The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-05-15 00:00:00

SPEECH BY LORD SALISBURY.

Replying for "The House of Lords". at the Mer-
chant Taylors' banquet on Monday night, the Marquis
of Salisbury said he thanked the company for drink-
ing the toast so heartily, as evidence that the House
of Lords was capable of doing astute duty as well in
times of crisis as of pace. He hoped the necessity of
doing that duty in tibmes of crisis might not be placed
upon it. But he had very little doubt that if that
duty was placed opon it its conduct would not meet
with the disapprobation of any. (Applause.) He
could not conceal from himself that they stood at the
present in a time of great public anxiety. The leader
of the House of Lords had recently placed the most
unkind and invidious construction upon the fact that
he (the speaker) had not been so talkative as usual;
but in these days he thought a member could not be
blamed for taciturnity. (Laughter.) As Lord Granville
had put it, they had put all the dirty
work upon the moderate Liberals, but he (the
speaker) would like to see a treatise by Lord
Granville upon dirty work, adorned with those anec-
dotes which his lordship knew so well how to intro-
duce. Did dirty work mean upholding the Constitu-
tion, of furthering civilisation? Clean work he sup-
posed in Lord Granville's estimation meant to turn
right round in one's opinion, and the moment
they had got support against the Parnellite faction
to go and assist the party themselves. (Applause.)
That he must conclude to be Lord Granville'
definition of cleanly work, and for the performance
of that work the Tories would give him all the
room he wanted. He, the speaker, must refer
to the burning question. It was an important
question, and one which turned entirely upon con-
fidence. Confidence was the light of the vast com-
merce which they pursued, and there was no better
audience to determine the value of confidence than
the one before him. The Ir:sh people—he should
have said the dominant section of the Irish people—
asked them
.to hand over the lives and properties of
the people; but had these people shown by the pact
their claims to the confidence asked? They gave
their confidence to the people of England because
they had always been loyal to the Queen and
loved law, and been passionately attached to the
Empire. And if these characteristics belonged to
the Irish it would be different. But had the
Irish been supporters of the Empire of England?
First the Spanish, then the French, and now the
Americans had been coquetted with. The measure
was at that moment undergoing alteration, but it
would be of little avail, for he was told that the Irish
members were to be shut up in a room close to the
House of Commons, and that whenever Irish affairs
came on the door was to be opened and the Irish
were to be turned on. (Laughter.) It had before
been said that if such and such a thing were done for
Ireland it would be the last that would be asked; but
they knew how these assurances had resulted. He
asked again what ground there was for confidence in
these later assurances. What security could they
give? This was a question which had not been ex-
aggerated—it was a turning point in the history of the
country. It was not merely that they were going to
give a separate Legislature for Ireland—although he
was against that —but they were going to give a
separate Government. (No, no.) The result of th;s
would be that the minority would not only have a
Government of which they disapproved, but would
have to depend upon their enemies for all the privi-
leges of civilised life. \Vas it therefore a matter of
surprise that the men of Ulster should go against it?
He thought history had been put upon the rack to
prove that Ireland was in an extremely bad state,
and he was sanguine to hope that all might be made
to work well without the extreme measures now pro-
posed. (Applause.)