HC Deb 26 February 1885 vol 294 cc1399-401
MR. WILLIAM REDMOND

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he will explain to the House the reasons which the Government had for the suppression of the meeting that was to have been held at Murrintown, county Wexford, on the 8th of this month; whether Lord Maurice Fitzgerald, of Johnstone Castle, was one of the persons who gave infor- mation to the Castle that the Murrintown meeting would cause disturbance; and, whether he will state the names of all the persons who were instrumental in procuring the proclamation of the proposed peaceable meeting?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

I am not prepared to state the names of any persons who were in communication with the Lord Lieutenant with reference to the Murrintown meeting. That meeting was prohibited by His Excellency on grounds which satisfied him that the holding of it would be likely to endanger the public peace and safety. Among these grounds, and one of the most important, was the character of the placard convening the meeting, which was in these terms— A monster meeting will be held in Murrintown, on Sunday, February 8, for the perfection of all the local organisations, and to prove to the enemies of the popular movement that the people are still as united and as determined to strike down oppression, to abolish landlordism, and to win for all the toiling classes their just rights, as in the palmiest days of the Land League. Up farmers! Up labourers! Up tradesmen! Union is strength. Your cause is the same—The abolition of rent. What is rent? A tax upon the industries of the people! A tax by which the labourers' pockets are picked! A tax by which those who toil not, nor do anything to increase the material prosperity of the country, swill, guzzle, eat, and fatten upon the wealth produced by the honest and tortured toilers. Now's the day, and now's the hour! We have the men to lead; we have the men to follow. Come forward ye hesitating and timid, and show yourselves. Knaves and traitors stand aside. Home Rule we are going to have, and the land for the people, too. Then every farmer and every labourer can look round his farm or plot, and say—'This land is mine, and no man dares turn me out!' The land is the people's! Away with landlordism. Away with rent. God save Ireland! Hurrah for Parnell!

MR. WILLIAM REDMOND

Inconsequence of what I conceive to be the highly unsatisfactory answer of the right hon. Gentleman, I give Notice that I will take the earliest opportunity of urging upon the right hon. Gentleman, and the Government in Ireland generally, the extreme desirability of putting down the practice of land-grabbing in that country.

MR. BARRY

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, instead of one meeting, three meetings were held a short distance from Murrintown; and if he is aware whether any breach of the peace resulted from them?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

I do not imagine that there was any prospect of an immediate breach of the public peace; but it was believed that the holding of such a meeting, especially as it was convened in such terms as I have read to the House, was certainly likely to disturb the peace and quiet of the neighbourhood.

MR. BARRY

Does the right hon. Gentleman consider the supposition in the minds of half-a-dozen people should override the opinion of an entire county?

MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN

I did not say so.

MR. HEALT

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the paragraphs of the placards which he has read were copied almost textually from the speeches of a Cabinet Minister named Chamberlain?

[No reply.]