The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-14
After Sitting in Thirteen Parliaments, He Asks
a Seat in Fourteenth Because Of the
Gravity Of the Questions at Issue.
Benefits Which He Expects to Result
from an Acceptance of His Policy.
He Urges that Religious Bigotry Be Kept Out
of the Canvass, and Strongly Champions
the Justice of the Home-RuI Principle.
GLADSTONE TO THE ELECTORS.
The Premier's Reasons for Again Seeking q
Seat In the House of Commons.

The Premier's Reasons for Again Seeking a
Seat In the House of Commons.
LONDON, June 13--Mr Gladstone has issued
the following manifesto to the electors Of Mid
lothian
"Gentlemen-In consequence of the defeat Of
the bill for the better government of Ireland,
the Ministry advised. and her Majesty was
pleased to sanction, the dissolution of Parlia-
ment for decision by the nation of the gravest
and likewise the simplest issue that has been
submitted to it for half century. It is only q
sense of the gravity of this issue which induces
me, at period of life when nature cries aloud
for repose, to seek, after sitting in thirteen Par
laments. seat In the fourteenth, and with this
view to solicit for the fifth time the honor of
your confidence.
'At the last election endeavored in my ad-
dresses and speeches to impress upon you the
fact that great crisis had arrived in the affairs
of Ireland Weak as the last government vas
for ordinary purposes it had great advantages
for dealing with that crisis A comprehensive
measure proceeding from that government would
have received warm and extensive support from
within the Liberal party, and would probably
have closed the Irish controversy within the
present session. and have left the Parliament of
1885 free to prosecute the now stagnant work of
ordinary legislation, with the multitude of ques-
tions it includes. Ny earnest hope was to sup
port the late Cabinet in such q course of policy.
On the 26th Of last January, the opposite policy
of coercion was declared to have been the
choice of the governments, the Earl of Carnar-
Won alone refusing to share in 1t.
The Irish question was thus placed in the
foreground. to the exclusion of every other.
The hour, as all felt, was come. The only point
remaining to determine was the manner in which
it was to be dealt with. In my judgment. the
proposal Of coercion was not justified by facts,
and was doomed to certain and disgraceful fail
ure.. Some method Of governing Ireland other
than coercion ought, as I thought, TO be sought
for and to be found. Therefore viewed without
regret the fall of the late Cabinet, and when
undertook it on the basis of an anti-coercion
policy, with the fullest explanation to those
whose aid I sought as colleagues, when I pro-
posed to determine whether 1t might not be
possible to grant Ireland domestic legislature
and maintain the honor and consolidate the
unity of the empire. A government was formed
and the work at once put in hand.
You will now, gentlemen, understand
how and why it is that the affairs of Ireland,
and not for the frst time, have thrust aside
every other subject and adjourned our hopes of
useful and progressive legislation AS ques
tion of the first necessity of social order. it
forces itself into the van. The late Cabinet.
though right in giving it that place, were, as we
thought, wrong in their manner Of treating it.
1t was our absolute duty, on taking the govern
ment, if we did not adopt their method, to pro-
pose another. Thus gentlemen 1t is that this
great and simple issue has come upon you and
demands your decision. Will you govern Ire
land by coercion, or will you let Ireland manage
her own affairsl
''To.debate in this address this and that detail
of the lately defeated bill would only be to dis
guise this ISSUE and would be as futile as to
discuss the halting, stumbling, ever-shifting
and ever vanishing projects of an intermediate
class, which have proceeded from the seeding
Liberals There are two clear, positive and intel
igible plans before the world: There is the
plan of the government, and there is the plan of
Lord Salisbury Our plan is that Ireland should,
under well-considered conditions, transact her
own affairs. His plan is to ask Parliament TO
renew repressve laws and enforce them reso-
lutely for twenty years. by the end of which
time he assures us. Ireland will be fit to accept
any government in the way Of a local govern
ment on the repeal of the coercion laws, you
may wish to give her. / leave this Tory project
to speak for itself in its simplicity. and turn to
he proposed policy of tho government
"Our opponents, gentlemen, whether Tories
or seceders, have assumed the name of Unionists
/ deny them the title to it. In intention, indeed
we are all unionists alike, but the union they re-
fuse to modify is, in its present shape, paper
union obtained by force and fraud, and never
sanctioned or accepted by the Irish nation. They
are not unionists, but paper unionists. True
union is to be tested by the sentiments of the
human beings united. Judged by this criterion,
we have less union between Great Britain and
Ireland now than we had under the settlement
of 1882 Enfranchised Ireland, gentlemen, asks
through her lawful representatives for the re-
vival of her domestic legislature; not,
on the face of it, an innovating, but
restorative police She urges with
truth that the Capitalization of parlaments has
been the division of peoples; but she recognizes
the fact that the union, lawlessly as 1t was OBJ
tanned, cannot and ought not, to be repealed.
She has not repelled but has welcomed, the
stipulations for the protection Of the minority
To such provisions we have given, and shall give
careful heed; but trust Scotland will condemn
the attempts so singularly made to import into
the controversy venomous element Of religious
bigotry. Let her take warning by the deplorable
riots in Belfast and other places in tho north.
Among the benefits, gentlemen, l anticip ate
from your acceptance Of our policy are these:
The consolidation of the united empire and
great additions to its strength; the stoppage of
the heavy, constant and -demoralizing waste Of