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Defence, to insist on Universal Service, to organise their Boy Scouts, and train every man to the use of the rifle against the day when the dominant Parliament is in the throes of some titanic struggle against some gigantic power. The Radical Ministry that dare not to-day to extend the Territorial Army System to Ireland is made "toe the line" by its Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Redmond, and is prepared on the requisition of Patrick Ford—the Paymaster-General—to level the defences of the British Constitution, sweep away the House of Lords, and for her mercenary services present to insurrectionary Ireland Home Rule, "the plant of an armed revolution."
Listen to the words of Parnell:—
"They are a defenceless people in Ireland. The right to carry arms is denied, and that birthright of every freeman is punished in Ireland with imprisonment for two years.[1] A large body of Constabulary is employed, with 30,000 soldiers, but the time may come when Ireland will have a chance. When England is at war and beaten to her knees, the idea of the Irish Nationalists may be realised."—Special Commission Report, p. 21.
Contrast this utterance with the following. Speaking at Boston, October 3rd, 1908, Mr. John Redmond said:—
"One of the greatest reproaches of Ireland before the face of the nations of the world has been that she was a disarmed nation, and that Irishmen in their own land were forbidden to bear arms. Are you all cognizant of the fact that that is no longer the case? To-day any Irishman on Irish soil can bear arms. When I last stood here there was a law in force called the Arms Act which forbade the carrying of arms by anybody in Ireland unless he got a certificate of good character from Dublin Castle. The result was, of course, that the whole nation was disarmed. Mr. President, we have repealed that law, and to-day there is only one requisite for a
- ↑ The Pistols Act, which applies to England and Scotland does not extend to Ireland, and since the Peace Preservation Act, 1881, was allowed to expire by the Liberal Government rifles and revolvers are sold wholesale all over the country.
