Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1886-04-15

foreign aspect, and their alternative Il
coercion was TO strip the law OF the forelgi
character and invest It with a donlesti
character. Loud Irish cheers.l Irolant
though represented In parliament numeri
cally equal with England or Scotland, wa
really not In the same position politically
England made her own laws; Scotland ha,
been encouraged to make her own laws n
effeetually as II she had six times he
present representation. The consequence
was that tho handspring OF the law II
England or Scotland was folt to be thi
English or Scotch. The main-sprlng Of th,
law In ireland was not Il II by the people b
be the Irish. He therefore deemed It littl'
less than mockery to hold that the state o
law which he had described eonduced 4
the real unity Of this great, noble, world
wide empire.
"Something must be DONE" continued
Mr.. Gladstone; Something is imperativell
demanded from us to restore in Ireland the
first conditions of civil life--the free courst
OF law; the liberty OF every individual Ii
the exercise OF every legal right their con
fldence In the law and their sympathy witt
the law, apart from which no country car
be called civilized country" What ther
was the problem before him2 1t was this
How to reconcile imperial unity with d.
versity of legislatures. MIR. Grattan held
that those purposes were reconcilable
More than that, he demanded n severance
of the parliaments, with view to the con-
tinuity and everlasting unity OF the empire
Was that an audacious paradox? Other
countries had solved the problem, and
under much more difficult circumstances.
We ourselves might be said to have solved
IL with respect to Ireland during the time
that Ireland had u separate parliament.
Did 1t destroy the unity of the British en-
plre2 [Cheersl. Mr.. Gladstone then pointed
to the case OF Norway and Sweden, which
countries were, he said, united upon foot
Ing of strict legislative Independence and
coequality.
The claim OF Ireland to make laws for
herself was never denied, continued Mr..
Gladstone, until the reign of George II.
The Parliament OF Grattan was as indepen-
dent In point of authority as 1t could be.
They (the government) were not about to
propose the repeal of the union. 1t was
impossible to propose the repeal of the
union until they had settled what was the
essence of the union. He defined the
essence of the union to be the fact that,
whereas before the union there were two
separate and independent parliaments,a after
the union there was but one. To speak Of
the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the empire was, in
this century, misnomer and an absurdity.
The fault OF the administrative system of
Ireland was that its spring and source of
action was English. [Cheers.l The govern
ment, therefore, felt tfat the settlement of
the question was to be found by establish
ing a parliament in Dublin Irish cheersl
for the conduct of business of both legis-
latlye and administrative nature.
The political economy OF the three coun-
tries must be reconciled. There should be
an equitable distribution of imperial bur-
dens. Next there must be reasonable safe
UnnIHl fnr tha f11inOrffU And tuh aot,lH
not this minority In ireland take care of it.
self He had no doubt about Its ability to
DO that when we have passed through the
present critical period and been disarmed
Of the iealousies with which any change
was approached. But for the present there
were three classes of people whom they
were bound to consider: Firstly thu class
connected with the land secondly, tic civil
servants and officers of thu government in
Ireland thirdly, the Protestant minority.
The speaker could not admit the claim OF
the Protestant minority in Ulster, or else
where, to rule on questions which wore for
The whole OF Ireland. Several schemes for
the separate government of Ulster had been
submitted to him. One was that Ulster
province should be excluded from the oper-
atoms Of the present bill another WIS that
. separate autonomy should be provided
Tor Ulster; and a third suggested That GER
under provincial councils. No one OF these
had appeared to the government
lobe so completely justified by its merits
Or by the weight Of public opinion in its
Iavor as to warrant the government In in
Guiding 1t in their bill However, they
deserved fair consideration and the free
discussion that would follow the intro
duction of the present bill might lead to
the discovery of one plan which had pre-
mot Inc FNf
government would do their best to adopt
the plan that seemed likely to give general
The speaker said he would now pass to
the plan how to give ireland legislature
10 deal with Irish as distinguished from
Imperial affairs. IHear.l He was con-
lronted at the outset with what he felt to be
\ formidable dilemma. Ireland was to
have domestic Legislature for Irish affairs.
That was his postulate, from which he set
out. We're the Irish members and the Irish
representative peers in either house
10 continue to form part of tho
assemblies? The speaker
thought 1t would be perfectly clear that II
Ireland was to have domestic legislature
the Irish peers and the Irish represen-
tatives could not come to parliament to
control English and Scotch affairs. [Cheers. |
Then with regard to the question whether
house of commons for the settlement of
Imperial affairs he thought that could not
be done. He had, therefore, arrived ut the
conclusion that Irish members and Irish
peers ought not TO sit in the Palace at West
[Ohi OIL and cheers.l Ii Irish
were not to sit in the house Of
commons Irish peers ought not to sit In the
other house Of parliament. Hear, hear, an d
oh j How were the Irish people to be taxed
hnl Ay,,-a
believed that Great Britain would never i'm
pose upon Ireland taxation without repre-
and added: "If we were TO have
taxation without representation then there
would come another question which would
raise a practical difficulty, and that Is, Are
we to give up the fiscal unity OF the empire?"
He did not think that by giving up the
fiscal unity Of the empire they were giving
up the unity OF the empire. He, however,
stood upon the substantial ground that to
give up the fiscal unity OF the empire would
be public Inconvenience and misfortune.
II would be great misfortune for Great
Britain and greater misfortune for Ire
land. He conceived that one escape from
that dilemma would be such an arrange
ment as would give the Imperial govern
ment authority to levy customs, duties and
such excise duties as were Immediately
connected with the customs. The condl-
first, that the general power OF taxa
tlon over and above those particular
duties should pass unequivocally into the
hands OF domestic Legislature In Ireland ;
secondly that tho proceeds OF the customs
and excises should be held for the benefit OF
Ireland and for the discharge of the ob!iga-
tions of Ireland, and the payment of the
balance, after these obligations wore dis
charged, should be entered into the Irish
nxrohnnnnr and hsa for tI,a f~aa a 81
tho Irish Legislative body. The Govern
ment bill provided for this, and the bill then
provided that representatives of Ireland
should no longer sit In the honse of com
mons, or Irish peers In the house OF lords
but, at the same time, they would have the
right of addressing the crown, and so pos
sess all the constitutional rights they held
now. [Oh and cheers.l 1t would, there
fore, relieve Irish members from attendance
at Westminster.
The administrative power would pass with
the Legislative power. The duration of the
proposed legislative body should not ex-
ceed five years. The functions which 1t was
proposed to withdraw from the cognizanee
Of tho legislative body were three grand
and principal functions, viz; Everything
which related to the crown; all that which
belonged TO the defence--the army, the
navy, the entire organization of the armed
force-and our foreign and colonial rela.
tlons. 1t would not he competent to pass
laws for the establishment or endowment
Of any particular religion. [Cheers.l AS
to trade and navigation, 1t would be mis-.
fortune to Ireland to be separated from
England. The Irish parliament would have
nothing to do with the coinage or the crea
tion of legal tender. The subject of the
post Office would be left to the judgment o.
parliament, though the government in
clined to the view that it would be NOR,
convenient to leave post-ciliee matters IL
the hands of the postmaster-general. Omar
antine and one or two other subjects werl
left in the same category.
The next subject he had to approach wa
- Ab.. ,,f