The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-06-11 00:00:00

EARL GRA.NVILLE.

Earl Granville presided on Monday afternoon at
the inaugural meeting of the Kent County Liberal
Council, IN hich was held in the National Liberal Club,

lames Embankment. There were also present Lord
..forthbourne, Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, M.P., Mr.
Shaw-Lefevre, M.P., the Mayor of Maidstone, and
others.

In the course of his opening address, Lord Granville
said: The measure which has been introduced by the
Government to deal with the land question has been
universally condemned by Conservative Irish peers, by
Nationalist members of Parliament, by landlords,
and by tenants, by the professional men connected
with land,. by Gladstonians, and by our Liberal
,friends who no longer act with us, and (it is so
little palatable to Conservatives themselves, that
I . heard one. of . the staunchest and most
honest of 'them . announce to a: Cabinet Minister
that it would be ignominously kicked out of the House
of Commons as soon as it arrived there. " (Cheers.)
A late colleague of mine (Lord Itosebery) has been
much called over the coals because he stated that the
question between the Government and us was simply
coercion or conciliation. I believe that statement
to be perfectly true. (Hear, hear.) It may be right
to coerce, it may be wrong to conciliate; but it is
on one of these alternatives which we have to decide.
(Hear, hear.) The Government say that the Crimes
Bill is not one of coercion, and a large number of
their supporters who pledged themselves against
coercion at the general election gladly adopted the
declaration. (Laughter.) I fail to understand the ex-
planation—it is a conundrum which baffles me. (Hear,
hear.) I feel like the man who said that that part
of his head was small which was intended to receive
things that are not clear. (Laughter.) I would
ask whether any of the 87 repressive measures which
had been passed were called by their promoters
Coercian Bills. No; they gave them more euphonious
and better sounding titles. Coercion is an acquired
taste. The appetite for it increases with eating.
Lord Salisbury began by wishing for what seemed to
him the short and moderate term of 20 years.
(Laughter.) He has now gone in for eternity.
(Laughter.) Are we, because, like others, we have
worked in this uniform groove of coercion, to be
blind to the failure of this policy—to act as if we had
not been made aware that it might drive disturbance
under the surface, but could not cure the disease?
(Hear, hear.) If it was legitimate for her Majesty's
Government, after obtaining aid from a new quarter,
to change in a few months from conciliation to
coercion, is it unlawful for us, after a longer ex-
perience, to be convinced that you must deal with the
malady and not with the symptoms? We are re-
proached with being acted upon by fear, and with an
alliance with the Parnellites. Is it quite fair to attri-
bute to us as our motive fear, and to exclude the pos-
sibility of our being influenced by in honest desire to
do what is best for Ireland and the Empire? But,
supposing that we are actuated only by that feeling
which Burke described as an early and provident
fear, the mother of security--a fear which was acted
upon in deeds, though perhaps not acknowledged in
words, by the Duke of Wellington, the greatest of
our soldiers, when he changed his opiniou on Catholic
emancipation; the fear felt by one of the bravest
and most brilliant of oar army, Lord Angelsey, when
he said that the question was whether he or O'Connell
should rule in Iceland; by Lord Wellesley after his
experience of despotic rule in India, when he stated
that it was safer in Ireland to violate the law than to
obey it, and this during the continuance of Lord
Oro% Coercion Bill, the most severe one up to the
time of the present proposal—l believe we might stand
othfttrisotive alone, although we certainly do not
do 'so. (Hear, hear.) There is much in the past
history of the Irish members, and quite apart from
the dreadful and Unproved charges which have been
brought against them, and from the investigation
of which the Conservative majority of the House of
Commons has shrunk—(hear, hear)—of which we
cannot approve. There is much that now goes on in
Ireland with which we do not agree. There are
scenes enacted on both sides of the House of Com-
mons, not alone on the Irish benches—(cheers)—
which jar with my recollections of what, in my time,
was thought correct in that illustrious assembly.
But are these sufficient reasons why we should reject
the support of those who constitutionally represent
Ireland on matters which we believe are vital to the
interests of that island and to the greater interests of
the Empire? (Cheers.) And if we are wrong, which
I utterly deny, have those the right to taunt us who,
until they could do without their votes, undoubtedly
cultivated close relations with the Irish members?
(Hear.) It has been said that our policy is out-
rageous and diabolical. That is strung, but a little
vague. (Laughter.) Our policy may be wrong, but
I doubt whether diabolical is the appropriate epithet
for a course which is based on the principles laid down
by Mr. Grattan, Mr. Burke, and Mr. Fox, a policy
the neglect of which lost us the United States, and
the pursuance of which has secured to us the loyalty
and affection of all the great English-speakino,
colonies. (Cheers.) That such a policy is diabolicaal
you will not agree. At all events, I hope you will
not think we are quite so black as we are painted,
but that we are striving for the one chance of uniting
Ireland in reality and not merely in name to this
country. (Cheers.)
Mr. Shaw-Werra, M.P., and Mr. Campbell-
Bannerman, M.P., also addressed the meeting.
_ _ _ _ _ . .

- • .
Mr. Campbell-Bannerman was elected first presi-
dent of the Liberal Connell.
MR.. GLADSTONE'S RETURN FROM WALES
Mr. Gladstone left Swansea at 8.40 on Tuesday
morning and proceeded to Cardiff, where he had a
nrigniflcent reception. He addressed some thou-
sands of people in the Park Hall, dealing mainly
with the overwhelming Colonial; Continental, and
American opinion in favour of Home Rule and in
condemnatien of England's treatment of Ireland.
He then went by special train to Newport, where
there was another great demonstration in his honour
and a second meeting. There Mr. Gladstone chal-
lenged the Government to facilitate the passing of
the Coercion Bill by giving Irish combinations the
same protection as 'English _combinations enjoyed,
and bylibandoning tie insulting proposal to make the
bill permanent.. At Gloucester he claimed that on
he Made grehtOforts• to show. that hia
,Obittet.,, was iinperial: iact" national, as distinguiphed
kon4i*ity, and at Swindon luef. invited his political
„opponents to.followihe eiainPle of Wellington and
Disraeli, and themeelvei *pi* What the country
wanted. He promised-Liberal. stippOrt. The arrival
at London at six o'clock was devoid of incident..