One hundred years ago
Mr Parnell addressed a meeting of Irishmen in Hyde Park on Sunday, in a speech which he would probably describe as 'moderate', but which was, in reality, a demand that Government should cease to enforce the law in Ireland, and in form something even more unjust than that. After giving a history of Colonel Hare, who, he declared, had evicted 80 families from his estate, and who after this speech may consider himself as formally denounced as the Czar, he maintained that Government could ascertain the history of any landlord, and that it ought to ascertain it, and specially refrain from assisting one who was unjust. In other words, the Government is not to permit any creditors of Mr Parnell to sue him, unless it has first ascertained what the moral character of each may be. A lowcharging saddler may have a writ, but a high-charging wine merchant must go without his money. A more grotesque form of tyranny was never suggested.
Spectator, 11 June 1881
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