On Sunday last Mr. John Dillon, M.P., delivered a violent
and inflammatory speech on the new Land Bill before a large Nationalist meeting at Thurles. Wholly disregarding the situation created by recent land legislation, Mr. Dillon said that "until they had smashed landlordism, it was idle to hope that Ireland could be free. How was it possible to lead the people successfully through a struggle for the 4berty of their country if every agent and bailiff and land- lord could walk over them and drive them out of their homes?" Alfter developing this monstrous perversion of facts at great length, Mr. Dillon denied that the financial breakdewn of the Land Act of 1903 was the only, or the main, reason for the *reduction of the new Lad BilL " The people demanded compulsion,--compulsion for the Clanricardes, the Cardens, the Trants, and the Clarkes."-•-Mr. Charles Clarke, whose out- rageous treatment by the local League is due to the fact that, like his predecessors, he is a farmer proprietor, lives close to Thurles.—These landlords, Mr. Dillon went on, were both fools and tyrants, and "there was no remedy against such men but agitation and disorder." The present Bill recognised two great principles,—compulsion and inspection as a protection against an extravagant price, and protection to the future tenants.
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