The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1893-03-25
ri JIM OV Nd,
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I'll, JIM Nv Ell y! |. A ND |. !,
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feat ION Of his cause, this eloquent and
unsi fish pleader for Irish liberty de-
cla5 es at the outset that there is no third
alf ernative. We have. arrived. said he,
at q point where two roads dlyerge; you
lave to choose between the one and the
other. One is the way Of Irish autonomy
the other the way of coercion.
Within tho past six years all anticipa-
tions of local self.government have van
ished into thin air-even in the darkest
days that have passed since 1880 coercion
had been but temporary or occasional,
had been made an integral portion of the
law, perpetual in its possible application.
Here in essence was justified the as
sertlons of all the Irish patriots from
Swift to Grattan, from Grattan to O'Con-
nell and from O'Connell to men of later
times and of the present day.
Mr.. Gladstone declared in words AS
uncompromising as could have been ut
tered by the greatest of all Irish patriots
that the promises under which the union
of Great Britain and Ireland had been
obtained at the beginning of the present
century remained unperformed and that
the consideration which helped to pur-
chase or extort the union from Ireland,
had never been paid. and that broken
promise is written, indelib]y written on
the pages of English history.
This greatest of all living statesmen
who has always been far ahead OF his fell
lows in approaching the inevitable in
politics, does not believe that Irish oppo
sition to home rule in Ireland is unalter-
able; he argues from the history of the
country, both before ana subsequent to
the act of union, that the present oppo-
eition will return to the sentiments Of
their own ancestors, their own blood,
their own religion, their own people and
form one in noble and glorious unity
with the rest of thoir fellow countrymen.
The bill is masterpiece in all that is
great and sublime in craftsmanship
just and full measure Of national self
government which does not trench on
any interest, either national or imperial.
I give yo. his closing words
eff this is to end the matter, I think
dispassionate men would say the Sooner
it is ended the better the sooner should
we stamp AID seal the deed which is to
efface all former animositles and open an
era as we believe of peace and good will.
The SO ner it is done the better, bat
there ale matters which the human Wis
ion-at least my human viaion is hardly
equal to penetrate. But for all this 1
must say, on my own part, that ] never
will and never can be party to be-
queathing to my country continuance
Of this heritage of discord which has
been handed down from generation to
generation with hardly an interruption,
through several centuries-this heritage
of discord and all the evils that have fol-
lowed in It's train. Sir, ! wish to have no
lot or part in that process. It would be
misery to me it had foregone or omit
ted in these closing years any measure
possible for me to take towards upbuild
ing and promoting the cause which be-
lieve to be not of one party or OF one ma
ton or another, but of all nations and of
all parties inhabiting these islands; and
to these nations viewing them as do
with all their vast opportunities under a
living union for power and happiness to
these nations I say let me entreat you
if it were wi h my last breath ! would
entreat you-let the dead bury the dead
and cast behind you every recollection
of bygone evils, and to cherish, to love,
to sustain one another through all the
viciasitudes of human affairs in times
that are to come"
And thus it was this great man pre-
sented all the perplexities of the Irish
home rule question in the imperial par
lament on the 18th day of February last
as twenty years before that very day he
had presented the Irish university bill.
With heroic soul and even temper, with
no aim at exciting either passion or vehe-
ment enthusiasm, calmly, dispassionately
and with towering intellect solving the
vast problems of nations destiny with
all the earnestness and fervor and devo-
tion, unexcelled even by that nations
most patriotic son.
Ifsnch olearness of political vision had
been given to one British statesman of
former generations, if but such senti-
ments as we're uttered that day had ami
mated the mind of one man as great as
he who was then before that AeHse, all
the wastage Of the best human intellect,
all the blood that need never have been
split, all the weary years dragged