Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-08
THE QUEENS SPEECH.

The Queens speech at the opening OF
Parliament shows that the Government
has at last determined to resort to stronger
measures in Ireland It is intended to
bring forward the new Irish land bill at
the same time that additional powers are
asked for. The position of Mr.. Glad
stones Government is an exceedingly diff
cult one, not only in regard to Ireland, but
in regard to the foreign policy of the coun-
try. The Tories are equipped with weapons
which the Land League has placed i'll
their hands, and they are also enabled to
make capital out of the direct results Of
their own blunders Every embarrassment
from which the present Government suf-
fers, outside of the United Kingdom, may
be traced to their predecessors in Office ;
yet it is evident that Lord BeaconsEeld and
his party intend to act precisely as though
the present Government had brought on all
the trouble in Afghanistan, Turkey,
Greece. Basuto Land and the Transvaai.
The speech from the throne emphasizes
the purpose of the Government to urge for
ward land reform in Ireland, at the same
time that efforts are being made to stamp
out the terrorism and intimidation which
the Land League has established.
The Irish leaders appear to have
made one very serious mistake In their
programme. Il has been said, and with
much truth that heretofore Irish reforms
have only been gained by outbursts of law
Iessness. So long as the irish people
obeyed the laws they were permitted to
grumble as much as they pleased, but
when they adopted an aggressive policy
Parliament listened to them. This ex-
perience appears to have gwen the cue
to the present agitation. 1t was argued
that policy which had succeeded so well
in the past ought to- have as good effects
now But it does not seem to have been
realized that now for the first time in many
years there was a Government which
could be trusted to press Irish land
reform measures, and that therefore the
adoption of an aggressive course could
only embarrass and might eventually
ALLEVIATE it. Mr.. Gladstone is not the man
to recede from measures he believes to be
right because the people to be benefited by
them are not behaving nationally; but his
ability to press those measures is likely
to depend very greatly upon the prejudices
of Parliament, and he cannot but feel that
those whom he desires to aid are obstruct-
ing his policy. The Tories in the present
session will have congenial role to fill.
Representing as they do the strongest con
sentative elements, and especially that
powerful landed interest which feels its
very existence threatened by the proposal to
erect a peasant proprietary in Ireland,
they will ring the changes on the lawless,
ness of the Land League, will expatiste
upon the Irish agrarian outrages, and Will
leave no stone unturned to infaIne and
intensity the popular prejudice against
Irish turbulence and violence. They are
well aware that the working classes OF Eng
land have very little understanding of or
sympathy with, Irish grievances, and they
will represent the Liberal programme as
involving the destruction of all the most
venerable British institutions.