Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1886-04-16
HOME RULE.
COERCION NO CURE.
GRANTING A PARLIAMENT.
Duration and Functions Of the Pro-
posed Body.
IT'S COMPOSITION
Gladstone Credits Parliament
With Good Intentions.
A TRIBUTE TO THE IRISH.
He Relies on British Patriotism
and SagaCity.
Gladstone Credits Parliament
With Good Intentions.
A TRIBUTE TO THE IRISH.
He Relies on British Patriotism
and Sagacity.
PARNELL'S CRITICISM.

LONDON, April S.-Gladstone to-day
made what is expected to be the greatest
speech in his career, and memorable for
centuries in British history, He began
at five o'clock, London time, and talked
three hours. The parliament house was
crowded this morning by celebrities and
other favored persons, though they had to
wait for hours for the great event OF Glad
stones speech. United States Minister
Phelps sat in the gallery near the Prince
of Wales and other members of the royal
family. Mr.. Gladstone was in fine con
dition. His voice was husky at first, but
soon cleared and strengthened, He was
wildly cheered on the road to parliament,
and when he entered the Irish members
arose to their feet in his honor
Gladstone said: could wish it had been
possible to explain to the House the whole
policy and intention of the government
with reference to Ireland. Although the
questions of reform in the tenure of land
and the Irish government, are so closely
and inseparably connected, it is yet i'm
possible to undertake the task of elucidat-
ing both questions together. l do not
know of any previous task laid upon me
involving 50 diversified an exposition. In
contemplating the magnitude of this task
| am filled with painful mistrust, but that
mistrust is absorbed in a feeling of the re-
sponsibility that will be upon me, if
should fail to bring home to the public
mind the magnitude and various aspects
of the question. We should no longer
fence or sklrmish with the question. Loud
cheers We should come to close quarters
with it, [Cheers. We should take means
not merely intended for the wants of to-
day or tomorrow, but should look into
the distant future. We have ar
rived at stage in our political trans
actions with Ireland, when the two roads
part not soon probably to meet again.
The time is come when it is incumbent on
the duty and honor of Parliament to come
to some decisive resolution on this matter
Our intention is therefore to propose to
the Commons that which, if happily ac-
cepted, will, we think, liberate Parla-
ment from the restraint under which of
late years it has Intellectually struggled to
perform the business of the country, and
will restore British legislation to its nat
ural. ancient, unimpeded course, and
above all establish harmonious relations
between Great Britain and Ireland hear,
hear on footing of those free institutions,
to which Englishmen, Scotchmen and
lrishmen alike are unalterably attached.
Loud cheers prolonged by home rule
members.
After reviewing the condition and crime
existing in Ireland since 1888, Gladstone
described the cOercive legislation enforced
during the same period, as not exceptional,
but habitual He compared Ireland dur
ipfr oil inn tn u ma fry inf To 4,
sustenance in medicine only meant fol
cure. Coercion, however, had, he said
proved no cure. Serious disaffecton con
tinued to prevail in Ireland, and If Eng
land and Scotland had suffered similar
hardshps he believed the people of these
countries would resort to means similar t.
those the Irish had used to ventilate theil
grievances. Parnellte cheersl. Coercion
was admitted to have been failure
for the past 80 years. What was the basi!
of the whole mischief was the fac
that the law was discredited in Ireland
1t came to the Irish people with a forelgl
aspect, and their alternative to coercion
was to strip the law of its foreign charac
ter and invest it with a domestic charac
ter. Loud Irish cheers. Ireland though
represented in Parliament numerical,
equal with England or Scotland, wa
really not in the same position politically
England made her own laws, Scotland
had been encouraged to make her owl
laws as efTectually AS if she had six time
her present representation. The cOnse
quence was that the handspring of tn
law in England and Scotland was felt L
be English or Scotch, but in Ireland it wa
not felt by the people to be Irish. II
therefore deemed it little less than mock
cry to hold that the state of law which h
had described cOnduced to the real unit
of this great, noble world wide empire
Something is imperatively demande
from u.s. continued Gladstone, ito IT
store in Ireland the first conditions {
civil life n free course of law, the lbert
of every legal right their confidence i
the law and their sympathy with the Law
apart from which no country can be Gale
a civilized country" What then was
THE GREAT PROBLEM
before him ? 1t was this How to recon
clle imperial unity with the diversity
legislatures. Other countries had solve
the problem, and under much more din
be said to have solved it with respect
Ireland during the time that Ireland ha
separate Parliament. Did it destroy til
unity of the British empire Cheers
Gladstone then pointed to the case
Norway and Sweden, which countrit
were united upon Il footing of strict leg
lative independence and coequality. II
also referred to the case of Austria an
Hungary to show that legislative dive
sity and governmental unity in one en-
pire was not a paIadoxicdl condition. Ir