Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-06-26
PLEA OF THE PREMIER.
Mr.. Gladstone Issues a Ringing Address
to the Electors of Midlothian on
the Present Crisis,
learly Showing Favor For Irish Self
Government as Opposed to Con-
servative Repressive Rule.
The Finger of Scor Pointed at the Union
list Party.

Mr.. Gladstone on Sunday, June IS.
issued the following manifesto to the
electors of Midlothian:
Gentlemen--In consequence of the
defeat of the bill for the better govern
ment of Ireland, the ministry advised
and her majesty was pleased to sane
ton the dissolution of parliament for a
decision by the nation of the gravest
and, likewise the simplest issue that
has been submitted to it for half "A cen
fury. 1t is only a sense of the gravity
of this issue which induces me ut n
period Of life when nature cries aloud
for repose to seek, after sitting in thir-
teen parliaments, a seat in the four
teenth, and with this view to solicit for
the fifth time the honor of your conf
dence. At the last election | endeav-
orcd in my addresses and speeches to
impress upon you the the fact that a
great crisis had arrived in the affairs of
Ireland. Weak rs the late government
was for ordinary purposes, it had great
advantages for dealing with that crisis.
A comprehensive measure proceeding
from that government would have re-
ceived warn 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 1886
free to prosecute the now stagnant
work of ordinary legislation. with the
multitude of questions it includes.
MY EARNEST HOPE
was to support the late cabinet in such
a course of policy. On the Goth of last
January the opposite policy Of coercion
was declared to have been the choice
of the government. the Earl Of Carnar-
ovon alone refusing to share in it.
The Irish question was thus placed on
the foreground to the exclusion of every
other. The hour, rs 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 pro-
posal of coercion was not justified by
the facts and was doomed to certain
and disgraceful failure. Some method
of governing Ireland other than coeTc-
ion. as | thought. and to be sought for and
to be found. Therefore. | viewed r;ith
regret the fall of the late cabinet. and
when summoned by her majesty to
form a new one | undertook it on the
basis of an a~nti-coercion policy. with
the fullest explanations to those whose
aid sought as colleagues when | pro-
posed to examine whether it might not
be possible to grant Ireland "A domestic
Legislature and maintain the honor and
consolidate the unity of the empire. A
government was formed and the work
was at once put to hand. You will now,
gentlemen, understand how and why il
is that
II AFFAIRS OF IRELAND,
and not for the first time. have thrust
aside every other subject and adjourn
ed III hopes of useful and progressive
legislation. As Il question of the first
necessities of social order. it forces it.
self into the IAN. The late cabinet,
though right in giving it that place,
We're, as we thought. wrong in their
name of treating it. 1t was our
absolute duty on taking the govern
ment, if we did not adopt their method,
to propose another. Thus. gentlemen,
it is that this great and simple issue has
come upon you, ana demands your de-
cision. Will you govern Ireland by
coercion, or will you let Ireland man
age her own affairs? To debate in this
address this and that detail of the
lately-defeated bill would only be to
disguise this issue, and would be futile
as to discuss the hating. stumbling
and ever shifting and vanishing project
OF IN intermediate class which have
proceeded from seeding Liberals.
There are I'VE clear, positive and intel
ligible 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 parlia-
ment to renew
R~EPRESsIvE LAWS
and enforce them r~esolutely for twenty
years, by the end of which time he as
sumes Ireland will be tit to accept anv
government in the way of a local gov
eminent. on the repeal of the coercion
laws, you may wish to give her. l
leave this tory project to speak for it.
self in its unadorned simplicity. and l
turn to the proposed policy of the gov
eminent. Our opponents. gentlemen.
whether tories or seceders, have as
sumed the name of unionists. l deny
them the title to it. In intention, in
deed, we are ~unionists alike, but the
union they refuse to modify is in its
present shape a paper union ordained
by force and fraud and never sanction
ed or accepted by the Irish nation.
They are not unionists. but protested
uniOnists. True union is to be tested
by the sentiments of the human beings
united. Tried by this criterion we
have less union between Great Britain
and Ireland now than we had under
the settlement of 1892. Enfranchised