The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-13 00:00:00

STATE AOENCT NOT WANTED.

Take, again, your trade unions, by • which working
seen have obtained in so many branches of business
their demand for higher wages and shorter hours of
work. They did not ask help from Parliament to found
those unions or to carry them on. They acted more son.
sibly—they did the work themselves. ,•• Hear, hear," and
cheers.) Well, cannot you do the same with the great
majority at least of those wants which aro reasonably and
properly being put forward? Artisans, we are told, re-
quire hotter houses. and foolish and fantastic schemes are
afloat for some State machinery which is to empty the towns
into the country. Well, are there no such things as land
companies and building companies? And is there any
reason why in every town artisans should not l,e able to
build and buy their own houses, paying for them gradually
its in many thousand cues they have done already! Rut, it
is asked, why should not the State unde?take this work I
answer that State agency is not wanted to give you a house
or anything else at the fair market price, and if the pro-
posal is to give it for less than a fair price, for less than
it costs, nett you are opening a door which will let in noire
than you think for. (Hear, hear.) If houses arc to be
supplied on those terms, why not clothes, why not meat, why
not bread ? And so you come to what is almply uni-
versal and undisguised pauperism. • Cheers.) Again, there
are great outcries about the adulteration of articles of food.
By all means punish adulterator., if you can catch thon,
and I ahould agree that as the law Mande they get off too
ea.sily : but surely for that abuse---and ft is a very great one
—the beat and simplest remedy is the co.operatlve store,
which you can set up for yourselves without asking help
or fearing hindrance from any man. (Applause ) I don't
tell you in so many word' that the State should take
on itself no functions except those which it actually per-
forms but I do tell you that the tendency to enlarge In-
definitely the scope slit, duties is one to be watched with
great jealousy. (Hear, hear There is risk of ertravagance
and jobbery; there is discouragement to individual enter-
prise ; there is km of individual self-reliance there is ilia.
content caused by the disappointment of unreasonable ex-
pectations , and, if time allowed, a good deal might be saint
mite the way in which these evils have been and are felt in
other countries in which governmental interference is carried
further than here. Applause)

- -
IitEL.iND —" ROME RULE" AND EDUCATION.
The least satisfactory part of our national position is, to
my mind, the slate 1,1 Ireland. We have exhausted the list
of what, rightly or wrongly, have been considered remedial
measures. The Church is disestablished and disendowed ;
the land has been practically handed over to the peasantry.
No further sacrifice of the kind remains to be made. And

what are yotti• thanks') Why, the disaffected party tell
you that but for the Fenian movement the Church would
still have been on its legs, and but for the shooting of land-
lords and agents the demands of the peasantry would
never have been listened to. And don't let an deceive
ourselves. gentlemen when they say that, they are not
far from the truth. If Ireland had remained quiet, you
would have heard nothing of a church Act or a Land
Act. • Cheers.) Well, is that state of things • dis-
couragement to future agitation? You are now face to
face with two claims which you must resist—one the claim
of the Ultrammitane party to control all education : the
other the demand 10r what is called home
which, as every child can see, practically means Irish inde-
pendence. Rear, hear," and cheers.) Nobody supposes
that an Irish Parliament would confine itself for a single
Session Co feat affairs, or that anything short of the Consti-
tution of 1702 would satisfy those who have raised the cry.
(hear.) Ido not argue that point, because happily it is
not one on which there will he two opinions in England.
Cheers.) But Idu think that the other question to which
I refer—that of education—will require to be closely
watched. There are a good many politicians alto believe
1,, the theory of governing Ireland through the Catholic
clergy, and I think some leanings In that direction may be
observed in Ye] y high qnarters. Now that is a system to
which there are two objections: one, that the English
nation (wh(ch, after all, has a vice In the matter) will at
endure it; the other, that even Alit could be acted upon, the
Catholic clergy do not by any means possess the power
which is commonly ascribed to them. Their strength has
Min in following the popular feelieg which they seem to
lead, and if that feeling points in the direction of repeal they
will be Repeaters to a man. (Cheers.) I have no great
rcheme to propose, nor do I believe in ally remedy of that
sort: (If ear, hear.) I agree with Lord Ilartington that there
Is nothing to be done except to allow patience and firmness,
and I hope that when we mine to learn what Is intended,
we may find the policy of Ministers such as we are able
honestly to suppet.