-  A^e  are  told  that  crime  Is  lessened  in

in  Ireland,  if  it  he   m      _iin  I  would  say  Deo  grot
I  it.  mv  Lords,  it       nnot  -       .        :       ::    :      r


4o4  CONCLUDING  OBSERVATIONS


healthy,  it  cannot  be  a  stable  state  of  things,  when  there
are  such  scenes  as  are  now  (in  relation  to  that  very  Land
Question)  being  enacted  in  Donegal ;  and  when  there
are  no  less  than  25  members — representative  members
of  the  Irish  people — in  prison.  If  they  have  committed
crimes  odious  to  men  of  moral  sense,  by  all  means,  if
they  were  ten  times  members  of  Parliament,  let  them
be  sent  there ;  but  the  significant  condition  of  things
in  their  regard  is  this,  that  they  are  not  even  in  this
land — even  in  this  free  land  of  England,  regarded  by  a
large  section  of  its  community  as  criminals,  while  in
their  own  land  they  are  regarded  as  heroes  and  martyrs
in  a  sacred  cause.
My  Lords,  I  will  not  pursue  the  subject,  though  I
might  desire  to  say  more  upon  it.  I  will,  however,  say
this  much.  This  I  believe  to  be  the  true,  the  best
guarantee  for  peace  and  order,  in  the  prevention  of,  the
recurrence  of,  the  painful  crime  that  your  Lordships
have  been  inquiring  into,  is  in  the  belief  and  hope,
strong  in  Irish  breasts  to-day,  that  the  time  has  come
when  the  state  of  things  that  has  caused  this  must
come  to  an  end.
My  Lords,  for  their  work  in  bringing  this  "  consum-
mation, devoutly  to  be  wished,"  close  at  hand,  the  Irish
party  stands  before  your  Lordships'  bar  to-day.  They
can  point  to  marvellous  work  in  10  years  ;  marvellous  in
the  condition  in  which  that  work  has  been  accomplished.
