the Fenian parties; it will be noted that it was to be a means only to a very decisive end. 'The achievement of a National Parliament gives us a footing on Irish soil; it gives us the agencies and instrumentalities of a government _de facto_, at the very commencement of the Irish struggle. It places the government of the land in the hands of our friends and brothers. It removes the Castle's rings, and gives us what we may well express as the plant of an armed revolution.'[26] And at a great Fenian meeting held after the rejection of the Bill, one of the leading speakers dropped these significant words: 'We have no desire to force the hand of Parnell, or to drive the Irish people into war unprepared. All that we demand is this, and we will be satisfied with nothing less--that no leader of the Irish people, who is supposed to speak for them, shall commit himself, or them, to accepting as a final settlement, bills of relief unworthy of the dignity of Ireland's national demand. We are perfectly willing to see them accept such bills as that of Gladstone, as a settlement on account, but that must not be accepted as closing the transaction. We see no wisdom in it. It lowers the tone of the national cause. It lowers the spirit of the true people. To ask them to subside to a species of mere provincialism is an outrage on their struggle of seven hundred years for liberty. We admit that it may be good policy on the part of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Davitt to be what is called moderate in tone; but for us, who represent the national idea of the Irish people, it would be worse than folly to conceal our sentiments. We recognise that Ireland is incapable of fighting at present.'[27]