The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-05-07 00:00:00

THE IRISH QUESTION,

A great public meeting was held at Darlington on
Saturday night to protest against the Crimes Bill.
Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., who was the chief speaker,
asked whether this Parliament was elected upon the
cry of coercion. There was no charge which the
majority of Tory candidates and Liberal Unionists
more indignantly repudiated. The Ministry and
Parliament was going beyond its moral and equitable
lights and obligations in attempting to put down the
constitutional opinions of another country by force.
Mr. T. Fry, M.P., Mr. A. E. Pease, M.P., and Mr.
H. Fell Pease, M.P., also addressed the meeting, and
a resolution was unanimously adopted condemning
the Crimes Bill.

Lord StAlbridge and the Earl of Selborne addressed
a large meeting of agriculturists at the Town Hall,
Dorchester, on Saturday afternoon, in reference tc
the Crimes Bill. The meeting was of an enthusiastic
character. There was at first considerable interrup-
tion. Earl Selborne, in moving a resolution support-
ing the Government, maintained that the Liberal
Unionists were not at present supporting half so
harsh measures as were enacted under Mr. Gladstone's
Act of 1883, and though some persons thought people
in Ireland were being coerced, they were in reality,
when openly defying law and order, only being placed
under such laws as would repel similar crimes in Eng-
land.

On 'Tuesday evening a demonstration of Unionist
Liberals was held within the Christian Institute,
Glasgow. Mr. Chamberlain was the principal speaker.
He said that if Mr. Gladstone had liked, the Liberal
party ere this might have been reunited, and they
might have avoided all necessity for repressive legis-
laticn. That alternative had been pressed by Liberal
Unionists continually upon the country, and once or
twice it had seemed on the point of accomplishment.
Mr. Chamberlain then replied to various points
in Lord Rosebery's recent speech, and pro-
ceeded to say that there had been the dis-
cussion on the twenty-fourth clause, of Home
Rule Bill and offers had been made of conciliation.
Well, they had offered too much in the past, and he
was now glad that the Liberal Unionists' offer then
had not been accepted—(cheers)—because it might
have led to trouble and misconception and he re-
ferred to this as showing the anxiety that possessed
them to avoid that bitter conflict with old friends and
colleagues. The Unionists could make every sacrifice
short of sacrifices which, in their opinion, imperilled
the security of the Empire. (Cheers.) Mr. Chamber-
lain then proceeded to say that Mr. Parnell had been
accused by the Times newspaper of having written a
letter which, if he were really its author, convicted
him of professing at one and the same time to
the British public horror of the crime which
was committed in the Phenix Park, and also to
those who were concerned and connected with the
assassination a kind of qualified sympathy and en-
couragement. That was a tremendous accusation
under which no man of honour—(loud and prolonged
cheers)—could be content to rest for a moment, and
a simple denial in the House of Commons was not the
proper way to meet it. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) He
admitted the onus of proof lay on the newspaper
which had brought this accusation; a newspaper,
however, which, we must bear in mind, throughout
the course of its political career had never for sensa-
tional purposes brought accusations against any man;
had never brought accusations at all except in pursuit
of some great public purpose. (Cheers.) But the
onus of proof rested on the limes. The Timce
challenged Mr. Parnell to put it to the
proof in the only way that was possible, and if Mr.
Parnell shrank from taking up '.he gauntlet
—if he shrank from facing the ordeal of cross-ex-
amination—he said that every impartial, every in-
telligent man would feel that he had put himself in a
position in whickhe was no longer a safe or proper ally
for English statesmen. (Loud and continued cheer-
ing, several times renewed). But they must put Mr
Parnell altogether aside until he had taken steps to
refute the accusation brought against him. The right
hon. gentleman concluded by asserting that Mr
Gladstone by one single word of assent could bring
about to-morrow the reunion of the Liberal party.
(Hear, hear.) But unless that word was spoken, and
spoken soon, he said it would come too late to save
the Liberal party from disaster—(hear, hear)—and
he further said that the responsibility of this must rest
upon the shoulders of the men who while they
preached loudly the doctrine of conciliation, would
not lift even their little finger to give it a practueo
application. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)
Under the auspices of the National Union, a meet-
ing was held on Tuesday night in St. Jam' Hall,
Hall,
London, to express approval of the Ces
Bill. Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett. itz ded, and
Col. Saunderson, M.P. ^ .e., presi (Ireland)
(he principal speaker.
Resolutions were De
Government ..eci A t
approving the policy of the
..ua declaring that the charges made
againss 6ne Parnellites needed an explicit answer.
rtv..ai proceedings passed off without serious disturb-
ance. Sir John Lubbock, M.P., addressed a Unionist
meeting in South Islington, at which letters were
read from Lord Hartington, Mr. Goschen, and Mr.
Bright.