The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1893-04-07
Premier Gladstone Defends the
Provisions of the Measure.
A UNION MAINTAINED BY FORCE
NEVER PROSPERS.
The Co1ima Volcano Again in State
of Eruption-ProceedIng Before
the Behring Sea Court of Arbitra-
ton Very Dull-Arguments Pre-
scented by Sir Charles Russell for
Great Britain and J. c. Carter for
the United States.
Special to the RECoRD-UN1oN.

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 a second
reading of the home rule bill.
Gladstone said the Government had no
intention of amending the bill as pre-
sented. He earnestly desired to bring
home to the mind of the House the ques-
ton when this great controversy was
going to end. He did not address the
question to the opposition in q spirit of
assumed superiority, but would rather
press it earnestly upon their hearts and
understandings as matter in which both
sides alike were interested. The Liberal
party offered a 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 ven
tured to point to a process whereby the
greatest of Irish questions should be de-
cided, aside from the way in which the
home rule bill proposed to do it. Glad
stone proceeded with q historic develop
ment of the rise and causes of the de-
mand for home rule. He said the pro-
3
proved the fallacy of the argument offered
by opponents of home rule that time and
patience would see Ireland pacified with
out special legislation. Let the House.
SAID he, look at the spectacle the world
offers in regard to its unions. In the
civilized world no incorporated union
effected and maintained by force has ever
prospered.
Hicks-Beach interrupted to ask: "Take
the case of the United States"
Gladstone replied: 81 said Incorporated
union. You missed the essential word.
Holland and Belgium tried incorporated
union, and after precarious existence of
fifteen years divorce was effected. Aus
tria and Hungary tried incorporated
union, and after years of sad experience
found that the choice lay in giving it up
or the empire. Russia Incorporated
Poland. Take your stand thereon, if you
think fit. Let the opposition make it the
model OF their operations to all unions.
But one principle can be applied, and
that is whether they require permanent
maintenance by force. If, when force dis
appears harmony remains, the union is
good. If the maintenance of union by
force is necessary, the value of the union
is questionable. Unions not incor-
porated, but autonomous, and have been
attended in all cases with success, some
times complete, and always consider
able"
In conclusion, Gladstone referred to
the retention of Irish members in the
n 81 l..
sixty years Cabinets have been displaced
twelve times by vote of censure. Not
once was the issue purely British. Eight
were imperial and four Irish. There
fore, less Inconvenience ought to be ex-
pected from Irish members voting on
British questions than has been antici-
pated.
Regarding finances, Gladstone said it
was no easy matter to disentangle the
finances of countries associated for the
last ninety years. But the trouble was
merely dust in the balance compared
with the vital importance of the great
purpose aiming at the real union of two
countries and a consolidation of the EN-
pire. If the House was not satisfied with
the security offered under the existing
financial clause bill, he was ready to deal
freely with the question and recast the
clauses objected to.
The rejection of the home rule bill was
moved by Sir Michael Hicks Beach. He
tainted Gladstone with avoiding criti-
cisms of the bill. The north of Ireland
rang with protests against the proposals
of the bill, yet the Prime Minister ignored
this agitation. The majority of the elect
ors of Great Britain were convinced that
Parliament was once persuaded to take
the step now proposed, and could never
retract it without plunging the country
into the horrors of civil war.