Mr. William O'Brien, who was returned at the head of
the poll at Cork, made a violent attack on the Irish Parliamentary Party and Mr. Asquith at Fermoy yesterday week. He denounced Mr. Redmond and his following for having betrayed Ireland to the English Treasury, degraded the Irish Party into the ' mere slaves and hirelings of the Molly Maguires, and made Home-rule the byword and laughing- stock of all English parties. Mr. O'Brien then proceeded to discuss what he called Mr. Asquith's "bogus pledge." "Both Mr. Asquith and the two Liberal Whips had repudiated that pledge the moment Mr. Redmond handed over the Irish vote in the North of England to them. Mr. Redmond delivered the goods, and was ignominiously kicked into the streets. The cry that they would get Home-rule in the next Parliament was bosh, and would turn out a cruel fraud on the credulity of the Irish people. Mr. Asquith bad declared in most brutal language that the Liberal Party were not pledged to Home-rule, and could not even consider in the next Parliament whether they would give it or not. They were told they would have to wait for Home-rale until the House of Lords was abolished, and after the results of the English elections they knew now, if anybody ever doubted it, that if they were to wait till the House of Lords was abolished they would have to wait until they were older than Methusaleh." The most instructive comment on Mr. O'Brien's speech is that already eight Independent, or " O'Brienite," Nationalists have been returned to Parliament.
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