The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-02 00:00:00

THE STOURBRiDGE OBSERVER.

first attain-pi Made by any Government to give affirms.
tive and permanent effect to the proposition that force
was a remedy for the ills of Ireland. Its effect would
be to affix upon the Irish people a brand of inferiority,
and to cause a retrogression in the great social pro-
gress which they bad happily made. Since the
judgment of the Liberal party had been pronounced
upon the claim of Ireland to self-government there had
been a diminution in crime and outrage such as was
never before known, and so long asi the Irish party
maintained an attitude of moderation and legality the
Liberal party would resist these deplorable proposals,
convinced that in serving the cause of Ireland they
were still more effectually serving the cause of Great
Britain and its world-wide Empire.
The Ohancellor of the Exchequer, adverting to th
now admitted union between the Liberal party and thfl
Irish Nationalists, asked the House to consider thet
danger which was involved in that admission. Supposingi
that union should not continue so cordial as it was ati
present, where would then be the influence for
moderation and legality which the Liberal party now
exercised? Mr. Gladstone and his party were, in
fact, at the mercy of the National League. It WAS
a gross misrepresentation of the intentions of the
Government to say that their only remedy was an im-
provement of the law for the punishment of criminals;
they had repeatedly declared that this bill was
not their sole remedy, but was intended to frus-
trate designs which otherwise would render nuga-
tory the land legislation which they looked to as
the true remedy for the existing intolerable uondition
of Ireland. This bill was to secure liberty to all classes
of the community, and to restore that liberty which
was essential to the development of any reforms that
might be passed. The Government did not base their
case upon the statistics of crime, but upon the fact
that the National League had established its supremacy
in almost every corner of Ireland, and could now
accomplish without outrage those objects to attain
which it formerly resorted to outrage. It was notorious
that the Irish tenants were subiect to a complete
system of terrorism, that the administration of justice
was breaking down,that criminals escaped unpunished,
and that juries could not be relied upon to return
verdicts according to the evidence. The Government
were deeply impressed with the necessity of bringing
criminals to justice, and at the same time of not
neglecting the consideration of the safety of the loyal
jurors in Ireland. The mere fact that out of 1056
cases of agrarian crime last year only 64 were punished
was sufficient to establish a case for strengthening the
criminal law, and it was upon this failure of justice
and upon the intolerable cruelty of the system of boy-
cotting which prevailed rather than upon statistics of
actual crime that the Government based their demand
for an amendment of the criminal law before proceed-
ing with measures by which they hoped to restore the
prosperity of Ireland.
In the coarse of subsequent discussion, Mr. Winter-
botham, as a Liberal Unionist, protested against a
resort to the worn-out policy of coercion, not only as a
tactical blander, but as being fatal to the prospects of
Liberal Unionism.

Mr. Hayes Fisher reminded the House that although
remedial measures were prescribed in the report of
Lord Cowper's Commission, it was also laid down as
absolutely necessary, before those measures could have
any effect, that steps for the restoration of law and
order should be taken by her Majesty's Government.
Mr. F. W. Maclean having spoken in support of, and
Mr. Neville and Mr. Illingworth against, the motion,
the debate was again adjourned on the motion of Mr.
M‘Neill.
The House rose at 20 minutes to one o'clock.