Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1886-04-24
GIadstone's Speech,

4
The following is the opening part OF Mr..
Gladstone's speech: ---. H-.
eould wish that il had been possible to
expound to the House the whole policy and
intentions of the government with reference
| % Ireland. Although the questions of re-
form in the tenure of land and Irish govern
ment are so closely and inseparably con-
nected, iii yet impossible 70 undertake the
talk of elucidatiDg both questions together.
do not know of any previous task laid upon
me involving so diversified an exposition,
In contemplating the magnitude of this
task, / am filled with painful mistrust; but
4 that mistruSt is absorbed IN feeling of the
responsibility that will be upon me if l
should fail to bring home to the public mind
the magnitude and the various aspects of
the question. We should no longer fence
or skirmish with the question. Loud
cheers We should come to close quarters
/ with IT, fCneers.l We should GET at the
root of it. We should take means not merely
intended for the wants of to-day or tO-mor
row, but should lcok into the distant future.
| We have arrived at a stage in our political
i transactions with Ireland when the two
roads part one from the other, not soon,
probably, to meet again. The time is come
| when il is incumbent upon the duty and the
honor OF parliament 20 come to some deciS-
i've resolution on this matter. Our inten-
ton is, therefore, to propose to the commons
i that which, if heartily accepted, will We
| think liberate parliament from the restraints
under which Of late years il has Intellectually
struggled to perform the business OF the
country, and
WILL RESTORE BRITISH LEGISLATION
to its natural ancient, unlmpeded course,
and, above all establish harmonious rela-
tions between Great Britain and Ireland
lhear, hear on footing of those free insti-
iutions 10 which Englishmen, Scotchmen,
and lrishmen alike are unalterably attached.
Loud cheers, prolonged By home-rule mem-
bers.
existing in Ireland since lSsc,, Mr.. Gladstone
described the coeIcive legislation enforced
during the same period as NOT exceptional,
but habitusl. He compared Ireland during
all this period TO man trying TO find susie
nance IN medicine only meant to cure.
Coercion. however. had, he said, proved no
cure. Serious disaffectiOn continued to pre-
vail 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 ventilate their grievances. Parnellite
eheerS.l Coercion. was admitted to have
Il
only two of which had been entirely free
from repressive legislation. Coercion, un
less stern and unbending and under an au
| tocratlc government, must always tall.
Such coercion England should never resort
to until every other means had failed.
| What was the basis of the whole mischief
| was the fact that the law was dlScredlted
in Ireland. 1t came to the Irish people
with foreign aspect, and their alternative
l to coercion was to strip the law OF its FOL
eign character and invest II with domestic
character Loud Irish cheers.
Ireland. though represented IN parliament
numerically equal with England or Scot
land, was really not in the same position
politically. England made her own laws
Scotland had been encouraged TO make her
| own laws as effectually as If she had six
times her present representation. The con-
sequence was that the maln-sprlng OF the
law i'm England and Scotland was felt to be
the English or Scotch. The handspring OF
the law in Ireland was not felt by the peo
pie to be lrisk. he, therefore, deemed il
LITTLE LESS THAN NoCKERY
| to hold that the state of law which he ha:
described conduced 10 the real unity of thi.
great, noble, world wide empire. Some
/ thing must be done" continued Mr.. Glad
l stone. something isimperatively demanded
| from us TO restore in Ireland the first cOndi
tions of civil life, the free course of law, the
5 liberty of every individual in the exercise Of
| every legal right-their confidence in iheil
law and their sympathy with the law, apar
from which no country can be called civil
lied country"
t What then was the problem before them
r IL was this: How to reconcile imperia
|. unity with diversity Of legislature. Mr.
l Grattan held that those purposes were re
r c0ncilable. More than that, he demanded
, a severance of the parliaments, with view
to the continuity and everlasting unity O
: the empire Was that an audaci0us para
e dox? Other countries had solved the prob
o lem. and under much more difficult circum
stances. We, ourselves, might be said 4
have solved it with respect to Ireland dur
s inc the time that Ireland had separat
: pafiiament. Did il destrev the unity of tn
, British empire? [Cheers.l
Mr.. Gladstone then pointed TO the case o
NORWAY and Sweden, which countries were
2 he said, united upon footing of strict leg
q is.ative independence and coeQuality. Thel
! there was the case OF Austria and Hungary
!, whether the condition Of Austria at tn
i present moment was not more perfect
solid. secure and harmonious than il wa
prior TO the existing condition between tha
:, Country and Hungary. 1t could not b
/ questioned that its condition was one Q
: the time when Hungary was making wa
!. upon her. +-7.T .,4-.,..r T-a
THE CLAIM OF IRELAND
9 to make laws for herself was never deniet
, continued Mr.. Gladstone, until the reign {
y George Ii. The parliament of Grattan wa
: as independent in point OF authority as
9 could be; they (the government were nc
y about to propose the repeal OF the union.
4 was impossible to propose the repeal of th
!, union until they had settled what was th
u essence of the union. He defined the e
sence of the union to be the fact that wher,
Ie as, before the union there were two separai
a and Independent parliaments, after the III
u ion there was but one. To speak Of the di
D. memberment of the empire was, in tn
It country, misnomer and an absurdity. tn
70 fault of the administrative system of lr
y land was that its spring and source of actio
y was English. lCheers.
r The government therefore felt that III
a settlement of the question was to be four
BY establishing a parliament in Dnbli
l. I Irish cheersl for the conduct Of business {
? both legislative and an adm!n!srstiH