The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-05-22 00:00:00

LORD SALISBURY ON THE CRISIS.

The Marquis of Salisbury, speaking at a Conserva-
tive demonstration in London on baturday, said he
had to congratulate the delegates of the National
Union upon the good work they had done in the re-
organisation—the salutary reorganisation—which had
been effected, and to express the hope, which he be-
lieved the future would fully verify, that the union of
provincial and London efforts would consolidate the
Conservative cause, and so contribute to a final
victory. (Hear, hear.) He was glad that his words
with respect to the Irish question at Newport had
been quoted, which their opponents had systema-
tically ignored—that their policy would be the
traditional policy of the Irish Party. (Cheers.)
Could he state their opinions in more forcible
language? Was there any doubt with regard to
the policy of Mr. Pitt, Lord Castlereagh, Mr.
Canning, Sir Robert Peel, and Lord Beaconsfield E
(Cheers.) The maintenance of the Union was
the unbroken tradition of the Tory Party. They
had never attempted to conceal their policy, nor
had they attempted to give any encouragement
to a Party of Separation. (Cheers.) With regard to the
Irish question, which was now before them, that had
been thoroughly thrashed out, and it would be almost
an insult to the meeting to ask them to enter into the
details of Mr. Gladstone's proposals. ("No, no.")
But he did not think it was necessary that he should
examine the proposals of the Government at any
length. (Hear, hear.) They were of as little inte-
rest to him as the opinion of a man who was lying
upon his death-bed. (Cheers and laughter.) He was
more concerned to remind them that their duty did
not begin and end with the proposals of the Govern-
ment. (Hear, hear.) There was fair ground for
hoping that by this time next week these proposals
would be matter of history. (Loud cheers.) But the
question would survive, and they had a long fight
before them. If Mr. Gladstone had been able to do
nothing else—(groans and cries of "Traitor "—he had
been able to impose upon them the necessity of vigil-
ance and activity through many a long year to root
out the poisonous weeds he had sown with so un-
sparing a hand. (Cheers.) Therefore, he would
rather invite their attention to the battle they had to
fight, rather than to the battle which was now nearly
won. He would not deal with the manifold absurdities
of the bill now under consideration—(hear, hear)—
but when he saw the Government wriggling this way
and wriggling that—(a laugh)—at one time trying to
conciliate Mr. Parnell, and at another Mr. Chamber-
lain, he could have little faith in them, and he could
not accept the conclusions they arrived at. (Hear.
hear.) He never saw a better piece of poli-
tical legerdemain in his life—(laughter)--but this
it had proved that the problem which Mr. Gladstone
sought to solve was incapable of solution, or if he
took the analogy of a gentleman in the gallery the
pea they wanted to hide could not be concealed.
(Loud laughter.) The Government were trying the
impossible—they were trying politically to square the
circle. (Renewed laughter.) When they tried to
satisfy the English they were telling the Irish they
were to have full control over an Irish Parliament,
and they could not put the two things together.
(Cheers.) They told the Irish landlords and Iris's
loyalists that they were taking ample securities,
whilst at the same time they told the Irish
Nationalists that the loyalists and the landlords would
he left entirely in their hands. (Hear and "Shame.")
They could thus see how impossible was the task
which Mr. Gladstone had undertaken to perform.
(Cheers.) It was known that the Irish Party were
willing to give up all matters of form so long as they
could have a Parliament of their own, and so long as
the loyal classes were handed over to them; but that
never could be accomplished. (Loud cheers.) There
was another point to which attention should be
directed—they should never forget that this was a
movement in favour of separation and what was
called independence. There was a bitter antagonism
towards England, but he desired them not for a
moment to suppose that measures which they were
willing to give in the way of local self-government
were in any way analogous to those of Home Rule.
(Hear, hear.) Local government was a good
thing, and he would press it forward any-
where. (Hear, hear.) It was a great blessing to men.
it educated them, and it got rid of that unbending
woodenness which was characteristic of Government
managed from a centre. (Hear, hear.) He had no
objection to social government being extended to Ire-
land if it were not intended to lead to something else,
but that was a matter of judgment which required to
be carefully considered. (Cheers.) They were con-
stantly told that no one desired separation—(" Oh."
and a laugh) —and that if Mr. Gladstone's proposals
were passed the desire for separation wouldsdisanpear.
("No, no.") But look at what had alrOldrY• taken
place when Mr. Gladstone began to take the fabric of
Ireland to pieces. They had all heard of the Upas
tree and the millennium of satisfaction, which was to
be the result of entrusting the axe to his hands.
(Laughter and cheers.) The axe was placed in Mr.
Gladstone's hands to wield it as he would in his own
Welsh woods-- (laughter)—but it had been a failure,
and if anyone had said Home Rule was at the back of
it it would have been called an infamous Tory slander.
(Cheers.) That would have been said quite honestly,
no doubt—(a laugh)—but then he did not complain
of Mr. Gladstone's dishonesty, but what he said was
that his assurances were not to be trusted. (Laughter
and cheers.) They had heard Mr. Gladstone say
that since the Fenian movement had been given up he
had been in favour of Home Rule—or rather, as he
described it, autonomy for Ireland.; hut was there a
single Liberal candidate at the last election who be-
lieved that their trustedleader in his mind was hatch-
ing a project forth° destruction of the Union. (Cheers.)
Referring to the composition of an Irish assembly,
the noble marquis said that the first cry of every ad-
vanced Irish Liberal to his constituents would be to
repudiate more and more the debt which England had
the insolence to demand. (Cheers.) The result of
that would be that something would be yielded, and
that public opinion would make a step in advance,
and that would be called "Progress." The word had
a different meeting in various countries. In this
country it meant something for the landlords. In
Ireland it meant getting rid of Irish debt, and assum-
ing to the utmost the honesty of the Irish representa-
tives. When they saki they were satisfied with the
proposed bills, they might depend upon it that each
remaining shred of the yoke of England would be
"shaken off and the debt repudiated. (Cheers.) Se-
paration and nothing else was the question on which
they had to decide (cheers), and he was sure that the
Conservative Party would do everything, and risk
everything, rather than to allow separation to take
place. (Renewed cheers.) There were two or three
words upon which the whole burden of the contro-
versy rested. The first was nation. Was Ireland a
" nation ? " If that meant a nation between certain
latitudes and longitudes, then he admitted that Ire-
land was a "nation ;" but if there was anything further
necessary, if they required the people to be homoge-
neous and to have historic traditions, then Ireland was
two nations. (Cheers.) Another word:was "confidence."
They were to have " confidence " in the Irish people.
Confidence, however, very much depended upon the
people they were to confide. (Hear, hear.) The
people of Ireland had become habituated to knaves and
slugs, which was inconsistent with placing confidence
in them. (Hear, hear.) Then there was the question
of religion. He for one would not say a word in dis-
paragement of the Roman Catholic religion, because
it had been a great messenger amongst great !multi-
tudes of their fellow creatures; but it had the pecu-
liarity that it had a wonderful system of discipline,
applied in the first instance to its spiritual objects,
but that high organisation of it ran in the hands of
men not worthy of it might. be made subservient to
secular uses, and the attainment of temporal ends.
(Cheers.) In Ireland, owing to the character of the
country, and the history of the people, the Roman
Catholics had been singularly exposed to misusing an
organisation means for high spiritual ends, and it was
impossible in contemplating the future of Ireland, in
contemplating the fate of its Loyalists—who were in
the main Protestant—to ignore the fact that their
confidence was seriously diminished, because that
grievously misused weapon was in the hands of their
opponents. (Cheers.) It was, therefore, impossible
to repose confidence in a country which consisted of
a doubly-divided people. (Hear, hear.) Confidence
could, in fact, only apply to a homogenous people
actuated by united effort. (Cheers.) He therefore,
asked them to repel with indignation and contempt any
proposal to confide in a people who differed from us in
race, and who, above all, differed amongst themselves.
(Hear, hear.) Another word was "coercion," and
when they heard it he would remind them that it
meant nothing else than preventing people from pro-
pagating their political opinions. (Hear, hear.) What-
ever rights they had, and whatever doctrines they
chose to preach, they must not shoot their landlord's
agent nor vivisect his cows because a difference
existed. (Hear, hear.) The doctrine set forth by
the Prime Minister, in his most ecclesiastical tone—
(laughter, and hear hear)—was that Irishmen should
be treated according to the facts and exigencies of the
day. All he (the noble lord) would say was that if
they would abandon the habit of mutilating, murder-
ing, and robbing, and of preventing honest persons
attached to England from earning their livelihood
they might be sure that there would be no de-
mand or necessity for coercion. (Cheers.) They
were told they had no alternative policy. His
alternative policy was that the Parliament of
England should govern Ireland. (Loud cheers.)
Apply that receipt honestly, consistently, and
resolutely for twenty years, and at the end of that
time Ireland would accept anything in the way of
local government or repeal of coercion they were will-
ing te give them. (Hear, hear.) If he were asked
for a further alternative policy he would only say
that if the Prime Minister was right in thinking that
the electors had screwed themselves up to that heroic
pitch that they would spend £150,000,000 on the
pacification of Ireland he thought he could point out
a better way of spending that money than in buying
out the landlords. (Cheers.) He did no say he
recommended it. He did not say that such a sum
should be borrowed, but, if borrowed, they would do
far better if they emigrated another million of the
Irish people to a distant colony, where they might
thrive and prosper—(hear)--and where they were
very much more likely to pay back their debts than
they would be in Ireland. (Cheers.) The result
would then be that wages would rise, and there
would be no need for the fantastic schemes which
were now before them. (Hear, hear.) He knew
that such a scheme would not be acceptable to
the Irish leaders, whose life was a political
agitatioss (Cheers.) If they removed the miseries

