The Portland daily press., 1886-06-19

government for Ireland is the one thing most
| desirable in the Gladstone bill, but there
| is another most undesirable feature L now
make the Scotsman and all agreeing with
the Scotsman very handsome offers, L am
sure. When they mention safe self-govern-
ment they don't mean by safe to emasculate
substantfalism, they mean that with reason,
able precautions the Irish ought to have real
effective control of Irish affairs. Ihat is al
we want Cheers; all we ask OF you, we
never asked Parliament to tie itself to the
details of the bill; there is no part of it that
Parliament is not perfectly free to change, if
change is compatible with the princi iple
and likely to forward the application of the
principle better than the provisions embod-
led in the bill, and would come to accept the
change in this as no novelty.
made this declaration on behalf of the
government. The case is this: We had be-
fore us the principle to establish an Irish
statuary legislative body or parliament to
manage exclusively Irish affairs. We laid
down several conditions essential to the
safe application of that principle. 1t must
be compatible with and conducive to the
union of empire; must be founded on pollti-
lcal equality, embrace equitable distribution
of imperial burdens and reasonably safe
guard to the minority to afford any rational
prospect of being accepted as settlement of
the question. Nobody questions those con-
ditions. They are admitted to be just and
rational.
1t is now idle to say the country will be
asked to vote on the details OF the bill; The
bill is dead with Parliament. (Cheers)
The principle of the bill survives Cloud
cheers. will never be guilty of dishonesty
in promising to you without reflection new
plan to give; e;effect to the principle, l never
will accept new planunless l believe 1t to
be better than the old one. have been
grievously disappointed at the barrenness
and sterility of mind critics have shown con-
cerning our plan when they have raised OBJ
lection The last thing they have shown
themselves competent to do has been to sug-
Thought they would not waste the treasures
of their minds on such an Improbable au-
dience as the present government. Perhaps
when they are returned to Parliament Sucn
Of thom as get there Qaughter) will produce
one or more excellent plans, they Will flnd us
first and most eager to hail and welcome
them, and we will promise in the name OF our
colleagues to cast our own bill to the winds
the moment we are shown better, plan TO
give effect to our principles, PROVIDED u Is
not an evasion of the subject or artificial ma
chinery devised to defraud the Irish Of their
hope of Justice
ministerial candidates must not be test ed
by the bill we introduced in Parliament, be-
cause it was the best we could frame. What
the nation has to decide is not the clause,
detail or method of the bill, but the policy
and principle He who accepts them is our
brother in arms. He who repeals them
shirks them and uses fictious means to falsl-
fly them, and is an adversary In the hight,
whom we must, without injury to his life,
limb or reputation, endeavor to defeat l
read in London that Scotland was doubtful
or adverse to home rule. | answered did
not believe it. (Cheers) hoped for an OPP
progress today to show me that the heart of
Scotland is more deeply and profoundly
touched than Scotland is wide, and that Scot
land was never more earnestly bent on the
work of policy and justice than it is to ac--
complish the present enterprise. Loud
cheerS)
Regarding the Carnavon-Parnell incident
Gladstone said he blamed neither, but it was
important to know what happened. Lord
Carnavon told his cvlleagues he favored a
plan that would fully meet the wants 81 ire, Ire
land in respect to local self government and
would to some extent satisfy the national
aspiration. These are Lord Carnayon's
opinions, and this is what he said, but | call
his attention, and shall call it repeatedly, II
necessary, to what he did not say to Parnell.
shall believe until he contradicts 1T that he
told Parnell he favored satisfying the wants
of Ireland fully with regard to local self
government. Gladstone then went into
critical analysis of the course pursued
Salisbury, and he bitterly denounced their
procedure in Irish affairs. Continuing, he
said: The real rival policy is coercion. We
won't quarrel about the word, but it means
the policy Of special repressiye,. criminal
legislation for Ireland to the exclusion OF the
remainder of Great Britain.
You must choose between the policy OF CO.
ercion and the policy OF concillatlon. (Cheers.)
Lord Salisbury describes my reference to his
policy of twenty years coercion as one OF
the most deliberate miStatements on record.
Well, hold by it. mean to hold by it.
mean to repeat it. l mean to impress 1t on
the country, and mean that the country
shall fairly have the means OF coming TOT is
false. prolonged cheers.) The Salisbury
government on the Goth of January an
nounced in both Houses the policy of coerci-
ON in Ireland. Lord Salisbury may deny
that he advocated coercion, but his own
words and acts prove he did. He vainly en-
deavored to escape, but he is caught in a net
wherein he is inextricably coiled. His other
alternatives are simply quirks and ever Slip
ping, ever vanishing. DO not gentlemen, DO
not stand on these quirks and however I'M
poSingly named.
There are only two policies before the
country, and it remains with you to decide
between them Reflect, each and every one
of you, in the name of Almighty God, each
one in the sanctuary of his heart and
his soul, what is in this year of 1886, after
nearly century of continued coercion, to
propose coercion as the alternative to local
government in Ireland. Do not allow your
selves to be carried away by craven fears,
but believe that by acting justly you will act
strong. Join us in our efforts to
close this painful, terrible, awful chap
ter of relations between England
and Ireland, which for centuries and CEN
turies has been the opprobrinm of the coun-
try in the eyes and judgment of the world.
join us in this happy, yea holy effort and rely
on it, if we attain our end, it shall be done
more perhaps to the honor of Great Britain
than even the happiness of Ireland. loud
and prolonged cheering) Gladstone spoke
for an hour and half At the end of his
speech vote of confidence in Gladstone was
carried UNANIMOUSLY amid great enthusiasm.