At Clara, in King's County, on Sunday, Mr. Parnell made
a speech which, like all he has recently done, will cool down the Irish enthusiasm which he has somehow mauaged to excite. He had an assembly of some 7,000 people to speak to, and a priest in the chair. To these people Mr. Partici'. addressed a little tall-talk about his " police " numbering five-fifths of the whole Irish race at home and abroad, which he reckoned at 20,000,000, whom he defied Mr. Forster to find prison-room for. He had also, he said, three-fourths of the French Press on the Irish side, and. many of the State Legislatures of the United States in sympathy with the Land League. If the tenant- farmers stood firm not to pay " unjust rents,"—an injunction which the crowd interpreted freely, by crying out " Pay no rents !"—landlordism would be soon beaten down. He .advised the tenant threatened with notice of eviction to plough up all the land before. eviction, and then the landlords would not be able to turn in cattle to graze on it. This, it appears, is, in Ireland,. advice to break the criminal law, though in England it would be only advice to do what is civilly actionable, and so liable to damages. Hence Mr. Parnell had to withdraw his advice. somewhat hastily, in a letter published in Wednesday's papers, on the ground that it was inconsistent,. with an. " iniquitous law" of which he was ignorant. Why it Bhould be iniquitous to prevent a tenant from injuring his landlord as much as possible before the expiration of his lease, Mr. Parnell dues not explain. But 'violent advice, hastily retracted, is not the sort of thing to Make a hero of Mr. Parnell in Irish eyes.
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