Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 6.djvu/265

 JOHN E. REDMOND

IRELAND AND THE CORONATION

(1902)

, the event which is being celebrated to-day in London is one of great historic significance and importance. The monarch of this mighty Empire is being crowned, and there are assembled in London representatives from all parts of the Empire to acclaim Edward VII. as the constitutional monarch of these realms. There is only one absentee—Ireland. Gentlemen, in Ireland Edward VII. is not a constitutional monarch. No English sovereign has been a constitutional monarch of Ireland since the Union, and to-day the Nationalist representatives of Ireland renew the protest—which has never been allowed to die for one hundred years—against the destruction of our Constitution and the usurpation of the government of our country by England.

Now, we claim that Ireland is not bound, morally or legally, by any laws which are not 255