The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-02-13 00:00:00

MR. GLADSTONE AND HIS
CONSTIT UENTS.

Mr. Gladstone has issued the following address to
the electors of Mid-Lothian:

Gentlemen,—Having received a commission from
her Majesty to form a Government, and having per-
sonally accepted the office of First Lord of the
Treasury, I have once more to solicit a renewal of
the trust which little more than two months ago you
confided to me with so marked an expression of the
sentiment of the constituency.
I need not now, as in September last, trouble you
with any lengthy exposition of my views, either on
Liberal policy at large or on those grave questions
affecting Ireland, the apprcach of which it was not
difficult to discern, and which have since come into
the first rank of political interest. I see no came to
modify any of the leading declarations of my last
address, either on pending subjects of British legisla-
tion or on the basis and the necessary limits of a
policy for Ireland..

- I 1:-tad earnestly hoped that the late Government
might have been enabled to make proposals adequate
to the needs of the sister island, but at the mon' era
when an issue altogether separate put an end to the
existence of the Ministry it had become evident that
this hope must be abandoned. There were three
great Irish questions demanding our care—social
order, the settlement of the land question, and a
widely-prevalent desire for self-government, extending
beyond what is felt in Great Britain, as to local
affairs, but necessarily subject in all respects to the
law of Imperial unity. It was made plain last week
that whilst all ideas of local government for Ireland
receded further and further into the distance, and
while on this very ground it was hardly possible to
hope for any enlarged handling of the land question,
the one broad proposal with which Parliament was
to be invited to deal was a renewal of special and
re-trictive provisions for the criminal law of Ireland.
This was to be the question of the hour—perhaps the
work of the session.

It will be among the very first duties of the new Go-
vernment to use its official opportunities for forming
such an estimate as only a Ministry can form of the social
state of Ireland, especially with regard to crime, to
the fulfilment of contracts, to the pressure of low
prices upon agriculture, and to personal liberty of
action. The course of policy as a whole cannot be
considered without reference to this examination, but
beyond all doubt the hope and purpose of the new
Government in taking office is to examine carefully
whether it is not practicable to try some other method
af meeting the present case of Ireland, and minister-
ing to its
,wants, both social and political—some
method more safe and more effectual, going nearer to
the source and the seat of the mischief, and offering
more promise of stability than the method of separate
and restrictive criminal legislation.
To this task we shall address ourselves under a pro-
found sense of the responsibility which in this fz ee
country weighs upon the people of the three king-
doms, but which is especially concentrated upon the
advisers of the Crown. Where so many risks and
obstacles beset the path we shall not lightly count
upon a favourable issue. But we have no doubt as
to the great purpose which should guide our course;
and we shall draw comfort from the belief that we
are engaged in a work of peace.—l remain, gentle-
men, your faithful and grateful servant,
London, Feb. 4. W. E. GLADSTONE.