French and American sympathy in our contest with the enemy of our race, and that these and other countries would accept of our spasmodic struggles against a dominant power as proving the disaffection and determined opposition of a whole people, while "representatives," municipalities, religious and other bodies, public men and public writers, were convincing them to the direct contrary. 'Tis true that periodical attempts at insurrection have shown that though our country is subjugated it is not reconciled to alien government, willing to forfeit its national birthright; but, convincing as all this may be to Irishmen, others will look upon our repeated risings in the light of past events, and speak of them in proportion to their importance as looked at from an external point of view, while weighing us in the political balance of nationalities in exact accordance with the public spirit and political tendencies of our people of the present. The collective opinions of foreign nations, in sympathy with or indifference towards the Irish question, will be formed from its present phases, and not, as we would desire, from past occurrences; and therefore the less our national aspirations and convincing opposition to alien rule are manifested to the world by the public tone and attitude of our people, the less interest there will be taken and sympathy felt by the world in our cause. Our