The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-04-24
HOME RULE.
GladstOne's Great Effort on
the Presentation
Of His Home R-le Scheme.

Widest enthusiasm prevailed ana IL Is Sale
to say that no such scenes were ever wit
messed before i'll the Commons. AS soon as
the cheering had ceased Gladstone rose and
moved for permission to introduce =" bill
to amend previous legislation and to make
provision for the future government of
Ireland"
After reviewing the condition of affairs
and the crime existing in Ireland since 1888,
Mr.. Gladstone described the coercive legis-
lation enforced during the same period as
not exceptional, but habitual. He COM
pared Ireland during all this period to
man trying to find sustenance IN medicine
only meant for cure. Serious disaffection,
said he, continued to prevail in Ireland,
and if England and Scotland had suffered
similar hardships, he believed the people
of those countries would resort to means
similar to those the Irish had used to ven
tilate their grievances. Parnelllte cheers.
Coercion was admitted to have been
failure for the past fifty-three years, only
two of which have been wholly free from
repressive legislation.
''The claim of Ireland to make laws for
herself was never denied" continued Mr..
Gladstone, 50 until the reign OF George IL.
The Parliament of Grattan was as indie
pendent in point of authority as it could be.
They (the Government) were not about to
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.
What then is the problem before us ? 1t is
this: How to reconcile imperial unity with
diversity of Legislatures. Grattan held
that these purpJs were recOncllable. More
than that he demanded a severance of
Parliaments, with view to the continuity
and everlasting unity of the empire. Was
that an audacious paradox? Other coun-
tries had solved the problem, and under
much more difficult circumstances. We,
ourselves, may be said to have solved 1t
with respect to Ireland, during the time
that Ireland had a separate Parliament.
Did it destroy the unity of the British
Empire ?" [Cheers.l
Gladstone stated what he had to say on
the subject of the new Irish Constitution.
The proportion of the Imperial burdens
which he had to propose that Ireland should
bear was one to fourteen. He thought that
the new Irish Parliament ought to stand
with a balance to its credit; but the only
fund that it would have if left alone would
be the solitary 100000 from the Irish
Church fund. He knew no way of pro-
viding the necessary money except by cary
ing it out of this years budget, and he
proposed that in future Ireland should pay
one-ffteenth toward the imperial expendi-
ture He then entered into an elaborate
calculation of the total income and expend-
ture of Ireland, in the course of which he
stated that the total charge to Ireland as an
imperial contribution he put at G3, 242, 900
per annum. He estimated the total ex-
penditure of Ireland, including the payment
i'll nd for hA rIG Of
the national debt, at 81, 948, 900 per annum.
Against this there was total income of
e8, $50, 900, or a surplus to the Government
of e404, 000
Referring to the great settlement of 1872,
Mr.. Gladstone said: g 1t was not real set
Element, and why p? Was it claimed that it
prevented a real settlement being made !?
Irish cheers. No; it was the mistaken
policy of England listening to the per-
nicious voice and claims of ascendancy.
The Irish Parliament labOred under great
disadvantages, yet it had in 1T the spark OF
the spirit of freedom, and 1t emanclpated
the Roman Catholics of Ireland when the
Roman Catholics of London were still I'M
emancipated. 1t received Lord Fitz Will
liam with open arms, and when, after a
brief career, he was recalled to England, the
irish Parliament registered their confidence
in him by passing q resolution desiring that
he should administer the Government.
Lord Fitz William had promoted the adj
mission of Roman Catholics into the Irish
Parliament and there was spirit in that
Parliament which, if it had had free scope,
would have done no noble work, and prob
ably would have solved all the Irish problem
and have saved this Government infinite
trouble.
The speaker said he would pass to the
plan of how to give Ireland Legislature to
deal with Irish, as distinguished from i'm
perial affairs. He was confronted at the
outset with what he felt to be formidable
dilemma. As Ireland was to have dOmes-
tic legislature for Irish affairs, that was his
postulate, from which he set out. Were the
Irish members and Irish representative
peers in either house to combine to form a
part of these representative assemblies
The speaker thought it would be perfectly
clear that if Ireland was to have domestic
legislature, the Irish peers and Irsh repre-
sentatives could not come to Parliament
to control English and Scotch affairs.
1Cheers Then with regard to the ques-
ton whether Irish representatives should
come to the House of Commons for the set
Element of imperial affairs, he thought that
it could not be done. He had therefore
arrived at the conclusion that the Irish
members and Irish peers ought not to sit in
the palace of Westminster. Oh, oh, and
cheers. If Irish members were not to sit
in the House of Commons, Irish peers ought
not to sit in either house of Parliament.
THear. hear, and Oh!1 How were the Irish
people to be taxed if they had legislators in
both countries? He believed chat Great
Britain would never impose upon Ireland
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 en-
pire would be a public inconvenience and
misfortune. 1t would be great misfortune
for Great Britain and greater misfortune
for Ireland. He conceived that one escape
from that dilemma would be such an
arrangement as would give the Imperial
Government authority to levy customs du-
ties and such excise duties as were imme-
diateIv connected with the customs. The
conditions of such an arrangement were:
First-That the general power of taxation
over and above those particular duties