The morning call., 1893-04-07
FIRM AS A ROCK
Stands Mr.. Gladstone for
Home Rule.
UNION CANNOT BE FORCED.
When There Is Coercion There Enters
an Element of Weakness
That Is Fatal.
Special to THE MoRS1x1 CALL.

LONDON. April 6.-The galleries of the
House of Commons were crowded. but the
house itself was not full when Gladstone
rose to-day TO move second reading of the
home-rule bill.
Gladstone said the Government had no
intention of amending tine bill as presented
he earnestly desired to bring home to the
mind of the House the question when this
great controversy was TO end. He did not
address the question 10 the opposition in a
spirit OF assumed superiority. but would
rather press it earnestly upon their hearts
and understandings as a matter in which
both sides alike are interested. The Liberal
party offered solution, but when they
asked their opponents where all this was TO
end they rarely obtained an answer. Ger
tainly the opposition had not yet ventured
to point to IA process whereby the greatest
o. Irish questions should be decided,
aside from the way in which the home
rule bill proposed to decide it. Gladstone
proceeded with historic development of
the rise and causes of the demand for home
rule.
The progress of events in the past GEN.
tury, he said, had proved the fa!lacy Of the
argument offered by the opponents Of home
rule that time and patience would see Ire
land pacItied without special legislation.
Let tie House." said he, "look at the
spectacle the world offers in regard to its
unions In the civilized world no incurpo-
rated union effected and maintained by
force has ever prospersd."
ulckS-Beach interrupted the speaker to
ask: Take the case oil the United States"
Gladstone replied II said incorporated
union. You missed tho essential word.
Holland and Belgium tried incorporated
union, and after pTecariOus existence of
fifteen years q divorce was effected. Austria
and Hungary tried incorporated union, and
after years Of sad experience found that the
choice lay between giving it up or the en-
pire Russia incorporated Poland. Take
your stand thereon If you see fiji. Let the
opposition make it model OF their opera
tions. To all unions bat one principle can
be applied, and that is whether they re-
quire permanent maintenance by force. If
when force disappears harmony remaius
the union is good. Ii the maintenance of
the union by force is necessary the value Of
the union is questionable. Unions not in
cOTpOrated but autonomous have been at
tended in all cases with success-sometime
complete and always considerable"
In conclusion, Gladstone referred to the
retention of the IRISH members in the i'm
perisl Parliament. During the last sixty
years, lie said, Cabinets had heen displaced
twelve times by a vote of eensure, and not
once was the issue purely British. Eight
were imperial and four Irish. Therefore
less Inconvenience ought to be expected
from the Irish members voting on British
questions than had been anticipated.
Regarding finance, Gladstone said that it
was no easy matter to disentangle finances
of countries that had been associated for
ninety years. but that trouble was merely
dust in the balance compared with the vital
Importance of tile great purpose of aiming
at the real union of the two countries and
the consolidation of the empire. If the
House was not satisfied with the security
offered under the existing financial clause of
the BILL he was ready to deal freely with
the question. and TO reeast The clauses OBJ
jected to.
The rejection of the home-rule bill was
moved by Sir Michael Hicks Beach. He
taun;ed Gladstone with avoiding criticism
of the bill. The north of Ireland rang with
protests against the proposals of the bill,
yet the Prime Minister had ignored this
agitation. and the majority of the electors
of Great Britain were convinced that if
Parliament was once persuaded to take the
step now proposed it could never retract it
without plungiug the country into the hor-
rors of civil war