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

THE IRISH QUESTION,

MR. GLADSTONE IN WALES.-GREAT
DEMONSTRATION.

Exceptionally fine weather favoured the Eemon-
station of the Welsh and Monmouthshire Liberals at
Singleton A.bbey on Saturday afternoon, and it is
estimated that the deputations which took parr in the
proceedings included 35,000 persons. Mr. and Mrs.
Gladstone, with whom were the Rev. S.Gladstone, their
host, Sir Hussey Vivian, M.P., Lords Kensington and
Aberdare, and a number of Welsh members of Par-
liament, took his place on a dais in front of the
abbey shortly after noon, and the procession, which
had marched in the most orderly way from the town,
occupied four hours in passing him. Upwards of 50
addresses, including one from Cork and one from the
Nonconformist ministers of Wales, were presented to
the right hon. gentleman, as well as several axes and
other souvenirs. The proceedings were of the most
enthusiastic character. Almost immediately after
, the last portion of the procession had passed by, Mr.
Gladstone mounted a chair, and addressed the large
concourse of people assembled in front of the house.
The right hon. gentleman, who was loudly cheered,
said they had witnessed that day a wonderful and
affecting sight. (Cheers.) It was wonderful from the
magnitude of what they had seen. The bands and
the banners, even taken by themselves, would have
furnished material for a glowing description. Let him
select for commendation one banner, upon which was
written in words of eloquence and truth," Union of
hearts, not of manacles." (Cheers.) The he
the people were moved because they were meta>.
occasion which was imperial, Irish, and Welsh. (Frear,
hear.) It was imperial, because the character and
honour of the Empire required that an end should be
put to the painful relations between England and
Ireland, which, he grieved to say, for centuries had
shocked the feelings and the judgment of the Whole
civilised world. It was Irish because Ireland
had the deepest irterest in their proceed-
ings, inasmuch as the object was to restore
social order, and to bring the feelings of the, people
into harmony with the action of the law. (Cheers.)
It was also a Welsh occasion. He could not express
the satisfaction witila which he observed the firm
determination of Prbtestant Wales to do justice, and
nothing less than full justice, to Roman Catholic
Ireland. (Cheers.) Referring to the disputed ques-
tion as to the nationality of Wales, he said, although
, they were a distinct nationality, that did not mean
f 'that they were disunited from England—it meant
closer union with England. (Cheers.) The recogni-
tion of the distinctive qualities of the separate parts
of great countries azi empires constituted the true
basis of union, and the attempt to centralise them by
destroying their local peculiarities was the shallowest
philosophy and the worst possible of all practical
blunders. (Cheers.) After contending that Wales
had a distinct nationality, by showing that England
had built castles to control their nationality, that
Wales had a separate Church from England and
separate saints, he went on to say that Wales had
not only a nationality, but it had a grievance.
He was not going to compare the grievances,
or, as it was better to call them, the inconveniences,
of Wales with the grievances of Ireland. He was not
going to compare the history of the relations between
England and Wales with the deplorable, disgraceful,
-thocking, and revolting history—(hear, hear)—of the
relations between England and Ireland. Anxious as
he wise to put an end to the sorrows of Ireland, and
to bring her people and her laws into a regular
state, he was yet more anxious to live to see the day—
if God should grant him that enormous favour—when
—the deepest stain that lay on the English character
and reputation should be removed by the final work
of doing justice to Irish grievances. (Cheers.) The
inconveniences of Wales had received insufficient
attention because she had been too patient and too
silent. (Hear, hear.) He wished to remind them
that their representatives should, in moderation and
subject to the claims of imperial patriotism, lay their
heads together, and consider what were the fair claims
of Wales. (Hear, hear.) He was not going to deal
with Welsh questions on that occasion, further
than to say that he was very well aware there
were Welsh questions in which they were deeply in-
terested. So far as these questions were settled, they
should be settled according to the views of the people
of Wales. (Cheers.) Many of them were anxious to
deal with the question of disestablishment. (Cheers.)
He had had a hand in a piece of disestablishment
himself, but he was going to be very stinted and
jejune on this subject. He meant to do nothing
except to give his adhesion to what he called the
Hartingtonian principle. When Lord Hartington
was leading the Liberal party in the time of the
Beaconsfield Ministry he went into Scotland for
a more useful purpose than he had recently done,
and in reply to a question Lord Ilartington said that
the question whether there should continue to be an
Established Church in Scotland ought- toji be settled
according to the views and convictions of the- Scotch:TT
That was what he (Mr. Gladstone) called the Hans
tingtonian principle, and he was a thorough Har-
tingtonian in the adoption of that principle,
1 (Laughter and cheers.) Whether it were in England,
j Scotland, or Wales, it was according to the views of
the people that the matter should be decided. -
(Cheers.) There were many other things. Theme
was the tithe question. He had read with regret
