Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-08
OUTLOOK FOR IRELAND.
The Fate of Home-Rule to be Decided.
Contests at the Polls to be Begin i'm
Many Districts.
Gladstone Addresses a Powerful Let
tert0 the Voters of London on the
Irish Question. A Speech by
Parnell.

LONDON, July Fridays polls are
eAcl'lhg intense interest. Of the seventy
t 80, contests, the Gladstonians are hope
u tul 'na1 the Irish voters will wrest eigh-
'een seats from the Conservatives. The
iesuiI VIII reveal how the English prov
IN! iliolaI poroughs are affected. Gladston-
ian agents report probable gains in Bris-
toll, Norwich and SOUTHAMPTON IF these
expectations are realized thew will oiva
an impulse to Liberal victories tbroEgb-
out the country. The Pail Mall Gazet+e
fears that many Liberals will abstain
from voting and urges the party TO con
centrate its whole effort on FRIDAYS cleo.
tlons, as ''the battle may be won or lost
on that Hateful day."
MI Gladstone writes that he will he mn
aole 10 address the electors of London,
and therefore ventures to offer them .
rev words IN summing up the question
! before them. "A century ago" he saws
I'VE gave Ireland free parliament Will
which she was satisfied ALTHOUGH the
| constitution was faulty, it was beino
gradually reformed when the tories re
the horror of every liberal statesman,
stopped the work by RECALLING Fitzvyin
| y M.
slstance and frightful bloodshed. These
mlschiefs, of which the tory government
were the authors, were made the pretext
for the union, in which Ireland was en-
trapped and coerced by shameful means
Promises that were made were disoraca-
fully broken. The sufferings of the peo-
ple which, according to the Devon com.
mission, were greater than in any other
christian Sho
lected. Coercive laws were passed to en-
rich the landlords at the EXPENSE of the
people; an alien church was maintained.
Catholics were not admitted to parlia>
ment until they became too strong to be
resisted, and emancipation was granted
by Wellington to avoid a civil war. Mean
while, when in 1920, Dublin wished to
peacefully demonstrate, soldiers were SCI
to break up the meeting. This is a re.
Voting record, but it is only a small part
OF the truth. Can you wonder at the crv.
long and loud, against a union so foully
obtained? But, like many bad laws, it
was difficult to change.
SUPREMACY OF PARLIAMENT
lit did one good thing, namely. it es-
tabllshed the supremacy of parliament.
Ireland now declares that she is content
with supremacy. She leaves you what is
good IN the union and asks you to rip off
what is bad. She asks you, further, to do
what you did with such advantage for
Frenchmen IN Canada, for Dutchmen IL
the Cape Colony, and for the children of
conV1cts IN TASMANIA to give her man
agement not of English nor of Scotch
nor of Imperial, but simply of Irish af-
fairs. 1t is long record of disgraceful
deeds against US. The question is that Of
wiping it away. The deeds were done
mostly before the passage of the first Re-
form act, since which time matters have
improved. Good has been done almost
wholly in defiance of the tories. But evi'
has also been done, and the good that
ought to have been done has largely been
left undone. A long course of evil be
longs to the time before the nation was
enfranchised, and only partial good ha
been accomplished since. Now, for the
first time. the question is put wholly and
clear to the franchised nation. The peo-
pie of England and Scotland have eithe-
to purge out the old shame of their coun
try by listening to reason, or, by refusing
to listen, to make her shame their owl.
with all the wretched consequences it wiz
increasingly entail. [ tell the people OF
London that this is the question with
which they have to deal, and for his own
share In dealing with it each voter will be
PARNELL SPEAKS.
Mr. Parnell addressed a large meeting
at Wrexham to-day. He said it was al.
legged that two great dangers would result,
from cOnceding Home-R Rule to Ireland
the separation of Ireland from Grea
Britain and the persecution of the Prot
estant minority by the Iris
Catholic majority in Ireland. Their
were no grounds for experimenting eithe'
Mr. Parnell then devoted himself to a.
analysis of what he called the Marquis Q
Salisburys pretended denials of his pa
nell's) charge that the Tories promised
to support Home-rule in return for Irisl
support at the polls and in parliamen
Mr.. Parnell called attention to the ia
that Lord Salisbury shiede,
himself in these denials behind his cat
met, when he declared that neither
government nor any person connectt
with the government ever indicated tt
he favored a statutory parliament
Ireland. ''When / parted with Earl Ca
narvon, then lord lieutenant of Ireland
said Mr.. Parnell, "I left the confereno
feeling that he favored the Irish caus
and that a Home-rule bill and lar
purchase act would be passed by the Co
with the Irish votes before th
end of the session, with the obnoxiol
clauses Cancelled, but in the shape I de
manded On behalf of the Irish party.
had besides this the strongest reasons
believe that the Tories would have give
Ireland Home-rule if they had been ST
cessful at the polls. If coercion is to
continued in Ireland the national seint
ment will be increased among the Iris
until it becomes uncrushable HON.
rule, on the other hand will unite T.
two countries in bonds of love al
amity."
ELECTION DODGFS.
Joseph Chamberlain told reporter
the Birmingham Mail that welI-inform'
friends had Informed him that there
N existence an Irish plot to murder hi
This information" Mr.. Chamberla
added, "has been corroborated by
London police, who warned me of
plot, and informed me that the assass
meant to kill Lord Harrington also" n
Chamberlain said both himself and Lo
HARRINGTON in consequence. permit