The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-06-18
GLADSTONE.
A Stirring Manifesto from Eng
lands Prime Minister to the
Electors of Midlothian.
Cowardice of the Conservatives in Refus-
ing to Deal with the Crisis-A Warn
ing to Scotland


OF the bill for the better government OF
Ireland, the ministry advised, and her
majesty was pleased to sanction, the dis.
solution OF parliament for 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 a sense OF the
gravity Of this issue which induces me at a
period OF life when nature cries aloud
for repose to seek, after sitting in thirteen
pariaments, a 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
q great crisis Ead arrived in the affairs Of
Ireland. Weak as the late government was
for ordinary purposes, il 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
ques tions it includes. My earnest hope
was TO support the late cabinet in such
course OF policy. On the Goth OF last Jan
the opposite policy OF coercion was declar-
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 fall of
the late cabinet, and when summoned by
her majesty to form new oneI undertook
it on the basis Of an
ANTI-coERCIoN POLICY
with the fullest explanations to those
whose aid | sought as colleagues when
proposed to examine whether it mi ,ht not
be possible to grant Ireland domestic
legislature and maintain the honor and
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 oi Ireland, and not for the first
time, have thrust aside every other sub
iect and adjourn our hopes OF useful and
progressive legislation AS question of
the first necessities OF social order it forces
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 tie government, if we did not adopt
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?
To debate in this address this and that de-
tail of the lately cefeated bill. would only
be to disguise this issue and would be as
futile as to discuss the halting. stumbling,
and ever-shifting and vanishing project OF
an intermediate class which have pro-
ceeded from seeding Liberals. There are
two clear, positive and intelligible 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 welLconsidered conditions, transact
her own affairs. His plan is to ask parlia-
ment 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 simple
IbO anu UuFu 10 Dflc pIOpOctQ PotANJ VI
the government. Our opponents, gentle
men, whether Tories or seceders, have as
sumed the name OF Unionists. 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
unionists. True union is to be tested by
the sentiments OF the human beings united.
Tried by this criterion, we have less union
than we had under the settle
ment of 1852. Enfranchised Ire
land, gentlemen, asks through her
lawful representatives for the revival oil her
domestic Iegislature--not on the lace oil II,
an innovating but a restorative proposal.
She urges with truth that the centraiza-
tion of parliaments has been the division
OF people; but she recognizes the fact that
the union, lawlessly as 1T was obtalneui
cannot and ought not to be repeated. one
IL content to receive her legislature IN q
form Invested OF prerogatives which might
have impaired her imperial interests and
been better adapted than the settlement OF
1852 to secure TO her regular control DINER
own affairs. She has not repesled, Dus mas
welcomed the stipulatIons for the protec'
tion OF the minority. To such provisions
we have given and shall give careful neeu'
but trust Scotland wiz condemn the at
tempts so singularly made to import INTO
the controversy
A vENoMoUs EIEMENT
OF religious bigotry- Let her take warning
by the deplorable riots in Belfast and
othcr places in the North. Among the
benefits, gentlemen, Ianticipate from yonr y,
acceptance OF our policy, are these; Inc
consolidated OF the united empire ana
greater strength; the st@ppage oi the hea Y,
Constant and demorlizing waste OF the
public treasure; the abatement and grad
ual extinction Of ignoble feuds in Ireland,
and thut developement Of her resources
which experience shows TO be NAT.
K ural consequences OF free and orderly
government: the redemption OF the hon
or oil Great Britain from the 81 'gma iasten'
ed upon her 3 lrnost from time immortal IN
respect to Ireland By the judgment Of the
Whole ciyilized world: and lastly the re-