THE IRISH QUESTION.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 170, 17 July 1888, Page 2

THE IRISH QUESTION.

ARREARS OF RENT. A SPEECH BY MR GLADSTONE. THE NATIONAL LEAGUE. London, June 80. The Irish Bishops urge that power should be given to the Courts to lessen or cancel arrears of rent.

Speaking at Hampstead, Mr Gladstone said the feelings aroused by the Irish conflict really governed and decided questions which were purely English. The Government had promised Ireland local Government to avert coercion. The House of Commons was not aware of the doings of the magistrates aud county judges in Ireland, who were dependent on Government favor, and who punished offenders beyond their jurisdiction, and without evidence. If the judges, juries, and the House of Commons intervened at their pleasure, coercion would crush combination, not con. spiracy, the former being the sole defence of the weak against the strong. Mr Balfour has promised to introduce measures for the purpose of encouraging the fishing industry and promoting railway extension in Ireland. Earl Spencer, replying to Lord Camperdown in tne House of Lords, said he regarded the existence of the National League, interfering as it did between the landlord and the tenant as an unhealthy sign. He disapproved of some of the League’s acts, but considered it was a perfectly legal society, and believed it possessed the sympathy of the mass of the people. It was unfair to accuse the League generally on account of the utterances of individual members belonging to it.