I admit that there are two classes of victims at the mercy of the Chief Secretary,--public speakers and public newspapers Public speeches are the merest appendages of our organization. And why are public speakers at his mercy? Simply and solely because we do not choose to be driven away from our free right of public meeting, but choose to assert it, as Mr. Blunt chose to assert it in the light of day. (_Cheers._) If we choose to give our speeches in private, we could run a coach and four through the provisions of this act with absolute impunity. My friends here were for months engaged on the Plan of Campaign. We have no secrets we are afraid to acknowledge. ("_Oh, oh._") None. I only hope the honorable gentleman who says "Oh"--(_an honorable member: "Rochester"._) Certainly. They have actually been for months and months on the business of the Plan of Campaign, even with warrants over their heads. Talk of me in connection with Mitchelstown. I may be giving the right honorable gentleman a tip, but I do not object to say that my honorable friend, the member for South Tipperary (Mr. J. O'Connor), was far and away a more formidable person than I was in the Plan of Campaign; but because he happens to be a man of few words, he will be walking in this lobby to-morrow night instead of reposing on a plank bed, as he would if he had spoken. (_Cheers._) I do not mind telling it, and he will not mind it either, for his work, and he is victorious. I might say a good deal about the meanness of this policy of subjecting journalists to milk-and-water diet, for the simple fact that they recorded the right honorable gentleman's failure ("_Hear, hear_"), because that is the sting of their offence,--because the meetings are held, and held in spite of the Government. (_Loud Nationalist cheers._) You might as well issue a proclamation suppressing the sun in the heavens, and then go about smashing the faces of the sun-dials for recording that the sun is moving on its way in spite of you. (_Laughter and cheers._) Worse still is it to attack the humble news venders, and intimidate their wives and their little children. ("_Hear, hear._")