The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-29 00:00:00

and expressed as his conviction that the ambition of
Lord Beaconsfield should have been satisfied with the
exercise of the great power inoluded in this responsibility.

"We have undertaken (said Mr Gladstone) to settle the
affairs of a fourth, or nearly a fourth, of the entire human
race scattered over the world, and is not that enough for
the ambition of Lord Beaconsfield? (Laughter and cheers.)
It satisfied Mr. Pitt and Mr. Canning, it satisfied Lord
Grey and Sir Robert Peel, it satisfied Lord Palmerston and
Lord Russell and the late Lord Derby, and why cannot
it satisfy—l do not want to make any invidious distinc-
tion between Lord Beaconsfield and his colleagues, for it
seems to me they are now very much of one mind, and they
move with harmony among themselves—why does this not
satisfy the ambition of the members of tlae present Go-
vernment? I affirm, on the contrary, strive and labour as
you speak after the experience of a lifetime, of which
a fair portion has been spent in office—strive and labour
as you will, In Parliament and in office, human strength
and human thought are not equal to the discharge of
the duties appertaining to Government in this great, won-
derful, and world-wide empire. (Cheers) Therefore. gen-
tlemen, I say it is indeed eleplorable that, in addition
to these calls, of which we have evidence in a thousand
forms of our insufficiency to meet, all manner of gratuitous,
dangerous, ambiguous, impracticable, and impossible
engagements are contracted for us in all parts of the
world. And that is what has lately happened."—Tne
result of this policy was seen in the wars in Afghanistan
and Zululand, the annexation of the Transvaal, and the
responsibility we had undertaken in Asiatic Turkey. These
had been the actions of an Administration supp Jrted by the
House of C,mmons. The people had not approved it, bu
the time was coming when they would have to give their
verdict, and the Liberals did not fear the result.
Mr. Gladstone thus concluded his speech —"As: the House
of Commons, in the face of the country, by a multitude of
repeated and deliberated acts, has made itself wholly and ab-
solutely responsible in all these transactions that I have
been commenting upon, so upon the coming General Elec-
tion will it have to be determined whether that responsi-
bility, shifted from the Administration to Parliament, shall
again shift from Parliament to the nation. (Laud cheers.)
As yet the nation has had no opportunity. As I pointed
out early in these remarks, the Government do not seem
disposed to give them the opportunity. (Hear,
hear.) Up to the last moment, so far as we are
informed by the best authorities, they do not seem
disposed to give it. The nation, therefore, is not jet re-
sponsible. If faith has been broken, if blood has been
needlessly shed, it the name of England has been discre-
dited and lowered from the lofty stanaard which it ought
to exhibit to the whole world, if the country has been
needlessly distressed, if finance has been thrown into con.
fusion, if the foundations of the Indian Empire have
been impaired—all these things as yet are the work
of the Administration and of Parliament. But the day is
coming, and is near at hand (cheers), when that event will
take place which will lead the historian to declare whether
or not they are the work, not of the Administration and
not of the Parliament, but the work of a great and free
people. ("Hear, hear," and loud cheers.) It this great,
free, powerful people is disposed to associate itself with
such transactions; if it is disposed to assume upon itself
what some of us would call the guilt—and many of us
must declare to be the heavy burden—of all those events
that have been passing before our eyes, it rests with therm
to do it. But, gentlemen, let every one of us resolve in
his inner conscience—before God and before man let him
resolve that be, at least, will not share in such a proceed-
ing; that he will do his best to exempt himself from every
participation in what he conceives to be mischievous and
ruinous misdeeds; and that, so far as his exertions can avail,
no trivial or secondary consideration shall stand in the way
of them, or abate them; that he may do what in him lies to
dissuade his countrymen from arriving at so unhappy and
so mischevous a resolution. Gentlemen, that is the issue
which the people of this country will have to try. Our
minds are made up. You have yet to speak. I, for my part,
have done, and will do, the little that rests upon use to
make clear the nature of the great controversy that is to
be decided, and I say, from the bottom of my soul, God
speed the right I (Loud and prolonged cheering.)

There were cries for Lord Rosebery, and Mr. Gladstone,
In replying to the vote, explained that his lordship was
absent, but he could assure the meeting it was not from
any want of sympathy with the purpose for which they had
met.

- -
After a vote of thanks to Mr. Gladstone for his address
the assembly broke up, Mr. Gladstone having spoken an
hour and three-quarters.
At the close of the meeting in the Music Hall, Mr. Glad-
stone drove to the Council Chamber for the purpose of re-
ceiving the address from the Town Council. In reply to the
address which was presented by the Lord Provost, Mr. Glad-
stone, after referring to his early assodation with Edin-
burgh and his Scotch extraction, thanked the Council
for giving him credit for prtriotic motives and for
having been a friend to oppressed nationalities, lie was
sustained and encouraged in political life by the sentiment
that there were at present princip:es at stake much broader
than those of ordinary combination and involving more
serious issues. The objects he had in view were connected
with the welfare of mankind upon the widest scale.