The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-02-14

T ADMINISTRATION
| lasting several minutes.
Gladstone spoke as follows in clear
! strong resonant voice:
81 may, without improperly, remind
the house that the voices which usually
pleaded the cause of Irish self-govern-
ment in Irish affairs have within these
walls during the last seven years been
almost entirely mute. [ return there
fore to the period of 1885, when a propo-
sition of this kind was submitted on the
] part of the government of the day, and
beg to remind the house of the position
then taken by all promoters OF these
measures. We said we had arrived at a
point in our transactions with Ireland
where the roads parted. We have, we
said, to choose one or the other. One IS
the way of Irish autonomy according to
the conceptions 1 have just referred to;
the other the way OF coercion. That is out
of contention.
sit will be a recollection of the house
how that contention was most stoutly and
1 largely denied. 1t was said over and over
again by many members opposite, we are
not coercionists; we do not adopt that
alternative, and neither can we adopt
it. ministerial cheers. That ascer-
sion of theirs is undoubtedly sustained
by the proposals, especially from dlssen-
tient Liberals of the various plans deal
ing with Irish affairs. Those plans,
though they fell entirely short in princi-
pie and in scope of Irish self-government,
yet were of no trivial or mean Importance.
They went far beyond what had hereto
fore been usually proposed in the way of
local self-government for Ireland.
swell, what has been the result of the
dilema as then put forward on this side of
the house and repealed by the other? Has
our contention that the choice lay be-
tween autonomy and coercion been justi-
fled or not? (Liberal cheers.) What has
become of each and all of those import
ant schemes for giving Ireland self-gov
eminent of the provinces, and giving her
even a central establishment in Dublin
with limited powers? All have vanished
into thin air, but the reality remains.
The roads are still there, autonomy or CO.
ercion. Choice lay between them and the
choice made was TO repel autonomy and
embrace coercion. You cannot always
follow coercion in absolutely uniform
method.
s'For the first time coercion was i'm
posed on Ireland in the shape of perman-
ent law added to its statue books This
state of things constituted an offending
against harmony and the traditions of
self gOvernment-WaS a distinct, violent
breach OF promise on the faith of which
union was obtained. That permanent
system of repression inflicted upon the
country was q state of things which could
not continue to exist. 1t was impossible
to bring the inhabitants OF the country
under coercion into sympathy with the
coercion power
Gladstone proceeded to dilate at length
upon the circumstances under which the
act OF union was passed with promise OF
equality in the laws and commercial
equality under which union was effected.
1T was then prophesled confidently, ~
he said, THAT Irlshmen would take their
places In the cabinet of the united king
dom, but it had been his honored destiny
to sit in cabinets with no less than sixty
to seventy statesmen of whom only one,
the Duke OF Wellington, was an Irish
man. While Castlereagh was the only
other Irishman who had sat IN The cab
met since the union.
'fMr. Pitt had promised equal laws
when the union was formed but broken
promises made to Ireland were unhappily
written in indelible characters in the his
tory of the country. Coming to 1882 when
the resurrection of the people began,
thence down to 1880, ireland could pre-
sent only a small minority in favor of re-
storing to her something In the nature of
constitutional rights and practical self
government.
sit is to me astonishing that SO little
weight is attached by many to the fact
that before 1885, before 1885 indeed, the
Irish wishes of self-government were
represented only by small minority.
Since 1886, when a wide extension OF the
franchise was protected by secret ballot,
Ireland's position had been improved in
parliament. In 1886 there were eighty
five Nationalists, or more that five
eighths, [cheers they have been reduced
from eighty-five to eighty under circum-
stances somewhat peculiar, hear. hear.
and / must frakly own to myself, among
others for reasons totally and absolutely
uninteiligible. Loud cheers.
'sLet us look at the state of the case as
it now stands. There is but eighty out of
100. That is to say, the wishes of Ire
tiers are represented only by four-fifths.
Laughter. The honorable gentlemen
seem to have no respect for such ma
jority as that. Do they recollect, sir,
that never in the history of England has
there been such majority? [Cheers.
No parliament of the last fifty years has
come within measurable distance of it.
'fIf there be anything in the great prin-
ciple of self government, which if it be
reality, never can work except through
the machinery and laws of representation.
At any rate the voice of the Irish people,
the persistency of the Irish people in de-
livering that voice and the peaceful con-
stitutional circumstances under which it
has been delivered ministerial cheers and
opposition laughter) constitute a great
fact in history. 1t is said, and admit,
with truth, that Ireland is not united
country. l don't deny that the division
which exists is fact of great moment.
In truth, were ireland united, anything
that can render Ireland formidable would
become much more formidable We're Ire