Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-24

He Spoke of the Condition of Affairs on
 the Continent-A Crisis was Imminent.
 The Recent Dock Strike and Irish
 Wrongs Compared-He Spoke for Seven.
 ty Minutes.
 LONDON, Oct. 24.-The meeting of the Liberal electors of Southport yesterday afternoon, who gathered to listen to the great speech of Mir. Gladstone, proved the most enthusiastic and suc- cessful political event held in England for a long time. MT. Gladstone was at his best and for an hour and ten minutes he spoke to his auditors with all his old time vim and eloquence.
 The hall was beautifully decorated and amid the profusion of flags and ban ners tastefully draped from the walls and pillars were scattered placards bear ing pithy and striking patriotic notices and party war cries. Upon the large flag behind the speakers desk, were blazoned in letters of heroic proportions the words "Gladstone lives," while on tho opposite side of the hall huge banner bore the inscription We win with the flowing tide.'
 A Great Ovation.
 The hall was crowded to suffocation fully two hours before the great Lib-
  he was greeted with a storm of cheers and shouts in which every member of tho large and enthusiastic audience joined, and which was prolonged until the grand old man" had reached the platform and waved his hand as a sig nal for quiet.
 After feelingly thanking his audience for the warm welcome accorded him, MT. Gladstone at once plunged into the business in hand by presenting to his hearers an exhaustive review of the work for the past twenty-one years of the great Liberal party, whose candi- date he had come there to support. He spoke of the condition of affairs on the Continent at the present time and eX- pressed the belief that the one formid- able menace to the peace of Europe was the complications growing out of the Turkish misrule in Crete and in Arme mia. He could not deny that crisis Tn European affairs was imminent, and paid high tribute to the laudable anx- iety of all the powers concerned to post pOne it.
 Justice for Ireland.
 Passing to a consideration of affairs in Ireland, Mir. Gladstone pointed out that the principles for which the dockmen in their recent strike contended were precisely the same as those for which the Irish tradesmen and tenantry sought recognition at tho hands of a British Parliament It was absurd to give our sympathies to the one and deny them to the other for the two must stand or fall together. But this was precisely what the Tory Govern ment had done. While conceding the | justice of the dockmen's claims to a decent living as the fruits of their labor, they crowded the Irish l prisons with tenants who made the same claims. He believed that an | appeal to the people, if it could be made l tomorrow, would result in verdict 1 overwhelmingly in favor of the Liberal 1 of coercion, he insisted, had proved a miserable failure, and if any proof were 1 needed of the fact it would only be necessary to point out that after all these years of coercion with which it was proposed to pacify Ireland, the l Tory Government found it necessary less than fortnight ago to proclaim new districts in Ireland. The crime rate l to-day was the same as it was in 1884 when the Tories declared that coercion | was no longer necessary, and yet that l policy remained the cornerstone of the l Government programme.
 The Liberal Policy.
 MT. Gladstone in concluding stated that it was impossible at this time tc map out the Liberal policy of the future within the outlines already we'll known to the electors. When the proper time arrived tho Liberal party would be found prepared to formulate their pro. l posals with due regard for the neces sity of attention to details. At this time it was only necessary to present l to tho electors for their approval or re- jection the living principle for which the Liberal party contended.