The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1886-04-15

with the original states, without further
action by congress.
House, April lO-This could be termed
bridge day in the house, between twenty
and thirty bills being passed authorizing
the construction Of bridges over navigable
Across the st. Croix river at some accessi-
BILE point between Prescott, Wis.,, and Tay-
lor's Falls, Mimi. the Mississippi river at
Winona, Mimi: the Yellowstone river,
Montana: the Mississippi river at Red
Wing. MIMI; the Missouri river near
Chamberlain, OAK, and near Pierre, Oak.
HOME RULE FOR IRELAND.
No such political excitement has been
witnessed in England of late years as oc-
Cured on April 9Th when Gladstone made
his great speech proposing to give Ireland
home rule by granting a separate parlia-
ment at Dublin and have no Irish members
sent to the English parliament any more
than Canadian members are sent to Eng
land. Members Of parliament do not have
fixed seats and the first corners secure
the best seats. Eleven hours before
Gladstone was to speak the Irish members
began to gather and secure their seats,
massing themselves in front of tho speaker
An immense crowd followed Gladstone
from his residence to parliament and the
building was surrounded with such q
crowd that business was blocked and
suspended on adjacent streets The follow
ing extracts from Gladstone's speech show
his proposed plan for settling the Irish
question:
The fault of the administrative system
of Ireland was that its sp ring and source
OF action was English (cheers). The
government therefore felt that the settle
ment of the question was to be found by
establishing parliament in Dublin for the
conduct of business Of both legislative
and administrative nature. The political
economy of the three countries must be
reconciled. There shosld be an equitable
distribution of imperial burdens. Next,
there must be reasonable safeguards for
not not this migority al" IN Ireland c take
cara of itself! He had no doubt
of its ability to do that, when we have
passed through the present critical period
and been disarmed of the jealousies with
which any change was approached, but for
the present there were three classes
OF people whom they were bound
to consider; First, the class con
n ne with the land; second,
government in Ireland; third, the Protest
ant minority. The speaker could not ad-
NIT the claim Of the Protestant minority in
Ulster or elsewhere to rule on questions
which are for the whole of Ireland. Sever
81 schemes for the separate government of
Ulster had been submitted to him. One
was that Ulster province should be exclud-
cd from the operations of the present bill
Another was that separate autonomy
she uld be provided for Ulster, and a third
suggested that certain rights should be re-
served and placed under provincial coun-
ellis. No one of these proposals had ap.
peared to the government to be so com
pletely justified by its merits or by the
weight of public opinion in its favor as to
warrant the government in including it in
their bill.
The speaker said he would now pass to
to deal with the Irish as distinguished from
imperial affairs. He was confronted at the
outset with what he felt to be a formidable
dilemma. Ireland was to have domestic
legislature for Irish affairs. That was his
postulate, from which he set out. We're
alive peers in either house to continue to
form part OF the representative assemblies!
The speaker thought that it would be per-
fectly clear that ii Ireland was to have q
domestic legislature, the Irish peers and
the Irish representatives could not come to
affairs. Then, with regard to the question
whether Irish representatives should come
to the house of commons fer the settlement
of imperial affairs, he thought that could
not be done. He had, therefore, arrived at
the conclusion that Irish members and
Westminster. If Irish members were not
to sit in the house of commons, Irish
peers ought not to sit in the other
house OF parliament. How were the
Irish people to be taxed if they had legisla-
tors In both countries. He believed that
Ireland taxation without representation
and added: II we were to have taxation
without representation then there would
come another question which would raise
practical difficulty, and that is: Are we
to give up that fiscal unity of the empires
cal unity of the empire, they we're giving
up the unity Of the empire. He, however,
stood upon the substantial ground that to
give up the fiscal unity of the empire would
be public Inconvenience and misfortune.
1t would be great misfortune for Great
britain and greater misfortune for Ire
land. He conceived that one escape from
that dilemma would be such an arrange
ment as would give the imperial govern
ment authority to levy customs duties and
such excise duties as were Immediately
connected with the customs. The condi-
oiOAo "a ouCu Oh hIikoIUcut were, urSG,
that the general power of taxation over
and above those particular duties should
pass into the hands of q domestic leg
islature in Ireland; second, that
the proceeds of the customs and
excise should be held for the benefit Of Ire
tions Of Ireland, and the balance, after
these obligations were discharged, should
be entered into the Irish exchequer and to
be for the free disposal of the Irish legisla-
tive body. The government bill provided
for this, and the bill then provid-
should ao ionssr sit Of in Tire
house of commons or Irish peers in the
house of lords, but at the same they would
have the right of addressing the crown, and
so POSSESS all the constitutional rights they
held now. ltwould, therefore. relieve Irish
members from attendance at Westminster.
Mr.. Gladstone said he had sever al rea-
sons why this should be the case. Even il
it was possible for them to attend, as they
had parliament of their own it would be
very difficult to have two classes of men,
bers in the British house, one class
nected with the business of the coun-
try and another which could only vote
on special and particular questions which
are brought before parliament. Again it
would be very difficult for gentlemen in
Va '" nv c.AOuAN AOAAoAA III AToIduu,
and at the same time to maintain the fiscal
unity Of the nation. There is another
point with regard to the powers of the leg
islature. Two courses might have been tax
en-. One was to endow this legislative
body with particular legislative powers.
The other was to except from the sphere of
its action those subjects which the govern
ment thought ought to be except
ed and to leave it to any
other power. The duration of the pro.
posed legislative body should not exceed
five years. The functions which it was pro-
posed to withdraw from the cognizance
of the legislative body were three grand
and principal functions, viz:
Every thing which related to the crown,
all that which belonged to the defense, the
army, the navy, the entire organization of
the armed forces, and our foreign and COL
onial relations. It would not be competent
to pass laws for the establishment Or en-
dowment of any particular religion [cheers /.
AS to trade and navigation, it would be q
misfortune to Ireland to be separated from
England. The Irish parliament would
have nothing to do with coinage or the
creation of legal tender The subject of
the postofice would be left to the judg-
ment OF parliament, though the govern
ment is inclined to the belief that it would
be more convenient to leave postofice mat
ters in the hands of the postmaster general.
Quarantine and one or two other subjects
were left in the same category. The next