St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-17

After repeated calls for Roger Vail for an
address, that gentleman came forward and
commented at considerable length upon the
telegraphic synopsis of SaliSbury's speech
on home rule published in Yesterdays pa
per. In reply to the eX-premier's statement
that "Ireland was not a nation, because it
contained two different and deeply
divided races" Mr.. Vail quoted the
words of Samuel Ferguson, the
Irish poet and an Ulster man, that Ireland
is not a colony of Great Britain but an an
cient kingdom. entitled to its distinct ma
tionality and determined to have it." AS
regards the men of Ulster who protest
against Irish autonomy the speaker said
they were the descendants of those to whom
was given the land of six Irish counties III
the reign of James l., confiscated from the
Irish occupants, who were elected without
q cent of compensation and driven adrift
without place to rest their heads. The
men of Ulster have been the pets of the
British government and they are loath to
be on an equality with the rest of their
fellow countrymen. They are only Irish
by accident of birth, but in
feeling and sentiment they are
more English than the English themselves.
Their representatives in parliament COM
prise but one-siXth of the members from
Ireland, and Notwithstanding their boast of
being from the most intelligent and enter
prising province of Ireland, not man of
them possessed ability above mediOcrity.
In fact. history does not record that the
malignant clique called Orangemen has
ever produced 4 man of more than ordinary
ability, and certainly there has been no
craftsmanship exhibited by any of those
now having seats at Westminster. When
fho Do ifa {I,a,y
were very insignificant indeed.
Mr.. Vail said that in case of Ireland OBJ
tanning her own parliament the Protestants
of Ireland would be justly and generously
treated by the majority, Parnell himself
was Protestant, as he had recently de-
clared, and so were Messrs. Grattan Es-
monde, j. d. Pyne, DR.. Tanner and others
who were elected by Catholic constituencies
The Irish people were the most tolerant in
the world in matters of religion. They had
suffered too grievously themselves to OPP
press others. In the reign of ..Bloody
Nary the English ProteStantS sought ref
uge in Ireland, and according to Leckie were
perfectly unmolested there. The same his
torian says that the massacre of 1912 was
not owing to religious animosty, and that
in religious liberation they far surpassed
the English and Scotch of those days.
/ He said the ProtestantS of Ulster could
have fair representation IN the Irish
parliament according to their numerical
strength, as they have now in the
English parliament, where they stand in an
insignificant minority. If they were not
satisfied with being on an equal footing
with the rest of their countrymen, and in
clined to build up the nation and develop
its industries, and restore it to the dignity
of a nation once again, why they could en-
igrate and return to the land of their anceS-
tors from whence they came, unsolicited by
the Irish people. If Gladstone cannot get
passed the home rule act. can Salisbury,
with the diSgrunted SecessioniStS from
Gladstone, pass coercion act-the only
substitute offered by the Tory leader? He
doubted if another coercion act could pass
in the British parliament, con-
Stituted as it is at present.
The house is now more democratic
than ever before. and the National mem
bers from Ireland can block legislation by
obstruction as before. Parliament will
have to deprive the Irish members of the
right to speak and vote, and eventually eX-
pei them from the house before imperial
matters can be successfully attended to.
And what then?
They will finally gain their end. In con-
sent to the Presbyterians of this country
by their brethren in Ireland to intlame the
former against granting Ireland native
parliament. He always held the Presby
terians of Ireland in high esteem as patri-
OTIS. many of them having suffered martyr
dom and Imprisonment for advocating Irish
rights. But it appears the ministers from
whom the document has emanated
are degenerated. He would await
with curiosity the action of
the Presbyterian assembly. who will meet
in Minneapolis this week in reference to
this communication of the moderator of the
general assembly of the Irish Presbyterians,
and hoped they would join the rest of the
American people in wishing Godspeed to
Gladstone, Parnell and home rule foE Ire
land.
On motion the league discontinued its
meetings during the heated term, subject to
the call ofs.the president.