of Ireland, their cause and their greatness and in-
fluence would be gone:. Therefore he urged them to
look forward to a long and anxious contest. It would
require all their energy and vigilance to keep the
electors alive to the importance of the matter, and the
necessity of guarding our Imperial interests. (Cheers.)
There would be an early call upon them. Those who
knew Mr. Gladstone's language could not fail to see
that dissolution was at our doors. It would come in
a short time, and then would come the best of their
organisation, of their zeal and their power to work
for the destines of their country. (Cheers.) As far
as the Conservative party were concerned during the
recess, they had not entered into the agitation, they
had left it to those who had worked with Mr. Glad-
stone, and they had done so because it should not.
be said they had been actuated by personal motives
against the Prime Minister., (Cheers.) They were,
however, bound to join with those who were opposed
to the bill, of whatever party, in order to defeat
it, and they had already been told that the
alliance would not go further. (Hear, hear.) Ile
hoped that the agreement might increase, but under
any circumstances they must sharpen their swords
for the battle, for a victory which, he believed, was
secured. (Cheers.) They must not look to the right
or to the left--accept any assistance which might be
given, but, above all, rely upon their own right arm.
(Loud cheers.) Put country before party on every
occasion, and, above all, he urged them not to attempt
to take . any advantage of this split in the Liberal
ranks. (Cheers.) They must exercise some amount
of self-restraint, and it was for them in a moment sin-
gularly solemn—at a juncture which he might describe
as supreme—to determine whether this should be a
mere halt in the path of disintegration, or whether
they were determined to hand down to posterity a
united Empire, not only established but strengthened
by the ordeal through which it had passed. I(Loud
cheers.)