THE HOME BULE BILL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XX, Issue 2395, 6 April 1893, Page 2

THE HOME BULE BILL.

The following is a fuller report than any yet published of. the speech of Mr Gladstone in introducing the Some Bule Bill :—

Mr. Gladstone, on rising at a quarter to four o'clock on Monday, in a very crowded and deeply interested House, to ask for leave to introduce a Bill to amend the provision for the government of Ireland, was greeted with prolonged cheers, his supporters, including the occupants of tbe Trea. sury bench and the Nationalist members, standing up in their places. He began by reminding the House that the voices which usually pleadeU the cause of Irish self-government ife. Irish affairs within those walls hM > during the last sevan years been almost entirely mute; and he returned, therefore, to the period when, in 1886* a preposition oi this kind wa» sub* mitted on the psrtof the Government of the day. It was then contended that we must choose between Irish autonomy and a policy of coercion. The contention was stoutly denied at the time, but it had been completely justified by subsequent events. The schemes propounded by the dissentient Liberals and others for giving to Ireland government in the provinces and even a central establishment in Dublin, with limited powers, had vanished into thin air, while 'the choice between autonomy and coercion remained. Since 1886 coercion had been recognised as the normal condition of Ireland, and had for the i first time been embodied- in f a permanent statute, but nil wmJtention was that a permanent system v - of repressive laws was fatal to tbe first conditions of harmony, and good government. His next contention was that such repressive laws were a distinct and violent breach of the promises on tbe faftn of which the Union was obtained, inasmuch as the granting of equal laws was the great compensation which Ireland was to receive for the removal of her Parliament. That pledge had' never been fulfilled, and the broken promise was indelibly written in the history of the country. For a long time, from the beginning of this century, Ireland, as a political entity, was* little less than a carcass robbed of life. It was J surprising that so little weightam^ attached to the fact that, whCrssifl before 1885 Irish withers f<* *^fl government were represented- only a rather small minority of tbeir representatives, since 1885, SA& the wide extension of the franchise and its protection by the secret vote, there had been 85* Nationalists out of 101 members, or flve-sixths of the Irish members. That majority had since been reduced under peculiar circumstances, but there were now 80 Nationalists, or four-fiftos of the representation. Alluding to the common assertion that a minority in the North was arrayed in an unalterable opposition to the demand for Home Bule, he pointed out that the Irish Protestants during the period of the independent Parliament were enthusiastic supporters of Irish nationality, and hinted that the Protestants of the present day might revert to the sentiments of their ancestors.

After referring to the results of the late general election as showing that even in England there was a steady growth of public opinion in fg^BMp Home Rule, the right hon. germsnm^ proceeded to explain the principles and salient points of the Bill. He had endeavored to adhere* closely to the five cardinaJUprinciples of the bill of 1886. The object of that measure was to establish a legislatire ■ body, sitting in Dublin, for the conduct of both legislation and administration in Irish as distinct from Imperial affairs ; secondly, the«*ality of» all the kingdoms was to oe borne in mind ; thirdly, there was to be- an equal repartition of Imperial charges; fourthly, there were to be practicable provisions for the protection of minorities ; and fifthly, the plan to be proposed was to bear the character of: a real and continued, if not a final, settlement. On that basis they con* tinned to stand, and the supremacy of the Imperial Parliament would be expressly acknowledged in the' pro* amble of the Bill. Dealing with the executive power, Mr. Gladstone said the Viceroyalty would be divested of its party character, and the appointment would be for the term of six Cyears, subject to the revoking power of the Crown, and would be free from religious disabilities. Then there came an important provision for tbe appointment of an executive committee of the Privy Council, which might be called the Cabinet of the Viceroy. On the advice of that ' Executive Committee the Viceroy would give or withhold his assent to Bills, subject, however, to the instructions of the Sovereign in respect to any given measure.

As to the question of a Legislative Council, tbe Government had decided that there ought to be such a body and that it should be elective, and not nominated. Then came tho question * how they were to differentiate the Council from the popular Assembly. In the first place they would take the number of councillors it was proposed to appoint— namely, 48; and faffcf second place they would takethT * terms of the Council, which it war- ( Concluded o* page*.) |j