The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-16 00:00:00

THE CRIMES BILL.

Mr. Bright, in replying to a resolution passed at a
Rochdale Conservative Club meeting, thanking him
"for the magnificent efforts he had made in the cause
of the Union in and out of Parliament, and especially
for supporting the Government by his vote against
the organised obstruction of the Separatist Radicals
and their Parnellite allies, whose avowed object is the
complete separation of Ireland from Great Britain,"
has sent the following letter to Mr. Hezekiah Sharp,
the president:
"One Ash, Rochdale. Sir,—l thank you for send-
ing me a copy of the resolution passed by your club.
I regret very much that there should be any difference
of opinion between political parties in England on the
yr uraer lii Ireland and
the preservation of the Union between Ireland and
Great Drifoi.. -I am in favemr fhe anpremnry of
the law hi, Ireland and the Union of the Three
Kingdoms.—Yours, very respectfully, JonN BRIGHT.°
31
The secretary ad working men's organisation,
not thini Itailisgisiclrtaf/ing if he did
the country, has received the following reply: "-Bhiy-
don-on-Tyne.—Dear Sir,—l am rather surprised at
the question you ask me. If you are at all acquainted
with Parliamentary proceedings you will know that
when I was in the House of Commons there xras no
member who more persistently and determinedly
opposed coercion of all kinds than I did. I recorded
more votes against coercion bills than any other
member in Parliament of 1874 and in the Parliament
of 1880.—Yours truly, Jos. Comm."
On Tuesday night the Right Hon. A. J. Mundella,
M.P., attended the annual soiree of the Brightside
Liberal Club, Sheffield, and delivered an address in
acknowledgment of a resolution condemning the
Crimes Bill. He said the Government were not
striking at crime; they were striking at a political
party—at fair and legitimate opposition. What they
wanted to do in Ireland was to suppress lawful agita-
tion. The bill now under consideration was, without
exception, the most cruel, the most despotic, the most
subtle and far-reaching that he had ever read of in
history. (Hear. hear.) Trial by jury for
the greater number of off.mces was entirely
put an end to. Who were the magistrates to
whom summary jurisdiction was to be entrusted ?
They were military officers who had been appointed
by landlord influence. Just let them imagine the
Nationalists of Ireland being subjected to those men.
As to the proposal to change the venue in certain
cases to England. he did not believe the House of
Commons, bad as it was, would dare to carry a pro-
vision like that. Even the Unionists themselves found
that it rather stuck in their gizzards, and that they
would have to reject it. They must beware how they
used strong language. No man in Hyde Park, no
Socialist, could say strong words against, Lord
Salisbury and the Government without the fact being
thrown at the head of Mr. Gladstone. (Shame.)
They accused him of being in association with Socialists
and Parnellism and crime, but the Tories did not
remember that in 1885 they stood on platforms
beside Catholic priests and told the Irish voters
that it was the Liberals who were coer-
cing them. Those people, who were now so delicate,
kid-gloved, and cleanhanded, who would not touch
Mr. Parnell with a pair of tongs, were then holding
meetings with him privately. Even Lord Carnarron,
their own Lord-Lieutenant, was doing it. The Liberals
would oppose this coercion. They believed they would
better secure the Union by conciliation, and they did
not mean to silence the voice of Ireland by coercion.
They said that local administration by Ireland of her
own affairs was the right way in which to put respon-
sibility upon her best citizens, to make thet‘'t under-
stand their affairs, and administer them best for their
own country. (Cheers.)