Mr. Parnell's speech was marked by the usual features,— maniacal
hatred of England (which allows him to call this Con- vention), advice that no leases shall be accepted by the peasantry,. promises to extinguish rent, and assertions that the intention of Mr. Gladstone in passing the Land Act was to keep the land ques- tion perpetually open, so that the Irish people might be di videdon, the question of independence ; but there was a new note in it, also. Mr. Parnell is at heart convinced that the farmers will accept the Act, and half his speech is an appeal to the labourers to fills his failing ranks. He adjures the farmers to borrow for labourers' cottages. He promises the labourers the wild lands. Hetells them that his ideal for them is a homestead and a bit of land independent of both landlord and tenant, and only asks of them that they will not make a labour league, bat join his organisation. "If I find a joint movement of labourers and) farmers fail, I pledge myself to take my stand at the hcad of a labourers' movement." He repeated these appeals again and again, and made them, in fact, the substance of his speech, is substance the more remarkable because subsequent speakers avoided the labourers, and only denounced the landlords and demanded the land. The clergy in particular let the labourers slide.
