Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-08-28
GLADSrONE'S
He Explains His Present Attitude ON the
Irish Question.

chure on the Irish question was publishe
to-day. 1t contains f%ifty-three pages an
is similar in excellence of it's style to Glat
stones pamphlet on Bulgaria. At til
outset he compares 1t with an apology h
wrote on his change of attitude regardin
the Irish church. But" he continues, 81
presents the case. 1 have no such chang
to indicate, but nave only to point out til
mode in which my language and conduc
were governed by uniformity of principle
| have simply followed the various stage
by which the great question of
AUTONOMY FOR IRELAND
has been brought to a stage CT ripeness TO
practical legislation" The brochur
is under two heads, first is the his
tory OF the idea in which Mr.. Glad
stone summarizes the following condition.
under which alone in his view it would
become possible; First the abandonment
OF hope that Parliament could serve as 6
possible legislative instrument for Ireland
Second-The unequivocal and constitu
tional demand Of Irish members; third
the possibility Of dealing with Scotland in
a similar way in circumstances of equal
and equally clear doings. Gladstone then
passes on to
u A9O ulMSELt
from the charge OF having sprung the Home
Rule measure upon his friends. Replying
to the charges of Harrington and Chamber
lain that he had conceived the idea precip-
itately and to their charge of having con-
cealed it unduly, he denies that it is the
duty OF a minister to make known wen to
his colleagues every idea forming in his
mind, which would tend to confuse and re.
tard instead of to aid business. He con
tinues: "What is true is that I had not
publicly and in principle condemned it, also
that l had considered it, but l had
neither adopted nor rejected it and for
the very simple reason that it was not pre-
pared Tor adoption or rejection. Glad
stone then goes on to point out that dur
ing all OF the manv years of his public life
the alternatives we're repeal on one hand
and on the other relief of or change from,
It was not possible, he say
at that tim to prognosticate how, in q
short time, Parlmiament would stumble
and almost wrestle under it's constantly
burdens, or to pronounce
it would eventually prove incapable
Of meeting the wants OF Ireland. Evi.
IDENTIFY there were periods when Irish
as represented by O'Connell,
looked favorably upon this alternative
policy, and had no fixed conclusion as to
The absolute necessity for home govern.
nent and seemed to allow that measures
'ounded in justice to Ireland might possibly |
suffice to meet the necessity of tie case. |
It was as early as 1871, Gladstone saws. !
hat he took the first step toward placing !
he controversy on it's true basis. He d.
posed Mr.. Butts scheme because the alter.
native described in the last paragraph had |
lot been exhausted: but even at that |
lime he did not close the door against the
oil the question in al
lifferent state of things-for, in.
Itead OF ~denouncing the idea of Home
Sule, as one in its essence destructive to
he unity of the Empire, in the following
vords he accepted the assurances given to
he contrary, "Let ma do the promoters
II this movement the fullest justice, al.
Vays speaking under conviction, as they
most emphaticalIy declare, and as l FULLY
'elieve that the union of thes- Kingdoms
!nder her Majesty is to be maintained, but
hat Parliament is to be broken up.
il 1874 he accepted without
principles that Home Rule
ad no necessary connection with separa-
ion. When Shaw succeeded to the Home
Iule leadership in 1880, Mr.. Gladstone
allied his speech as showing an evident
opposition to respect the functions of the
louise OF Commons and the spirit of the
constitution. In 1881, at Guild Hall, he
nnounced that he would hail with salts.
action any measure of local government
Ireland. Coming to the electoral cam
aign OF 1885, Gladstone says his great
beet was to do nothing to hinder the pre-
OF the question by the tories,
ut to use his best efforts to impress the
ublic mind with the Importance and ur-
'ncy OF the question. 1t was in this spirit
his Midlothian address was written.
he Irish question was severed from the
neral subject OF local government, and
was to point out that it would A.:
II ow into the shade all other important
easures which were ripe. Once the ripe :
me for action had come, just as il it had 8
'eh a cornfs Id, we were not to wait until /
was overripe. The healing of inveterate
res would only become more difficult. the 8
OF budding hopes more il able to be 8
lecked and jeopardized by the frosts of {
,litics OF England. s
In the second portion of the pamphlet.
lessons OF Elections" Gladstone begins b
awing certain lessons from the elections
they affect the Liberal party. In the c
urse Of some full calculations, he est. b
ates the loss to the Liberal party from
echism at two-sevenths of theI
hole, but this fraction is distrib- A