The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-10-04 00:00:00

THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY'S VISIT

TO SCOTLAND.

Nothing could have exceeded the enthusiasm on th
part of the Glasgow people on the arrival of the
Marquis of Salisbury on Tuesday evening. The
weather was of the most unpropitious cha-
racter, but notwithstanding over 10,000 persons had
:tongregated on the platform of the Central Railway
Station, where everything had been done by the rail-
way officials to secure that his lordship should not be
obstructed in his passage to the platform which had
been erected, and from which he had to receive the
addresses prepared by the Glasgow City Conservative
Aisociation, and of the Orange Lodges of the district.
Notwithstanding the crowd collected on the
platform, it was even difficult for a large
posse of policemen, under the command of
Captain Boyd, to obtain admission. So great was
the crowd in the station premises that before the
polioe could be admitted the railway authorities had
!0 ptnir water, by means of their fire-hose, upon a
large part of the crowd, those who were drenched
Acampering in all directions. The crowd outside the
barriers amused themselves for fully three-quarters
of an hour, singing "Rule Britannia" and "Auld
Lan, Syne." Shortly before the train was due—
eiihit crowd being so dense, Sir Archi-
b Id Campbell of Blythswood, mounted the platform
.Ind asked the people for their own safety, to take
care of themselves, the train being now due. At
this period there appeared within the barricade ex-
Lord Provost Arthur, Mr. William Pearce, Mr.
Wicks, Mr. W. C. M. Norman, Councillor James
rhompson, Mr. G. S. M`Leod, Mr. Laird (vice-
president of the Glasgow Conservative Association),
erofessor M'Clye, and other leaders of the Conserva-
tive party in Glasgow. When these gentlemen ap-
pc.:red on the platform great cheers were raised, blue
banners beini, shown from every part of the station
which could be viewed from the platform.
At Eglinton Station the saloon carriage in which
his lordship travelled was detached from the London
-press, and run into the centre station. As soon as
it was signalled the most enthusiastic cheers were
raised, and continued for a considerable time.

Addresses were presented by the Glasgow Con-
servative Association, and the Grand Orange Lodge
of Scotland, in reply to which Lord Salisbury, who was
received with vociferous cheering, again and again
renewed, said—Ladies and Gentlemen, I thank you
very heartily for the great reception which you have
given here to me coming to Scotland to maintain the
cause of constitutional order and freedom. (Loud
cheers.) One great difficulty is that our cause is
so good that our adversaries find it necessary
lo pass over our arguments altogether, and to
assume that we mean something totally dif-
ferent from what we do mean. We say that
we xvi,h that the franchise shall pass, but
that before you make new voters you should deter-
mine the constituencies in which they are to vote.
(Hear, hear.) Our adversaries are unable to answer
that plea, and therefore they pass it by altogether,
and they say that we are utterly insincere, and that
we are only anxious to defeat the Franchise Bill.
Now, if they give us no credit for sincerity, they
must at least give us credit for common sense. We
could not by the course which we are pursuing delay
the franchise if we pushed it for more than two or
three years. If we had a sensible Government (cheers)
we should not delay it for a single year, but we
should at the outside delay it for only two or three
years. Do you imagine if we had the greatest aver-
sion to the franchise that we took all this trouble
for so small an object as that? But the. truth is that
if the doferninefit are able to interpose a disSolutidil
of the present constituencies without a new franchise
before they passed redistribution, it would be im-
possible that they would have the power of passing
redistribution in their own hands, and by so doing we
would allow them by settling this new distribution,
the power of settling everything which would come
up for decision which would concern the freedom, the
industries, and property of this country. I thank you
heartily for the reception you have given me. (Great
cheering.)
While his lordship was speaking the saloon and
break-van attached to it had been mounted by an
enthusiastic crowd, who, along with the great multi-
tude in the station, cheered him to the echo. The
train then moved off amid renewed cheering.
At Paisley, where the train drew up, a large crowd
had collected to welcome the Marquis of Salisbury.
Enthusiastic cheers were raised by the vast crowd
assembled. Stepping out upon a raised platform, his
lordship was presented with four addresses from the
Conservative Associations of the district, among them
being one from the Paisley Primrose League, Habita-
tion 2:32.

The lkfarquis of Salisbury, in reply, said: Ladies
and Gentlemen,—l know that Paisley has not always
been favourable to those of the political party to which
I belong, but since the campaign of Lord Ernest
Hamilton last Year I have great hope that Paisley
will recognise that the issues of political combat are a
good deal changed and have been within the last
thirty years, and that many whose fathers and
who themselves a long time ago might have sup-
ported the Liberals may find very good reason for
changing their opinion now. (Loud cheers.) Among
the addresses which have been read one has come
from a club named after a great friend of mine,
whose name will ever live in the annals of this
country. I mean Lord Beaconsfield. (Cheers.) In
one of these addresses you were kind enough to say
that I have been exposed to a good deal of misre-
presentation. Well, of that I need say nothing. I
think they have made a great deal too much of my
name in the matter, but what I do wish to remark
upon is an observation of the Prune Minister that if
Lord Beaconsfield had been alive the present question
would not have arisen, and that the fact of the
Franchise Bill not passing was simply due to the
recklessness of the humble individual who is address-
ing you. But Mr. Gladstone is very fond of quoting
Lord Beaconsfield's authority now that. Lord
Beaconsfield is no more. (Hear, hear.) When
he brought in the Irish Land Bill, the first thing he
said, directly Lord Beaconsfield was dead, was that
their opposition to the bill was in consequence of the
death of Lora Beaconsfield. I have in my possession
at this moment a letter of Lord Beaconsfield's, written
a few months before his death, saying that nothing
would induce him to assent to the three F's of the
principle of the Irish Land Bill. Well, it is exactly
the same in the present instance. Mr. Gladstone
says Lot d Beaconsfield would have passed the fran-
chise without redistribution. The subject was one he
frequently conversed on during the year which pre-
ceded Lord Beaconsfield's death, as he always fore-
sa v that the Liberals would try to play this trick.
ITe knew that if the new franchise voters were par-
celled out into those old constituencies which
were not made for the franchise, but for some-
thing totally different, he knew if that were done
the Liberals would have an illegitimate and
unfair advantage, which would enable them to
appear in Parliament with a strength wholly dis-
proportionate to what they really had in the country,
and he always warned us that we must always resist
to the utmost by every means in our power the
attempt to separate franchise from redistribution. I
wish to say this because Mr. Gladstone finds it very
convenient to appeal to Lord Beaconsfield's authority,
when during Lord Beaconsfield's life he never agreed
with him upon any single subject. Now, gentlemen,
I thank you very heartily for the kind reception you
have given me, and it assures me that in our struggle
that reform shall be regular, equitable, and honest,
we have the sympathy of the working people of Scot-
land. (Prolonged cheering.)
At Renfrew Station another large crowd had
assembled, when an address was also presented, to
which the marquis briefly replied, and proceeded to
Blythwood House along with Sir Archibald Campbell
amid loud cheers.