The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-12-26 00:00:00

IatiTURDAY, DEC. 26, 188 C

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drawn togethir nit of all wbfiiPé
pared to take up a reasonable position towards any
constitutional changes which do not disintegrate the
Empire, will maintain a determined and united front
in opposing measures which can only lead to total
separation. The Bank of Ireland stock, which 12
months ago was quoted at 340, and last Thursday a
300, fell on Saturday to 272, closing at 274, being a
reduction from the previous day of 26.
The Press Association states that the Marquis of
Hartington, has addressed the following letter'
to Mr. Thomas Brooks, the chairman of his lord
ship's election committee in the Rossendale division.
of Lancashire :—"Devonshire House, Piccadilly, W.
Dec. 19, 1885. Dear Mr. Brooks,—My name has.
recently been frequently mentioned in connection with
reports on the subject of a scheme of Irish policy
which is stated to have been under the consideration.
of the leaders of the Liberal party. I shall not within
the next few weeks have an opportunity of addres-
sing my constituents in public, and I think that
the respect which I owe to them justifies me
in writing to you, as the chairman of my election com-
mittee, fce the purpose of giving the most emphatic
contradiction to all such reports, so far as they re-
lated to myself. No proposals on the policy to be
adopted by the Liberal party in reference to the
demand of a large number of Irish members for the
legislative independence of Ireland have been com-
municated to me, and I see no reason to depart in
any degree from the declarations which I have made,
or the opinions which I have expressed in my speeches
during the late election in Lancashire and elsewhere,
on the policy announced by Mr. Parnell, as the leader
of the Irish Parliamentary party.—l remain, voila,
very truly, EaRTINGTON.
At a meeting of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ire-
land in Dublin, several Irish peers and members of
Parliament being present, the following address has
been adopted to the Orangemen of Great Britain and
Ireland:
"Brethren, recognising the position which our
institution has always held as the foremost bulwark of
loyalty in this country, a position at length admitted
by enemies an well as by friends, we feel it our duty
to address you at the •present crisis. Never in the
history of the Protestansism of this realm has the•
aspect of affairs been more threatening than it is now.
Three out of our four proeinces are apparently
at the mercy of those whore avowed object.
is the overthrow of Imperial rule in Ire-
land. Ulster alone and the University of Dublin
have been able to return iupporters of the Union
to the Imperial Parliament, and we are proud to.
claim 10 of these as members of our most loyal in-
stitution. Under these circumstances the duty of all
true Orangemen is plain. While maintaining with-
unwavering determination the principles of our order,
we must prove by our demeanour towards those with
whom we have hitherto had minor differences that
the charge of bigotry which is so commonly made-
against us is wholly unfounded. and that while we .
bate not one jot of our own conscientious opinicn,
wo welcome with cordiality all those who will assist
us in keeping intact the bond which unites us to-
that great Empire of which we are proud to form
a not unimportant part. The little band which
Irish loyalty has been able to organise will find
itself in a position of unprecedented difficulty
greatly outnumbered by the delegates of the National
League, the direct heir and successor of that Land
League which the late Liberal Government declared
to be and suppressed as illegal, and which has to ita
account the many thousand outrages of the last five
years. A small but firmly united party, its members
will have to rely upon their own energy and deter-
mination to convince their English fellow countrymen
that they are nevertheless representative of the
industry and intelligence of Ireland, and that the
truest interests of the empire at large, no less than
our own, are involved in the continuance of the exist-
ing connection between the British Islands. The,
Parnellite faction, if the immediate severance of this
connection should seem impract...ahle, will no doubt
attempt to bring that result about by degrees, and
already they have indicated the first points to which
they will direct their attention. The complete con—
trol of the education of the young to which they
aspire would make them the dictators of the opinions
of the rising generation in three-fourths of the
country, and the command of the police, which they
claim, would make them masters of the present one.
With that disciplined and well-organised force in Mr.
Parnell's hands, officered as it would soon be by
his nominees, and carefully weeded, as was-
the Royal army in 1687, of its Protestant - mem-
bers, we should find ourselves in a worse position
than our ancestors were under the rule of Tyrconnel.
The relaxation, in any degree however slight, of
the ties whi connect us with England, must ' lead
to ultimate separation, to the ruin of this country,
and to the establishment at the most vulnerable
point of the empire of a drillground for hostile armies
and a dockyard for foreign fleets. We therefore
appeal to those who, though hitherto differing from
us, now realise the imminent peril which in common
confronts us all, to stand shoulder to shoulder with
us in defence of the Union, and to advance the cause
of loyalty, liberty, and religion.—With God- for
Queen and country, signed, on behalf of the Grand
Orange Lodge of Ireland,—Ensat, chairman; 'Erects- •
KILLEN, 1.G.M." -

- THE CRISIS IN THE • EASTI-
- correspondent at Sofia, telographing on the 21st
inst., says:
The luternational Commission to-day signed a -
Protocol embodying the following deciEions": 'The
Servians to evacuate Bulgarian territory by the.2sth
of December, and the Bulgarians to evacuate Pirot
by the 27th of December. The armistice to continue
until the Ist of March. The Bulgarian and Servian
delegates also appended their signatures to the -
Protocol.