Mr. William O'Brien, M.P., addressing a meeting at Charle- vine,
County Cork, on Sunday, condemned the Government for their refusal to conciliate the Unionist minority in Ireland They had not made a single substantial offer to the opponents of the Home Rule Bill, and they had failed to invite the friendly conference which alone could make the " suggestion " stage of the Bill of any practical use. Mr. Dillon threatened to denounce them as compromisers and conciliationists if they did so, and he had now thrown to the winds the last chance of conciliating Ulster Unionists, by taunting them as cowards and braggarts. On the other hand, the " All-for-Irelanders " would go on giving the Government and these gentlemen the fullest opportunity for realizing their boast that they would have an Irish Parliament sitting next May, and would possess their souls in patience in the meantime. " The next twelve months," he added, "would either make these men the triumphant masters of Ireland or, if the bubble burst, would lay them prostrate in the dust." It is to produce the first of these alternatives that the Government propose to coerce Ulster with repeating rifles and machine guns.
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