THE IRISH COERCION BILL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1847, 15 April 1887, Page 9

THE IRISH COERCION BILL.

MANIFESTO BY MR GLADSTONE. (Special to Press Association.) London, April 9. Mr Gladstone has issued a manifesto to the miners of the North of England, in which he declares that the time has arrived for the working men of England to bestir themselves on behalf of Ireland. With this end in view, 10,000 working men in London intended to devote Easter Monday, and have arranged an anti-coercion meeting in Hyde Park. Referring to the injustice of the Coercion Bill, Mr Gladstone points out that the record oftcrime in Ireland is relatively less than that for England. If the bill was passed it would mean suffering. But, he adds, Ireland knows how to suffer for England. The bill means shame and dishonour ; its elements are antagonistic to the moral code of latter-day civilisation, and that it should be cast forth in shame and dishonour was the first business of a great nation. Mr Gladstone points out that in 1876 the working men of "London gave the first effectual force to the movement which |resulted in the emancipation of Bulgaria. The movement produced the overthrow of the Beaconsfield Adminis T tration and brought about the return of the Liberals to power by the election of 1880. Mr Gladstone concludes his manifesto by expressing a hope that the anti-coercion meeting in Hyde Park will toll the deathknell of the worst, most insulting, and most causeless Coercion Bill ever submitted to Parliament.