There was a remarkable demonstration at Chester yesterday week against
the dissolution of the Union with Ireland, in an open meeting, with the Duke of Westminster in the chair, attended by a few Irishmen, but so crowded with loyalists, both Liberal and Conservative, that the few interruptions were promptly suppressed, without any necessity for turning intruders out. The meeting took the form of a welcome to a deputation from the Loyal Patriotic Union of Ireland, and the resolutions of welcome were supported by Conservatives and Liberals equally, amidst the utmost enthusiasm. Speeches were made by Mr. Smith Barry and Major Saunderson on the part of the loyal Irish, and a very impressive speech was delivered by Mr. T. W. Russell, of Dublin, a Scotchman born who had lived thirty years in Ireland, and who declared himself a hearty supporter of the Irish Land Act, and not in any sense a member of the landlord caste. He had supported Mr. Gladstone in November last, and was not going to desert him now ; but he resisted Home-rule because he believed it could not lead to anything but Separation, and because he held that Separation would ruin the commerce and the credit of Ireland, would jeopardise religious liberty, and under- mine the safety of property. The National League had attacked property in land with impunity ; but directly it had begun to agitate against property in houses, there was a sensible reluct- ance manifested to pursue the agitation. And why ? Because while the Nationalists had hardly any property in land, they had a good deal of property in houses. This betrayed the utter selfishness of the Nationalist agitators. He desired to see the authority of the law restored in Ireland, because at present all the popular sympathy there, was with the murderers, and not with the victims of murder.
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