The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-09-29
IRISH HOME RULE.
Gladstone Issues a Pamphlet Upon
the Subject.

Gladstone Issues a Pamphlet Upon
the Subject.
E1-Premier Gladstone has just issued
pamphlet upon the question of Irish Home
Rule which has attracted great attentions
The brochure is under two heads The first
s history Of an idea, in which Mr.. Glad
stone summarizes the following conditions
under which alone, in hisview, home rule be-
came possible:
First-The abandonment Of the hope that
Parliament could serve as passable legisla-
tive instrument for Ireland. Second-The
unequivocal and constitutional demand Of
the Irish members Third-The possibility
Of dealing with Scotland in similar way in
circumstances Of equal and equally clear de-
sire.
Mr.. Gladstone then passes on to defend
Home Rule measure upon his friends Re
plying to the charge Of Harrington and
Chamberlain that he had conceived the idea
precipitately, aud to the charge of Bright
that he had concealed it unduly, he
denies that it is the duty of a Min
lister 10 make known, even to his colleagues,
every idea forming in bis mind, which would
tend to confuse and retard instead Of aid
business. He continues:
and in principle condemned it, and also that
I had mentally considered it; but I had
neither adopted nor rejected it, and for the
very ample reason that it was not ripe either
for adoption or for rejection"
In the second portion Of the pamphlet, the
lessons of the elections, Mr.. Gladstone begins
drawing certain lessons from the elections as
they affect the Liberal party.
Look at the question:" he continues,
(Which way we will, the cause Of Irish self
government lives and moves and con hardly
fail to receive more life, more propulsion
from the hands Of those who have been its
successful opponents in one Of its particular
forms. II will arise as wounded warrior
sometimes arises on the field Of battle and
stabs to the heart some soldier of the vi,torl-
Gus army who had been exulting over him"
Mr.. Gladstone then looks at the elections
from geographical point Of view. He
shows that even in the case of England what
we have is not really refusal, but is only o
slower acknowledgment. Ths effect of all
this in Ireland he describes as follows:
"All the currents of the political atmo-
sphere as between the two islands has been
cleansed and sweeteped. For Ireland now
knows what she has never known before,
that even under her defeat a deep rift of di-
vision runs all through the Engli 81 nation in
her favor; that there is not throughout the
land a parish or village where there
are not hearts beating in unison with
her heart, where there not minds
earnestly bent on the acknowledgment and
permanent establishment of her claims to
national existence. Under these happier cir
cumstances, what is there in separation that
that would tend to make it advantageous to
Ireland? AS an island with many hundreds
of miles of coast, with weak marine and O
people far more military than nautical in
its habits, of small populations and
limited in her present resources, why should
she expose herself to the risks of invasion
aud to the certainty Of an enormous cost in
the creation and maintenance of a navy
for defence rather than remain under
the shield of the greatest maritime
power in. the world, bound by every
est to gnard her! Why should she
be supposed desirous to forego the advantage
of absolute community Of trade with the
greatest of all commercial countries to be-
come an alien to the market which consumes
say nine-tenths of her produce and instead of
using the broad and universal path Of enter
prise now open to her to carve out for her
self new and narrow ways as third-rate
Statain