FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  
her there was any possibility of slowing down the Labourers' agitation so as to make a postponement to the following session practicable. My reply was undiplomatically clear:--that, if the Government wanted to deprive the Irish Council Bill of all chance of a hearing, they could not take a better means of making the country too hot for themselves than by proposing to fob off the labourers for another year, and that not only would I not, if I could, but could not if I would, moderate their insistence upon immediate redress. "A short time afterwards, I met Sir Antony MacDonnell in the House of Commons, and he asked 'What is your labourers' minimum?' I gave him a brief outline of the Macroom programme. 'No rational being could object,' he said, 'but what does it mean in hard cash?' I replied, 'Roughly, four millions.' And the great Irishman--'the worst enemy that ever came to Ireland' of Mr Dillon's nightmare hours--ended the interview with these laconic words: 'The thing ought to be done and I think can be.' At the period of the session at which the Bill was introduced, the opposition of even half-a-dozen determined men could have at any stage achieved its ruin. Thanks, however, to the good feeling the precedent of the Act of 1903 and the admirably conciliatory temper displayed by the labourers themselves in their agitation had engendered, the Bill went triumphantly through and has been crowned with glory in its practical application. I never pass through any of the southern counties now and feast my eyes on the labourers' cottages which dot the landscape--prettier than the farmers' own homes--honeysuckles or jasmines generally trailing around the portico--an acre of potato ground sufficient to be a sempiternal insurance against starvation, stretching out behind--the pig and the poultry--perhaps a plot of snowdrops or daffodils for the English market, certainly a bunch of roses in the cheeks of the children clustering about the doorsteps--without thankfully acknowledging that Cork was right in thinking such conquests were worth a great deal of evil speech from angry politicians." CHAPTER XV SOME FURTHER SALVAGE FROM THE WRECKAGE When Mr O'Brien retired in 1903 the majority of the members of the Party scarcely knew what to make of it, and I have to confess myself among those who were lost in wonder and amazement at the suddenness of the event and the reasons
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
labourers
 

agitation

 

session

 

starvation

 

prettier

 
farmers
 
insurance
 

sufficient

 
potato
 

ground


portico

 

sempiternal

 
jasmines
 

honeysuckles

 
generally
 

trailing

 
engendered
 
triumphantly
 

crowned

 

displayed


precedent

 

admirably

 

conciliatory

 

temper

 

practical

 

cottages

 

stretching

 

application

 

southern

 

counties


landscape

 
WRECKAGE
 

majority

 

retired

 

CHAPTER

 
politicians
 

SALVAGE

 
FURTHER
 

members

 
amazement

suddenness
 

reasons

 
scarcely
 
confess
 

market

 

feeling

 
children
 

cheeks

 
English
 

daffodils