The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1901-11-23


istence of material for forming public
opinion, and directing public opinion
to Il given point; and l will undertake
to say that everyone of his great
achievcments--aye, and even his last
great attempt at an achievement-that
in everyone of those great causes he
formed, or endeavored to form and
create, the great public opinion upon
which he knew he depended. l will
take Il case which ought to interest
you, citizens of Manchester. He began
the greater stage of his career by the
budget OF 1858, which revealed to the
country that it possessed Il man With
Il great comprehension of the substan-
tial interests and the growing concerns
of trade and commerce Did he run
about. feeling the pulse of popular
opinion? No. He grappled with the
facts with infinite genius and labor;
and recollcct, with Mr.. Gladstone ge-
MUS was labor (npplau>ey. lie built
up Il vast plan. He carried that plan
to the cabinet. The cabinet We're
against him almost to Il man. They
warned him that the House Of Com
mons would be against him. The otli-
Gals OF the ucaSureE told him the
bank would he against him; that Il
great press OF interests would be
against him; but, like an intrepid and
sinewy athlete that he always was he
stood 10 his guns. lie converted the
cabinet: he persuaded the House Of
Commons; he vanuulShed the bank and
the hostile interests; and, in the words
of one OF his SUCCESSORS, whom Sir
William IoutlSworth and | we'll knew
and lik@l-Sir Stafford Northcotc-hc
did all those things and turned for
many years to come the current of
public opinion with that force which
WAS too powerful for amy minister to
resist. Don't let it be said, then, that
Mir. Gladstone WAS Il man who always
followed THE flowing tide tllear, hear.
If 1 may take another case, l only
mention lit is Interesting to me for
NdllouS IcitSollS--il is Tue ttlSe ul inc
Irish land lcgislation; and don't think
L say it because l chance, from acct
dent of office, to know more about it
than OF some other things. This was,
in my Judgment, the most gigantic, tho
most complex, the most drep-rcaching
OF his Legislative achievements. The
transformation Of land trnurcs, always
the most difficult Of all processes in all
countries, and the adaptation of law
and institution to social fact and social
need-this revolution which he effected,
in the relations between the man who
titled the soil and the man who drew
the rent, this compulsory valuation OF
land as Il preliminary to that purchase
which we arc all agreed TO be the uti
mate solution-this was effected, not
with the flowing tide; ii was effected
against the Ignorance of this country
against the prejudice of this country
against the standing prejudice of boil
branches of tile legislature, who were
STEPPED in the deepest doctrine of con,
tract. You remember the events in tho
seventies. | will for q moment tres
pass Oh controversial ground. You will
remember there was Il great discus.
sion, and for good reason, as to what
was the policy of this country in re.
spect to the Christian races on the Bal
kan peninsula. Some Of you may re-
member Il very fine figure of MIR. Glad
stones on that point. lie said these
Christian races, standing between Tur-
key and Europe, were like Il shelving
beach which restrained the waves. \
beach, it is true, is beaten by the
waves; ii is laid dcsolatc; ii produces
nothing; it became nothing but Il mass
of single and rock, and almost use
less sclweed: but it is Il place behind
which cultivated earth can spread and
escape the incoming tide; and such, he
said, was the resistance to the Turk
of the Bnlgnrians, Scrvans, ami
Greeks. WE'LL in the great enterprise
Of his life in the seventies llc made an
opinion which eventually guided the
policy of the country, and which had
such a great effect for the good of the
world (applause). One more point
will refer to. He misrcad the Civil
war in America, which saved the AM
erl an Union and prevented the horrid
curse of the great slave power from
growing upon American soil. He mis-
read it in common with nearly all the
leading statesmen of the tilnc-lot in
Lancashire (chcers) We'll, but then, If
upon that one occasion lie fell into err
ror, do let us remember that no man
was more ready to admit how gricvous
the error had been; and | will say this,
that he made the nobleSt PREPARATION
that amy statesman has ever made for
rash word by Il healing deed when
he made the Geneva arbitration Then,
with regard to the Alabama dispute
arbitration, it uucncllcd the fires Of
luminosity between the same races on
two sides of the Atlantic. and il in
Iugurltcd the first substantial and
great precedent for the substitution of
reason for force, and something else
for the deadly but not altogether avoid
able arbitrament Of the sword Qoud
cheers. l said that ii Mr.. Gladstone