men and women) who are willing to co-operate to this
end are asked to attend at Westmoreland Chambers (over Eden Bros.) at
five o'clock on this (Tuesday) afternoon.

"FRANCIS SHEEHY SKEFFINGTON."

Far from being a combatant, he was on principle a pacifist, and thus
opposed to all use of physical force; but perhaps it is better to let
his own wife tell the story:--

"After he was arrested and had been sentenced to death," to use the
statement which she issued to the Press, "he refused to be blindfolded,
and met death with a smile on his lips, saying before he died that the
authorities would find out after his death what a mistake they made."

Now, the concession of the mere possibility of such a colossal blunder
was, of course, the admission of the whole of John Dillon's
contention--namely, that, whatever might happen in Egypt, Ireland was
right in not accepting the discretion of any man as the sole guarantee
of her liberties.

For if it could happen in such an eminent case, there could hardly be
any doubt but that there was considerable truth in the rumours that
similar catastrophes were taking place all over Dublin, and indeed all
over Ireland, and this in such a way as to madden the Irish people, and
spread, if not insurrection, at least disaffection and bitterness from
one end of the country to the other; but it is useless, before an
official investigation, to go into such examples as the Eustace Street
and King Street cases. Public investigations at the moment, however,
would restore no lives, and possibly only endanger the chances of
reconciliation, which is the one great need of Ireland in the name of
Empire.

Quite apart from any examples, however, John Dillon maintained that the
system in itself was far more likely to prejudice than to attain the
very ends expected of it, "for, if they only knew it, the British
Cabinet had far less power in Dublin than the Kildare Street Club and
certain other institutions which were running the military authorities;"
but he struck the keynote of the situation when he said: "Ours is a
fighting race, and, as I told you when I was speaking before on the
Military Service Bill, it is not a Military Service Bill that you want
in Ireland. If you had passed a Military Service Bill for Ireland it
would have taken 150,000 men and three months' hard fighting to have
dealt with it. It is not a Military Service Bill that you want in
Ireland; it i