Mr. Horace Plunkett, the Member for the Southern Division of
the County of Dublin, is an enterprising man. He has been attempting to unite all the various sections of the Irish Members,—Unionists, Anti-Parnellites of both the sections, and the Parnellites themselves,—in a common effort for their country's good. He has proposed that a Recess Committee should be formed consisting of some four Anti-Parnellites, two Parnellites, and two Unionists, to agree upon some scheme that would tend to stimulate the material prosperity of Ireland, on which Mr. Gerald Balfour might found a Bill to be introduced in the next Session of Parliament. The ends he himself wishes to keep in view are the formation of an Irish Board of Agriculture, and the drafting of a Technical Education Bill which would provide the means of training young Irishmen and Irishwomen in the best industrial methods of work. The Freeman's Journal accepted this suggestion in a very cordial spirit ; but there is no sign as yet that either the Healyites or RedtoeUdites are disposed to co-operate cordially with Mr. Horace Plunkett in his patriotic effort at forming a national party for passing non-contentious Irish reforms. The Independent (the Parnellite organ) says that "A Recess Committee" such as Mr. Plunkett proposes "is an impossibility, and might even lead to results the reverse of satisfactory." Mr. Plunkett must have read those words with something of the feeling of the psalmist who said, "Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech, and to have my habitation among the tents of Kedar. My soul hath long dwelt among them that are enemies unto pea c e. I labour for peace, but when I speak unto them thereof, they make them ready to battle."
Previous page
