The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-04-14
Mr.. GladstOne's Plan.

There was memorable scene in the
British parliament last Thursday, when
Mr.. Gladstone, in one of the greatest
speeches of his long public career, un-
folded his scheme of home-rule for Ire
land. Many hours before the opening
of the session members flocked to the
house of commons to obtain seats, all
the available room in the building was
utilized, and the streets without were
crowded with interested spectators
The public interest throughout the
kingdom was not less intense. At
Gladstone's entrance to the house he
was greeted with enthusiastic cheers by
the liberal and Irish party, but the con-
servatives were silent. Mr.. Gladstone
spoke for nearly three and one-half
hours with great vigor and earnestness.
With the exception of occasional APP
plause from the Irish members and
audible signs of dissent from the con-
servatives, the arguments for the most
part were heard without interruption.
Mr.. Gladstone said, in opening his
speech, that the time for skirmishing
had passed, and the time had come
when it was incumbent on the duty
and honor of parliament to come to
some decisive resolution on the ques-
ton. After reviewing the condition
of, and crime existing in, Ireland since
1888, Mr.. Gladstone described the CO.
ercive legislation enforced during the
same period as not exceptional, but
habitual. He compared Ireland during
this period to man trying to find sus-
tenance in medicine only meant for
cure. Coercion, however, had, he said,
proved no cure. Serious disaffection
continued to prevail in Ireland, and if
England and Scotland had suffered
similar hardships he believed the people
of these countries would resort to means
similar to those the Irish had used to
ventilate their grievances. Then he
continued:
Coercion was admitted to have been a
failure for the past fifty-three years, only
two of which had been wholly free from re-
pressive legislation Coercion, unless stern
and unbending and under an automatic
government, must always fail. Such CO.
ercion England should never resort to until
every other means had failed. What was
the basis of the whole mischief was the fact
hot ba lou, l;unra1ital ~, I,a
1t came to the Irish people with foreign
aspect, and their alternative to coercion was
to strip the law of its foreign character and
invest it with a domestic character. Ire
land, though represented in parliament nu-
merically equal with England or Scotland,
was really not in the same position politi-
cally. England made her own laws. Scot
land had been encouraged to make her own
laws as effectually as if she had six times
her present representation. The conse-
quence was that, while the handspring of
the law in England and Scotland was felt to
be the English or Scotch, the handspring of
the law in Ireland was not felt by the people
to be the Irish. He therefore deemed it
little less than mockery to hold that the
state of law which he had described con-
duced to the real unity of this great, noble
worldwide empire
The claim of Ireland to make laws
for herself was never denied, said Mr.
Gladstone, until the reign of George II.
They the government were not about
to propose the repeal of the union. 1t
was impossible to propose the repeal of
the union until they had settled what
was the essence of the union. He de-
fined the essence of the union to be the
fact that, whereas before the union
there were two separate and independ
ent parliaments, after the union there
was but one. To speak of the dismem-
berment of the empire was, in this CEN
fury, misnomer and an absurdity.
The fault of the administrative system
of Ireland was that its spring and source
of action was English. The govern
ment therefore felt that the settlement
of the question was to be found by es-
tablishing a parliament in Dublin for
the conduct of business of both legis-
lative and an administrative nature.
The political economy of the three
countries must be reconciled; there
should be an equitable distribution of
imperial burdens; and there must be
reasonable safeguards for the minority.
He could not admit the claim of the
Protestant minority in Ulster or else
where to rule on questions which were
for the whole of Ireland: and he did
not favor the proposition to exclude
Ulster from the operations of the pres
ent bill.
Mr.. Gladstone then passed to the plan
how to give Ireland home-rule. He
thought it would be perfectly clear that
if Ireland was to have domestic legis-
lature the Irish peers and the Irish
representatives could not come to the
imperial parliament to control English
and Scotch affairs. Therefore the first
provision of his bill is that on anG
after the day when the home-rule act
comes into effect the Irish peers anC
members will cease to have voice OF