Mr. Justin McCarthy claims the support of Patrick Egan, who
disappeared from Ireland at the time of the investiga- tion of the Phoenix Park murders, and has been mentioned by the Commission as an active member of the party of violence. Patrick Egan has, it seems, transferred to Mr. Justin McCarthy his shares in United Ireland. Mr. Parnell's friends, on the other hand, have issued a proclamation to the "hill-side men," which reads like an open incitement to violence. "Men of the hill-sides," it runs, "gather in your thousands to support the leader of your race, Charles Stewart Parnell, M.P. What Englishman shall dare to tell you who shall be your chief, or what shall be the method of your warfare P We have fought for liberty in defiance of England. We have advanced along the path of freedom in spite of England's fraud and force. In the past, we have succeeded because we have trusted ourselves alone. In the future, we shall succeed by fighting along the same lines, by defying the English dictation, by acting with the spirit and the resolution of the self-respecting nation. Shall the Radicals of England choose your leader? Men of the hill-sides, will you, the country- men of Grattan, and the volunteers of O'Connell, Davis, and Wolfe Tone, of gallant Father Murphy, priest and patriot, who fought and bled for the independence of our country,—will you, men of the hill-sides, inspired by the glorious successes of the past, will you abandon your chief P Will you give him up to the Saxon wolves who howl for his destruction ?" And soon, and so on. And all this from the party of the man who, as Mr. Gladstone was maintaining only a few weeks ago, had wholly surrendered the idea of Irish independence. It is most of it blather, no doubt ; but in Ireland it is dangerous blather, and not at all the mere froth of Yankee blather, such as the Young Columbian poured forth in " Martin Chnzzlewit,"—telling the British lion that, "Freedom's hand once twisted in his mane, he lies a corse before me, while the eagles of the Great Republic laugh ha ! ha !"
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