Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-06-18
GLADSTONE.
A Stirring Manifesto from Eng
lands Prime Minister to the
Electors Of Midlothian.

Electors Of Midlothian.
Cowardico Of the Conservatives in Rofus-
Ing to Deal with the Crisis--A Warm
ing to Scotland.
LONDON, June 13.--Mr. Gladstone has
issued the following manifesto to the elect.
ors of Midlothian:
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 dis
solution OF parliament Tor a decision by the
nation OF the gravest and likewise the SIM
plest issue that has been submitted to it
for half a century. 1t is only sense Of the
gravity Of this issue which induces me at a
period Of life when nature cries aloud
Tor repose to seek, after sitting in thirteen
parliaments, seat in the fourteenth, and
with this view to solicit for the fifth time
the honor OF your confidence. At the las:
election endeavored in my addresses and
speeches to impress upon you the fact that
a great crisis had arrived in the affairs OF
Ireland. Weak as the late government was
Tor ordinary purposes, it had great advan.
tages for dealing with that crisis. A COM
prehensive 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 1887 free to
prosecute the now stagnant work OF ordi-
nary legislation, with the multitude OF
questions it includes. My earnest hope
was to support the late cabinet in such q
course of policy. On the Goth Of last Jan
the opposite policy OF coercion was eleclar-
ed to have been the choice OF the govern
ment the earl OF Carnarvon alone refusing
10 share in it. The Irish question was
thus placed in the foreground to the exclu-
sion 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 dis
graceful failure. Some method OF govern
! ing Ireland other than coercion ought, as
thought, to be sought for and to be found,
therefore / viewed with regret the iall OF
the late cabinet, and when summoned by
her majesty to form new oneI undertook
it on the basis OF an
ANrlcoERcIoN POLICY
| with the fullest explanations to those
| whose aid l sought as colleagues when
proposed to examine whether it mi sht not
be possible to grant Ireland q domestic
; consolidate the unity OF the empire. A
government was formed, and the work was
at once put in hand. You will now, gentle
men, understand how and why it is that
the affairs Of Ireland, and not for the first
time, have thrust aside every other sub
lect and adjourn our hopes OF useful and
progressive legislation. As question Of
| itself into the run. 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 governments, if we lid not adopt
their method, to propose another
Thus, gentlemen, it is that this
great and simple issue, has come
upon you and demands your decision
Will you govern Ireland by coercion or will
you let Ireland manage her own affairs?
! 10 debate in this address thi. and that de.
tail OF the lately defeated bill would only
! be to disguise this issue and would be as
| futile as to discuss the halting. stumbling,
and ever-slifting and vanishing project OF
! al intermediate class which have pro-
ceeded from seeding Liberals. There are
two clear, positive and ineligible plans be-
| fore the world. There is the plan OF the
government and there is the plan of Lord
| Salisbury. Our plan is that Ireland could.
| under we'll cond itions transact
her own affairs His plan is to ask parlia-
lnent to renew repressive laws and enforce
them absolutely for twenty years, by the
end OF which time
HE ASSURES US
Ireland will be fit to accept any govern.
ment in the way Of local government on
! the repeal OF the coercion laws you may
wish to give her. leave this Tory project
to speak for itself in it's unadorned simplic-
ity, and l turn to the proposed policy OF
the government. Our opponents, gentle
men, whether Tories or seceders, have as
sumed the name OF Unionists. l deny them
the title to it. In intention, indeed, we are
| unionists alike, but the union they refuse
to modify is, in its present shape, paper
union, ordained by force and fraud, and
never sanctioned or accepted by the Irish
nation. They are not unionists, but paper
! unionlsts. 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
| than We had under the settle
ment OF 1882. Enfranchised Ire
land, gentlemen, asks through her
lawful representatives for the revival other
an innovating but restorative proposal
! She urges with truth that the centraliza-
ton OF parliaments has been the division
! OF people; but she recognizes the fact that
! the union, lawlessly as it was obtained,
! cannot and ought not to be repealed. She
is content to receive her legislature in a
| form Invested OF prerogatives which might
| have impaired her imperial interests and
! been better adapted than the settlement OF
! 1882 to secure to her regular control other
| own affairs. She has not repealed, but has
welcomed the stipulatlons for the protec.
| ton OF the minority. To such provisions
We have given and shall give careful heed,
| but trust Scotland will condemn the at
! tempts SO singularly made to import into
| the controversy
A VENOMOUS ELEMENT
| OF religious bigotry. Let her take warning
! by the deplorable riots in Belfast and
other places in the North. Among the
| benefits, gentlemen, l anticipate from your
| acceptance of our policy, are these: The
consolidation of the united empire and
greater strength; the stoppage OF the heavy,
! constant and demorlizing waste of the
public treasure the abatement and grad.
ual extinction of igno bic feuds in Ireland,
! and that development OF her resources
| which experience shows to be q nat.
ural consequence of free and orderly
| government; the redemption OF the hon
| or OF Great Britain from the stigma fasten-
! ed upon her almost from time immortal in
! respect to Ireland by the judgment OF the
whole civilized world; and lastly the re.
storation OF parliament to it's dignity and
efficiency and the regular progress OF the
business OF the country. Well, gentlemen,
the first question 1 now put to you is how
shall Ireland be governed? There is an.
| other question behind it and involved in
it. How are England and Scotland to be
| governed? You know how, for the last
six years especially, the affairs OF Eng.
land and Scotland have been imped.
ed and your imperial parliament dis,
| credited and disabled. All this
happened while the Nationalist were but
q small minority of the Irish members:
without support from so much as hand.
full OF members not Irish. Now they an.
proach ninety, and are entitled to saw.
! I'VE are speaking the views of the Irish ma.
! tio, - Il l.. innnnaafhlo "a dnal .r:Al Al. =