MR. GLADSTONE ON THE CONDITION OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 12, 13 July 1883, Page 19

MR. GLADSTONE ON THE CONDITION OF IRELAND.

The inaugural banquet of the National Liberal Club, of which Mr. Gladstone is president, was held in the Aquarium, at Westminster, on Wednesday, May 2nd. Mr. Gladstone in responding to the toast of « Prosperity to the National Liberal Club" made the following references to Ireland in explaining the reasons why the present Government had not been able to legislate at a quicker rate than they have been doing:— J We had a tremeudous demand upon Parliamentary time, grown out of the condition of Ireland, and which it baa been our fortune to meet. It was the condition of Ireland, in a threefold sense, that we had to deal with. We had to deal wilh a refusal of rent— that is, a refusal of contract— which threatened to become general throughout tbe country. We had to deal with a diffusion of discontent and agrarian crime, which went far to destroy peace and the security of lire and property. We had also to deal with the unseen agency of secret societies, breaking out from time to time not only in offences •gainst property, but in shocking and atrocious crimes (hear, hear). Well the House of Commons which the people returned have endeavoured to deal with these evils. The resistance to rent, v wbich was almost becoming general— almost national—in its resistance, has generally—l will not say absolutely— ceased (loud cheers). It is no small achievement of our Parliament when I remind you that the Duke of Wellington officially informed George the Fourth that if the Irish people Tefused to pay rent all over the country there was no power in the bands of the Government that could compel them to do so, or to cope with such a state of things (hear, hear). Well, the wide extension of crime of which I have spoken has been reduced to a proportion, I may say, one-sixth of what it was— a reduction which has been general in its character, and which has been puch as to render the discharge of the ordinary obligations of social life as they are to be found in any civilised country (hear, hear). With regard to the secret societies, I hope you will not think that we have b>en wanting in energy or efficiency in carrying on the work against a pestilent and most demoralised class of the Irish people (hear, hear), and even those societies generally aTebut the extreme growth of the disease for the production of which the Governments of this country in other days have been responsible, and that is the reason why it, is our duty to take care that no secret societies and no prevalence of crime shall induce us to deal out anything less than full justice (hear, bear, and cheers) to them upon every public question as it emerges to the whole people of Ireland, and in common with all portions of the Unitf-d Kingdom. It was with extreme pain that we found our aims have been so sadly impeded by dealing with the condition of Ireland ; but I think you will feel that the time has not been wasted in any idle show and that Parliament has employed its powers and resources in the vindication of the first principles of society, and the order which is equally essential to the welfare of the highest and the lowest in the land.