A very hot discussion on the Alien Clause, in the
Crime Prevention (Ireland) Bill, took place yesterday week, when Mr. Bright vindicated his own course, and again referred to the open treason of Members of the Irish party in taking part in the Chicago Convention on Ireland, and sanctioning by their pre- sence its advocacy of a dynamite policy. Mr. Healy fell upon Mr. Bright with great fury in reply, declaring that he did not mind at all the charge of treason, and that he was only reminded by it of two lines in a Scotch song,— " Whom have we gotten for a King But a wee, wee German lairdie ?"
He charged Mr. Bright with disingenuousness ; said that he had no abstract reverence for him, or for any other holder of sinecures who had once denounced sinecures; and he ended by pitying the ignorance of Mr. Bright, which, however, he took care not to remove. Mr. Healy's speech was a coarse one, and so far as it went, tended to prove that Mr. Bright was absolutely right in attributing to aliens in America the origination of the greater part of the mischief from which Ireland has been suffering so much of late years. On Mr. Healy's own showing, the Chicago Con- vention was so violent, that he himself was unable to co-operate in it with safety, considering his position as a Member of Parliament.
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