24 MARCH 1888, Page 3

Mr. Dillon and Mr. W. O'Brien each of them made

a speech last Saturday (St. Patrick's Day),—Mr. Dillon in London, at the Cannon Street Hotel, Mr. O'Brien in Birmingham. Mr. Dillon's speech was very moderate, and consisted almost entirely in the praise of nationality as one of the ties which elicits the noblest sentiments from the hearts of men. "Although the history of Ireland had been a history for many centuries of defeat, he would say that the more on account of that defeat was their claim unassailable,"—on which it is obvious to remark that if the feeling of nationality is a good in itself, and if it thrives better on defeat than on victory, it is a pity that it should not continue to thrive on the nutriment which suits it best. The Duke of Argyll has said truly enough that the Scotch feeling of nationality has thriven more since the separate Legislature which really only injured it, was abandoned, than it did before. Why not the Irish also