The Irish National Conference was held in Dublin on Tuesday,
end was attended by about 800 delegates, half of those invited. The proceedings were full. of repressed excitement, but were brief, and ended in a victory for Mr. Parnell. He carried his programme, which we give here ; but the American party, led by Mr. Davitt, though they did not oppose this, rallied their forces for a contest over the constitution of the Executive Council of the National League. Mr. Parnell, with great wisdom and astounding impudence, proposed that the Parlia- mentary Party—that is, he himself—should nominate sixteen of the forty-eight members of Council, leaving to the "Counties" only one each, thus enabling him, whenever he could command mine independent votes, to control the Council. Mr. Davitt re- sisted this, and demanded the popular election of all Councillors, but after a fierce outburst from 3Ir. T. P. O'Connor, quoted
textually elsewhere, which was applauded by Mr. Parnell, Mr. Davitt, rather than reveal divisions in the League, withdrew his motion. He even denied that it showed want of confidence in the Parliamentary party. Mr. Parnell, therefore, triumphs, but at the cost of deep discontent among his allies, both in Ireland and in Parliament, where Mr. O'Donnell already intimates that he shall look to the programme for guidance, rather than to Mr. Parnell.
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