THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7651, 31 May 1886, Page 6

THE HOME RULE QUESTION.

MR. GLADSTONE'S MANIFESTO.

Tat; following are the principal parts of Mr. Gladstone's manifesto to the Midlothian electors : — "I have never known an occasion when a Parliamentary event ao rang throughout the world as the introduction of this Bill under the auspices of the British Government. From public meetings aud from the highest authorities in the colonies and America, from capitals Ruch as Washington, Boston, and Quebec, and from remote districts lying beyond the reach of all ordinary political excitement, I receive conclusive assurances that kindred people regard with warm and fraternal sympathy our present effort to settle, on an adequate scale and once for all, the long vexed and troubled relations between Great Britain and Ireland, which exhibits to us the one aud only conspicuous failure of the political genius of our race to confront and master a difficulty, and to obtain, in a reasonable degree, the main end', of civilised life." He then gives a long history of the attempts to conciliate or coerce Ireland, and adds : " Watching from day-to-day the movement of the currents of opinion during the present cot flict, the more and more I find it necessary to observe the point at which the dividing lines are drawn. On the side adverse to the Government are found, as I sorrowfully admit in profuse abundance, station, title, wealth, social influence and the professions, or the large majority of them. In a word, the spirit and power of class. These are the main body of the opposing hont. Nor is this all, As the knights of old had servants, ao in the great army of class each enrolled soldier has a roll of dependents. The adverse host then consists of class and the dependents of class; but this formidable army is in the bulk of its constituent parts the same, though now enriched at our cost with a valuable contingent of recruits, that has fought in every one of the great political battles of the last sixty years, and has been defeated. We have a great aim before us now. It is to restore your Parliament to efficiency by dividing and by removing the obstacles to its work ; to treat the Irish question with a due regard to its specialties, but with the same thoroughness of method by which we have solved the colonial problems that fifty years back were hardly, if at all, less formidable; to give heed to the voice of the people speaking in the tones of moderation by the mouth of a vast majority of those whom we ourselves have made its constitutional representatives, and thus to strengthen and consolidate the Empire on the basis of mutual benefit and hearty loyalty. Such is the end, As for the means, we take the establishment in Dublin of a legislative body empowered to make laws for the Irish as contra-distinguished from Imperial affairs. It is with this that we are now busied, and with the details and particulars their time will come." He thus concludes : "We are not now debating the amount of the Irish contributions to the Empira, or the composition of the legislative body, or the maintenance of a representative connection with Westminster. Oil these questions we may or may not be at odds : but what we are at this time debating is the large and far larger question—which includes and, I think, ab-orbs them all—the question whether yoa will or will not have regard to the prayer of Ireland for the management by herself of affairs specifically and exclusively her own. This, and no other, is the matter which the House of Commons has at once to decide. If on this matter it speaks with a clear and intelligible voice, I feel the strongest assurance that the otters, difficult as some of them are, will, nevertheless, with the aid of full discussion and with the aid of a wise, conciliatory spirit, be found capable of a national and tolerable settlement. It is, little, gentlemen, which 1 can do in this mo3t grave matter. It is no more than to devote with cheerfulness to the cause the small available residue of my active life to extend my view beyond my own honoured constituency, and in one sentence say to you: 1 My countrymen of Scotland and of England, I can do much with you collectively, and not with any person or class or section among you. It rests with you to deliver the great yea or nay. On your choice depends all the best hopes of Ireland, and much that touches in it the honour and high interests of Great Britain, and all the mighty Empire of our Queen.' " MISCELLANEOUS NEWS. The National Liberal Federation of Scotland adopted resolutions, April 29, favouring Mr. Gladstone's Bill. It is staled that Mr. John Morloy, Chief Secretary for Ireland, in a speech to be delivered at Glasgow, will announce that the Government has decided to abandon that feature of the Home Rule Bill which excludes the Irish representatives from Westminster. The Dublin Nation, organ of the Lord Mayor, denies that Irish-American dynamiters will continue to worry England unless an absolute separation of Ireland and Great Britain is obtained. " Mr. Gladstone's measures," says the Nation, "mean peace to the Irish throughout the world." The Earl of Derby published a letter on May 5 denying the moral right of the present Parliament to decide the Irish question. The Duke of Norfolk presided at the Conservative mass meeting on the evening of the sth May, at St. James' Hall, to protest against the Home Rule policy of Mr. Gladstone. The attendance was large. Baron Bramwell was introduced as a prominent seceder from the Liberal party on this question. Sir Michael Hicka-Beach and Viscount Cranbrook were appointed a committee to present to Parliament a petition against the granting of Home Rule. The meeting, on the sth, of the National Liberal Federation of Great Britain, endorsed Mr. Gladstone's policy amid the wildest enthusiasm. Herbert Spencer, Professor Huxley, and the Earl of Tyndall, have joined the AntiDisunion Committee, the fund of which now amounts to £50,000. - 'he Earl of'Kenmore has resigned his office under the present Government. Nu • erous instances are reported of country constituencies passing votes of want of confidence in their representatives in Parliament. Lord Hartiugton has consented to introduce in the House of Commons a motion to reject Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill on its second reading. Four hundred Catholic priests attended a meeting at Dungannon, County Tyrone, on May 6, called to give expression to their views on Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy in compliance with the Premier's invitation to all bodies in Ireland to take aotion in the matter. The Moat Rev. Daniel McGettigan, D. 1)., Archbishop of Armagh, presided. Resolutions were adopted endorsing Mr, Gladstone's policy. A LETTER FROM MR. GLADSTONE. The following letter from the Premier to the London Chronicle, was published in that paper on April 26 : — " It is not my custom to comment on statements made by hostile newspapers, but having sincere respect for the Chronicle, I would call attention to an allegation made by it in a leader, that I have

i- — 1 -heretofore taught that Home Rule in Ireland Would be ft source of Imperial danger. I will not challenge proof of the assertion, which was, doubtless, made in good faish ; but it is entirely an error. I have always asked for an explanation of tho meaning of Home Rule, in order to make clear the question whether or not it would be a source of danger. We have now learned the demand of Ireland from five-sixths of her chosen representatives. Such Home Rule is, in the language of my address in September last, a source not of danger, but of strength. The danger, if any, lies in refusing it."