the proceedings in connection with the collection of
tithes in North Wales. He was not going to enter now
into that question, though he thought it extremely
urgent that the question should be discussed. All he
bad to say was, first, in one respect he was glad that
these disturbances were in Wales, and not in Ireland,
because if they were in Ireland they would imme-
diately introdtice a ñ'ew Coercion Bill—(laughter)—
and, secondly, they illustrated his position that Welsh
questions which were urgent could not be discussed in
consequence of the state, of business in Parfiament. -
There were gentlemen of imagination so lively and '
partisanship so keen as to say that he was the man
who had caused Ireland to have the baneful, de-
plorable, and grievous monopoly of the time of Par-
liament. That was fundamentally untrue. (Cheers.)
It was not he who had made the Irish question the
leading subject in the House of Commons, nor was it
Lord Salisbury and the Tories. The Liberal party had
always said that it was a question either of coercion
or remedy. From the moment Ireland enjoyed
the same large extension of the franchise as
England and Wales, and used her power to.
return 86 Nationalist members out of 101—
for he did not regard the Dublin University
members as members for Ireland—it was de-
monstrated that, until the great and funda-
mental sore of Ireland could be healed, that wound
was so grievous and so deep that the Irish question in
one shape or another must be the primary, cardinal,
and absorbing subject of the deliberation of Pasha-
merit—(hear, hear)—and so it had been. Last year
the late Government took up the time of Parliament
with the discussion of Home Rule. This year the
present Government had taken up the time of the
House of Commons, even taking all private members'
nights, in devising a more powerful instrument in the
shape of new Procedure Rules for coercing and re-
pressing the Irish members, and in driving forward
their wanton, insidious, and insulting Coercion Bill
for Ireland. (Cheers.) It was therefore too bad for
the Prime Minister to say that a gigantic engine of
obstruction was being wielded by Mr. Gladstone when
the "miserable minority" to which he belonged only
numbered one-fourth of the House. He admitted
that the progress of the Coercion Bill had been slow,
but this was because it had been badly framed, wanting
in basis of facts, extravagant and indecent in its objects,
and badly managed from everypoint of view. (Cheers.)
What did the effeminate complaints of Lord- Saha;
bury and his majority mean? That Ireland did not
take her flogging quietly, that Ireland would howl &-
little when the lash was administered. It Wf4l this
which caused the delay in the business of the country,
and no doubt Parliament was extremely fatigued over
this flagellating process. (Hear, hear.) We had been
flogging Ireland,with rare intermissions, for centuries,
and it was no wonder the operation eot a little
fatiguing. It was no wonder Lord Salisbury's arm
was tired, and he would tell his lordship that it would
get more and more tired, for it was impossible per-
manently to govern a free people by coercion in the
light of day and in the atmosphere of freedom
which happily pervaded this country. (Cheers.)
If Parliament was to be free to deal
with the British questions remaining for so-
lution, it must clear the Irish question out
of the way. The late Government went to work in
this fashion last year, but were the present Government
clearing the lie? If this were a lost year in legisla-
tion, it would be better than what it had been.
It had not been a negative year, it had
not been a year with results equal to zero—
it had been a year occupied in steadily and even
fiercely going backwards. Everything had been
sacrificed to this miserable bill, which might possibiy
become law; and when it became law it would leave
us much further from the final and necessary solution
of the question than we ware at the beginning of the
session of the present year. If at the last election
the people of England had concurred with the people
of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and the ltte Govern-
ment been allowed to proceed with its deign, though
a few months would have been lost, the Irish ques-
tion might have been settled by this time (Cheers.)
They would please remember also that tht opposition
of the Liberal party to the present Goverament's bill
was not because it was .an attempt to give more
stringency to the law against crime, but because it
was striking against combinations whch in this
country were known under the name of trades
unions. He was confident that the prorsed legis-
lation was condemned by the bulk of the people
of this country. (Cheers.) He uned them
to cultivate union of sentiment b extend
their knowledge, especially their historital know-
ledge of the Irish people to this extent, that they
were human beings—(cheers)—full of node quali
ties, and whose defects could be traced to tie oppres-
sion they had suffered for centuries. Irelsid was no
more made to be governed .by force than Nabs'', or
Empire,Ce
ierfrs ttsee'r)n
England, or Scotland. This government by force
was at the root of nearly all her miseries, aid nine-
teen-twentieths of her sins. If. they tek. their
stand e
their
upon o
cause
ehwant
sunoodretnai
certain,
laenpdrotnpoeysitwioono,ldthberhmemerpoh
by the assurance that they had the sympathy appro-
bation, and prayers on then. behalf of the British
Christendom
mthme Anungglontatzeonn
of
cteh,eanwtiod.f ivajoilisnedd
people returned to their homes
some speeches from local gentlema, the