The Worthington advance., 1888-02-23
PARNE1L's AMENDMRNr.
1t 10 Rejected, After speechos ffom Glad
stone and Halfour-A Pathetic Incident Of
Mr. Glsds,ono's Address

~ 10 Re1sctetSs After speOCh0o nom Glad.
stone and Bslfour-A Pathetic Incident OF
Mr. Glsds,ono's Address
LONDON, Feb 17.-In the house Of CON-
mons Balfour, chief secretary for Ireland.
resumed the debate on the address in reply
to the queens speech He commented upon
the vehement character Of UBrien's attack
last evening. He said:
Still it was nothing to what he had been
accustomed to receive from the same quar-
ter in the weekly attacks of United Ire:and.
He had been told that he took strange pieus-
ure in mere purposeless human suffering,
which to his languid life impaired deli
clous excitement Laughter There Ia much
more said about him in the same strain
He consoled himself with the reflection that
attacks OF even worse character had been
made against O'Brien's allies United Ire
land had compared Sir G. O. Trevelyan to q
skunk, cuttlefisn and hangman O'Brien
had likewise drawn comparison between
Gladstone and Judas Iecariot, aud for conttn-
nous weeks United Ireland insisted that
Trevelyan and Earl Spencer had conspired
to shield men guilty of most horrible and
nameless crimeA
OBrien-I never did. I stated that the re-
suit of their misguided action was to shield
those persons, but never alleged that they
did 40 wilfully.
Balfour denied that the new crimes act
created new crimes. He denied that O'Brien
had been ill-treated in prison. On the con-
trary his health had improved there
GLADsToNE's sAX
Mr. Gladstone followed MI. Balfour. He
said:
He found little in the chief secretary's
speech that tended to assist them in getting
at the truth of the questions before the
house There was the question whether the
conservative leaders had communicated
with Mr.. Parnell on the subject Of home rule.
Denials made by Mr.: Balfour did not get rid
OF the Irish members assertions Parnell
had stated that he found himself in entire
agreement with Lord Carnarvon on the home
rule question That had not been denied,
1t was stated that Lord Carnarvon spoke for
himself; but he was viceroy of Ireland at
the time for the Conservative government,
IN mn'n any shape ps0 mehns shas home ens s1e
arat!on of Ireland from the emnire.
The Liberals were called separatists be-
cause they wished to give effect to the ma
tiOnal aspirations of Ireland while having
supreme regard tor the unity of the empire.
Some of the remarks OF Mr. Balfour, MI:
Gladstone said. had apparently been leveled
at himself. His (Glads,one's) Nottingham
speech had been absolutely misrepresented
as to the statement regarding the Irish ex-
ecutlve's practice of obtaining information
by permitting the police to concert crime.
tlce as dangerous to society and odious in
itself He had never uttered words over
which he fell more rejoioed than his words
about MitcheIlstown. He used them for the
purpose OF preventing enormous mischief
and suffering, probably bloodshed 1t was
the agents OF the law that were the breakers
OF the law at M'rchellstown. It was
CRUEL. wANToN, D1sGRAoEFuL
b'Oodshed, almost without example Mr..
Bl!four had become by implication a breaker
of the law, for he gave the act his authorlta-
tive approval, as ii it were to be the model
rule for the conduct of the police. Mr..
Gladstone declined to accept as authentic
the government statistics of crime under the
coercion act until the cases cited were
thoroughly investigated. SuppC sing he gov
ernment mad momentary appearance Of
success from the operation OF the coercion
act. were they going 10 forever legjslate on
the same line He had never beard the min
ls:ers express confidence In their ability to
make permanent resistance to the policy OF
home rule. He did not disguise the strength
OF the combination against home RUE.
which included nearly the whole
wealth aud all the elements of the social
strength belonging to high rank and station
in the country. But the Irish nation and the
growing English popular feeling was on the
side of home rule. To delay the settlement
OF question OF this kind between naLions
was dangerous in the extreme. If the re-
sistance to the national voice of Ireland was
pushed TOO far, those who now guided the
mind of that nation might lose their power
and be displaced by ruder and more danger
ouS spirits Let the government thank
themselves and consent to legislation tor
Ireland, as they did for England and Scot
land IN accordance with the constitutiUnallY
expressed wishes and permanent convic-
lions of the people, and thus at last present
to the world the blessed spectacle OF truly.
and not q nominallv. united empire
ParnelPs amendment was reiec:ed-317
to 279 GIadstone's speech was more rhe-
torical than argumentlve. His voice at
times had symptoms Of weakness While
reading extracts from newspapers he found
difficulty in reading passage, and
turned to Morley to help him. When
the latter whispered cue to the extrac' .
Gladstone tried to resume reading, then
turned to Sir William Vernon Harcourt for
assistance, after which he said to the house:
This, I regret to say, is not the only
point on which begin to find warn
ing thai am not SO young as was I"
At the end of this touching allu-
sion sympathetic cheers burst forth on
both sides Of the house. Gladstone's speech
Is considered one of the fines: efforts of his
parliamentary life Michael Davitt re-
marked TO Parnell: sGranG old man; good
| for fifty years more" Parnell replied: sYes;
be will live to witness the triumph of home
rule"