St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-08-28
THE IRISH QUESTION.
Gladstone Issues a Pamphlet Re-
garding Fzis CSUrse--OutIOOk For


the Future.
LONDON, Aug. 27.-Mr. GIadstone's
pamphlet on the Irish question was pub
lished to-day. 1t contains tifty-eight
pages and is similar in the excellence of its
style to his pamphlet on the Bulgarian
atrocities. At the outset Mr.. Gladstone
compares it with the article he wrote on
his change of attitude regarding the Irish
church. But" he says, ''ln the present
case have no change to indicate, but have
only to point out the mode in which my
language and conduct were governed by
uniformity of principle. [ have simply
followed the various stages by which the
great question of autonomy for Ireland has
been brought to the stage of ripeness for
practical legislation" The brochure is
under two heads. The first is the history
of an idea in which Mr.. Gladstone
summarizes the following conditions under
which alone in his view home rule became
positive. First-The abandonment of the
hope that parliament could serve as pass
able legislative instrument for Ireland, or
second, the unequivocal demand of the
Irish members, the possibility of dealing
with Scotland in similar way in circum-
stances of equal and equally clear DESIRE
Mi. Gladstone then passes on, defending
himself from the charge of having sprung
the home-rule measure upon his friends.
Replying to the charges of Harrington and
Chamberlain that he had conceived the
idea precipitately and to the charge of
Bright that he had concealed it unduly, he
denies that it is
THE DUTY OF A MINISTER
to make known even to his colleagues every
idea forming in his mind. and which would
tend to confuse and retard instead of aid
business. He continues:
What is true is that / had not publicly and
in principle condemned it, and also that L
had mentally considered it, but had neither
adopted nor rejected it, and for the very
simple reason that it was not ready for
adoption or rejection.
Mr.. Gladstone then goes on to point out
that during all the earlier years of his
public life the alternatives were repeal on
the one hand and on the other the relief of
Ireland from grievances. 1t was not pos
sible, he says, at that time to prognosticate
how in a short time parliament would
stumble and almost writhe under it's con-
stantly accommodating burdens, or to pro-
nounce that it would eventually prove IN
capable of meeting the wants of Ireland.
Evidently there was period when Irish
patriotism as represented by OConnell
looked favorably upon the alternative policy
and had no fixed conclusion as to the abso-
lutte necessity for home government, and
seemed to allow that measures founded in
justice to Ireland might possibly suffice to
meet the necessity of the case. 1t was as
early as 1871, Mr.. Gladstone says, that he
TOOK THE FIRST STEP
toward placing the controversy on its true
basis. He opposed Mr.. Butts scheme be-
cause the alternative described in the last
paragraph had not been exhausted. but
even at that time he did not close the door
against recognition of the question in
different state of things, for instead of de-
nouncing the idea of home rule as one in
its essence destructive of the unity of the
empire, he accepted the assurance given to
the country, 1t was in this spirit that his
Midlothian address was written. The Irish
question was severed from the general
question of local government and 1t
was pointed out that it would prob
ably throw into the shade all
other important measures which were ripe.
Once ripe, the time for action had come.
The healing of inveterate sores would only
become more difficult, the growth of bud
ding hopes more liable to be checked and
paralyZed by the frost of politics. For
England, in her soft armchair, leisurely,
very leisurely, consideration with adjourn
ments interposed, as had been usual, would
have been comfortable. But for Ireland in
her leaky cabin, it was of consequence to
stop out the weather. In the second por-
ton of the pamphlet, the lessons of the
elections, Mr.. Gladstone begins drawing
certain lessons from the elections as they
affect the Liberal party. In the course of
some full calculations, he estimates the loss
to the Liberal party from the Unionist
schism at two-Sevenths of the whole, but
this faction is distributed, he points out,
very unequally among the classes. 1t has
commanded five-siXths, he SAYS of the
Liberal peers, but not more than one
twentieth of the Liberal workingmen. Mr..
Gladstone
SEES FURTHER GROUND FOR HOPE
in the abatement that has already taken
place in the Tory opposition. 1--WE have
no more pot valiant language" he says,
no more of the Hottentots and no more of
the famous twenty years during which par
lament was to grant special powers for
hrm government in Ireland, and at the end
OF which time, in larger or less degree,
the coercive laws might be repealed and
measures of local self-government enter
tained." Mr.. Gladstone then points out
that the Unionists are already pledged to
an immediate and large concession. Many
OF them on such scale that they give to
their idea the name of home rule, declar-
ing themselves favorable to its principle,
and only opposed to ssthe awkward and
perverse manner in which it was handled by
the late administration. Look at the ques-
ton, Mr.. Gladstone continues. (which way