The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-15 00:00:00

MR. SEXTON, 11.13., AT BELFAST.

Mr. Sexton, M.P. for West Belfast, was entertained
by his friends and supporters at a banquet in St.
Mary's Hall, Belfast. Upwards of 300 sat down to
dinner, and the balconies were filled with ladies. Mr.
Thomas M'Clelland, President of the Belfast Home
Rule Association, presided. A large number of
letters of apology were read, amongst them being the
following: "Hawarden, January 6,1887. Dear Sir,—
I thank you and the promoters of the banquet to Mr.
Sexton very much for the honour you have done me
in sending me an invitation, but I am under medical
orders to avoid all festivals of this character. I feel
sure that the proceedings will, on the part of your
distinguished representative, and of all who may share
in them, be such as to bear the broadest and clearest
line drawn between them and the actors in those de-
plorable riots of which :every good citizen of Belfast
must eagerly desire to efface the memory.—Believe
me yours very faithfully and obediently, W. E.
GLADSTONE."

Letters:from:Mr. John Morley, M.P., Mr. H. Fowler,
M.P., Mr. Labouchere, M.P., the Marquis of Ripon,
Mr. A. Illingworth, M.P., and several members of
the Irish Parliamentary Party were also read.
II The Chairman then proposed "Home Rule for
Ireland," to which toast Mr. Andrew M'Clean and
Mr. John Duddy responded.

The toast of "Mr. Parnell and the Irish Parlia-
mentary Party" was proposed by Mr. M. J. O'Leary,
and responded to by Mr. M'Cartan.

Mr. M`Hugh gave "Mr. Gladstone M.P., and
the Great Liberal Party," which was replied to by Mr.
J. Acheson, J.P., Portadown, and Mr. Connybeare,
M.P.

The Chairman then briefly proposed "Our Guest,"
a toast which was enthusiastically honoured.
Mr. Sexton, on rising, was received with prolonged
cheers. He said he could make no attempt to express
to them the gratitude he felt for the honour they had
done him in coupling his name with that great demon-
stration of public feeling and opinion, and for the
hearty and unmistakeable cordiality with which they
had received the toast. While he felt that gratitude
he could not disguise from himself the true character
of the occasion. That occasion was not of a personal,
it was essentially of a public character; it was what
Mr. Gladstone had called in the letter read that night
a "political festival." They had met to celebrate
the victory won in that division. Their victory there
was not a work of chance, nor the result of a moment;
it was the fruit of steady organisation and of public
spirit executed by humble men, such as he in his
life had never known to be equalled. Their victory
was won in the right place; it was won in that
citadel which claimed for itself the power not only
of repulsing any invader, but also of sending forth
legions across the Boyne, even to ford the ',Liffey.
(Laughter.) Their victory, too, was won at the right
moment, when statesmen of two parties were assuring
the world that Irishmen were two nations, when in-
citements to disorder and stimulants to riots were
being uttered and sown broadcast by eminent persons
outside Belfast, and by persons eminent in their own
esteem within it. The question of Home Rule had
come before the people; the fate of Ireland was
trembling in the balance, and it was at this moment,
when an appeal was being made to the conscience of
the British race, that the electors of West Belfast, by
electing him, proved, as had been proved already in
thirty-one counties in Ireland, in the thirty-second
county here, on the soil of Antrim, in the capital of
the North, the cause of Ireland had sons as true and
faithful as anywhere else in their motherland. (Ap-
plause.) A breach had been made, a passage had
been forced, the flag had been planted. An
impression had been made upon the public mind of
Britain, and the influence of their bold stroke,
and of their great victory in Belfast could never
be recalled, and the effect of it could never be
undone. (Hear, hear.) Ho thought their opponents
would now agree with him that it would have been
well to let the Nationalists have their victory in peace.
The Nationalists set them a good example in the pre-
vious November, but they thought they would resort
to a petition—(laughter)—and by a system of calumny
they accused him, his agents and friends, of every
offence known to the electoral law. When the hour
of trial came, however, they swallowed the great bulk
of their charges, and the final result was that the peti-
tion was dismissed, with costs. (Laughter.) He lady
received five writs from residents of Belfast, asking
him to pay them £5OO each in respect to circum-
stances of which he was utterly ignorant. He could
only say that if it was law they wanted he would give
them as much law as they pleased, but as little of any-
thing else except law as possible. (Laughter.) He never
cast the blame of those deplorable riots which took
place in Belfast on any particular section of the popu-
lace, but he had cast it upon those eminent politicians
and men of influence in the town who had misused
their position, and influenced the passions of men for
their own base ends. When he heard that night the
wise words addressed to them by that great states-
man who appealed to them as good citizens to en-
deavour to efface those riots from their memories, he
said that with all their hearts they should respond to
the appeal. He felt it his duty at the opening of the
Sessions to refer to those riots in the House of
Commons. He made several important recommenda-
tions regarding the constituency and the magistrates,
and he did not regret the effort he made to get Sir
John Day appointed as President of the Royal Com-
mission which eat and investigated into those riots.
He felt confident that when the Report of that Com-
mission was produced, it would be found that most
of the recommendations be had made would pass
into law; and though the Government defeated his
amendment, he cared little about that as long al
they were obliged to act upon his advice. The ques-
tion arose, how stands the National cause, and to
answer that he must ask two others—how stand the
relations at this moment between the Anglo-Irish
Government and the people of Ireland, and how
stands the Government itself? For the Government
the prospects were utterly gloomy, and for the people
splendidly hopeful. They were told that this was a
firm and reeolute Government. He thought it was
the people of Ireland who were firm and resolute,
and that the Government were shifty, hypocritical,
and shaky. He warned the Government that they
were at present going too far, and if they pursued
their course of action much longer they would find
that to be the case. (Hear, hear.) If he, as a juror,
were called to do duty, and, being present to do it,
was orde:ed to stand aside, he would not stand
aside; he would either go into the jury box or
know the reason why. How would the Government
do it if the Catholics decided they would not
attend as jurors again unless they got an assur-
ance that they would be placed on an equality
with their Protestant fellow - countrymen? He
warned the Government that if they were
to have justice administered at all, they would have to
abandon the system of insulting jurors. The Govern-
ment were shocked by the Plan of Campaign. Which
plan? flee plan talked of in public fairly and frankly
by representative men, or the plan worked out in
secret, and by means which they were afraid to con-
fess, by the Government themselves? He could not
understand why the Plan of Campaign should shock
any Government. It was always the practice in
Ireland for tenants to take united action when pav-
ing their rents to their landlord, ar d when he did
not accept their terms they put their money back into
their pockets to await the development of the land-
lord's mind. The only difference now was that they
nut it back into a common fund. (Hear, hear.)
He was certain that in the present struggle between
the people and the Government on this question
the people were bound to win. (Applause.) How stood
the Government? He thought it was rapidly giving
way. It was only by courtesy it could be called a
Government. Since the first moment of its existence
it had to depend on others. It was always helpless,
but it now had become mendicant. The Liberal
Unionist Party had been shattered to pieces by the
touch of Lord Randolph Churchill's finger. Lord
Randolph saw the Government ship was sinking, and
straightway made for the gangway. (Laughter.) As to
Home ltule, he wished to warn the Liberal Leaders
that the Irish people would never accept a smaller
bill than that of Mr. Gladstone. (Applause.) If that
measure was refused to them, or unduly delayed,
they might have to ask for more hereafter, but let
the Liberal members remember that the question
must be one of first urgency.
Mr. Sexton concluded a speech of an hour and a-
halt's duration amid loud cheers.