Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-04-09

Mr. Gladstoues speech on the Irish question
yesterday was the browning effort of a career
unmatched in the annals of English public life.
1t was both aryumentative and eloquent. The
orator touched the core of a great problem when
he declared that the reason why the legislative
union had not proved a success was because
"the handspring of the law in England is felt 10
be English and in Scotland to be Scotch, but in
Ireland it is not felt to be Irish; yetithe first
condition of civilized life in Ireland demands
that The people have confidence in the law and
sympathy Herewith" And he paid a deserved
tribute to one of the finest traits of The Celtic
character when he declared: "If read Ireland's
history Alright. misfortune and calamity have
welded her sons to their soil with an embrace
yet closer than is known elsewhere, and the
Irishman is still more profoundly Irish"
The difficulties which, IN Mr.. Gladstone's
judgment, oeset any project OF home rule in
Ireland as long the union is maintained,
seem trivial indeed to a citizen of the United
States. Nor ought they long to vex the mind
of n statesman who has taken so important
part in shaping the colonial policy OF England
for the last thirty years. The relation of the
Dominion of Canada to the mother country
suggests one pattern which might be followed,
If the Irish people would he content with the
provincial status this would give their relic of
Kingdom. The relation of the several sover-
eign states to the national union in our coun-
try suggests another and perhaps better
scheme. This would obviate, at all events, the
trouble which Mr.. Gladstone foresees in adj
justing the legislative, judicial and admin
istrative functions of the governments OF Great
Britain and Ireland after such a semi-separa-
ton as Is contemplated in his bill. :, ..-
The opposition which the measure will
encounter in England is due, not so much to
its peculiar features in and for themselves. as
to the great advance which the conservative
Briton is asked to make at one stride 1t is
equivalent to proposal that master shall
adopt his servant into his family. In spite of
all that has been done by years of agitation and
n score of desperate parliamentary battles, the
Irish voter is still deprived of his ballot on the
barest technicality, while the English voter is
encouraged in the exercise of his right by the
L.iost liberal provisions OF law. The English
tenant farmer has obtained hearing and
Improvement in his condition whenever he has
applied for it; the Irish tenant farmer has had
To fight for every inch of his way to broader
privileges or fairer treatment. Even the Irish
peerage has ceased to be of value to the ambi-
tious and the quota of one hundred has gone
for years untitled because nobody cared Tor an
empty honor. Yet ireland has borne her share
of the burdens of taxation for the support of an
empire which she could regard only an OPP
pressor. Twenty-Five per centum of the total
force of the British army is recruited from Ire
land, whereas Scotland. with population almost
the same as Ireland's, and enjoying closer rela-
tons and kinder usage. furnishes only about
per centum. Ireland has never had Celt for
viceroy, and rarely even an Anglo-Irishman.
From 1901 to 1853 no member of the royal
family of England set foot on Irish soil, and
then came another lapse till 1921, when
George ~. crossed the channel. In a reign OF
nearly a half century, the present Queen has
passed less than three weeks in Ireland. Yet
with one great step, Mr.. Gladstone proposes
that the down-trodden isle shall move from her
her place at the feet of Great Britain to a seat
at her side. He does it with manifest confidence
that his own aged eyes will witness the reform.
The classic atmosphere in which the Premier
has passed the few leisure hours of his busy life
has had its influence upon his character. He
has absorbed the spirit of his favorite heroes
who could spend ten years before the walls of
Troy TO satisfy "a sentiment