^ 
 
 eXSX SPEECH >^^>- 
 
 BY THE HON. 
 
 EDWARD BLAKE, Q.CM.P. 
 
 Hyt^PpemieP of Ontamo, 
 
 IN CONNECTION WITH THB 
 
 FROME DIVISION LIBERAL ASSOCIATION, 
 
 And in supporting a Resolution of Confidence in 
 
 J^r. Qladstorve's QoVerr\mer\t, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 <s^ GUILDHALL, BATH, ^ 
 
 Ji^NUARY 27th. 1893. 
 
 «e? 
 
 ^ REPRINTED FROM THE 
 
 'b Baih and County Weekly News. 
 
155- 
 
The Irish duestion. 
 
 lEELAND'S DEMANDS CLEAELY STATED. 
 
 The following is a reprint, from the Bath and 
 County Weekly News of the 28th January, of 
 the speech delivered on the preceding night in 
 the Guildhall, Bath, by the Hon. E. Blake, 
 Q.C., M.P. for South Longford:— 
 
 Mr. Blake, M.P. who had a most enthusiastic 
 reception (the audience cheering upstanding), sup- 
 ported a hearty resolution of complete confidence 
 in the Government. He said : Mr. Chairman, 
 ladies and gentlemen. You are doubtless well aware 
 that the party to which I belong (the Irish 
 Nationalist party), is not one of the sections into 
 which unhappily the Liberal party is more or 
 less divided, is not any part of the Liberal party, 
 but is and has been recognised by your great leader, 
 to be properly an independent party, acting and 
 co-operating together for the accomplishment of one 
 single paramount national purpose, the attainment 
 of Home Rule for the country which we represent. 
 (Applause). How comes it then that I appear before 
 you to-night at a meeting of Liberals, to support as 
 I do, from the bottom of my heart, this resolution 
 of confidence in a Liberal government ? (Applause.) 
 It comes because the Independent Irish Nationalist 
 party (of which I am an humble member), is 
 engaged, and has for years been engaged, by a bond 
 of honourable alliance with the Liberal p^rty, 
 formed in 1886, and pursued in circumptances of 
 considerable difficulty, and much sacrifice, by both 
 the Liberal party and the Irish Nationalist 
 party — faithfully pursued ever since engaged in bonds, 
 I say, of honourable alliance and co-operation for 
 the accomplishment of this great constitutional 
 reform, so vital and important as it is to both coun- 
 tries and to the Empire at large. (Applause.) It is 
 because the Irish Nationalist party has seen no 
 reason at all to distrust, but has seen great reason to 
 give increased credit io the honour and good faith 
 imd the firm persistence of the Liberal party, in the 
 
performance of its part of the conpact. So Ion 5 as 
 faith and pledge is kept with the Irish Nation ilist 
 party that partj is ready to take risks, encounter 
 dangers — and it has to encounter attacks on the 
 flank, to which it is unhappily exposed — in order to 
 assure and re-assure the members of the Liberal 
 party throughout Britain that if it keeps faith .vith 
 us we will honourably and truly keep faith with tliem. 
 (Applause.) It is because we see in the professions 
 — and in what is infinitely more important than pro- 
 fessions, in the practice of your leaders and of the 
 Government of the day evidences of their contir ued 
 fidelity to the cause in which we are concerned, 
 — (Applause) — and we believe that to strengthen tieir 
 hands at this time is the most important step we can 
 take in furtherance of the object dearest to our 
 hearts. (Applause.) Now I have somewhat 
 cleared the ground on which I came here. In 
 my own personal capacity as a citizen of the 
 Empire, as a politician in a humble way, of a quarter 
 of a century standing, I have always been a Liberal. 
 (Applause.) I have been a Liberal in my own 
 country, with a sympathy for the great Liberal 
 party in Great Britain in all things except when they 
 went wrong about Ireland, — (applause) — and in 
 all things since they have acted rightly about Ireland, 
 "—(applause) — and therefore I have a personal 
 pleasure and satisfaction in finding it consistent 
 with my public duty to do anything that might in 
 the slightest degree give any aid to the Liberal 
 party in the Empire. (Applause.) Now I come here 
 as an Irish Nationalist member, not as a Separatist. 
 (Applause.^ I have never been a Separatist. 
 (Applause.) I come here as a Unionist — (applause) — 
 and it is because I am a Unionist that I am a Home 
 Ruler. (Applause.) I do not believe in a Union 
 formed by chains. (Hear, hear.) I do not like a 
 Union such as you sometimes see in the streets, two 
 dogs coupled together by a chain, barking ai^d strug- 
 gling,and not pulling the same way . (Laughter) . I don't 
 helieve in a Union of which the only visible signs are 
 Acts of Parliament, parchments, seals, and forms 
 of that kind. I believe in the much dispised and 
 derided Union of hearts and Union of interests. 
 (Applause.) These are the only bases of union either 
 among men or communities of men which are 
 
worth talking about— (applause) — and if you make 
 a union which is founded upon common interests 
 you make a union which will be formed of con- 
 tented parts, and will make a contented whole. It 
 is in order that there may be a contented whole 
 formed of contented parts that I am advocating not 
 separation, not the repeal of the union, but the 
 creation for the first time of a solid enduring union 
 for the purpose of objects really common to us, and 
 the separation of those interests which are really 
 local. (Applause.) Now there are interests which 
 are common to the two kingdoms. The succession to 
 the crown ; that must remain always one, and all 
 questions concerning it must be disposed of by a 
 common and imperial Parliament. Foreign rela- 
 tions ; whatever local divisions or private concerns 
 we have, before the world we must stand one and 
 indivisible (applause) with a common foreign policy for 
 peace or war. (Hear, hear.) We have a common 
 interest in the great colonies of the empire. (Hear 
 hear.) I was told the other day, I am sorry to say 
 by a chairman in his address that he looked upon 
 me as an exotic. (Laughter.) I said that the only 
 thing exotic about me, Mr. Chairman, is tlie flower in 
 my button hole, which I got from your con- 
 servatory. (Laughter.) I am not an exotic : I am 
 British born. (Applause.) I am at home in every 
 quarter, where a patch of red is to be found on the 
 map, in so many quarters of the world ; but I am at 
 home most of all in the old house at home — 
 that is in the United Kingdom. (Loud appjause.) 
 We have common concerns then with r*^ferencc to the 
 colonies, we have common concerns with reference to 
 the great Indian Empire. More, our trade, our com- 
 merce, is from the nature of things, from the geo- 
 graphical relations of the two countries, from their 
 union by the sea,which is the great free trader of the 
 world, from a long association in a beneficial course 
 of trade, from the e.stablislicd trade relations between 
 Great Britain and Ireland — a common concern — it is 
 manifestly to the interest of Great Britain and still 
 more manifestly to the interest of Ireland that the 
 relations of trade which prevail in the United Kingdom 
 should be one and indivisible. These are common con- 
 cerns, and not only in my judgement, but accordingto 
 our practice on our side of the Atlantic both in the Re- 
 
6 
 
 public 'and the Dominion there should be a commoa 
 regulation of the duties, customs and excise, without 
 which it would be impossible to ensure absolute unity 
 and freedom of trade between the two countries. 
 In all thfcoti respects and some others an agreement 
 should be come to fur continued direct control if the 
 Union is to become real, and if those things which 
 have made friction and difficulty between the two 
 countries are made to disappear, you will have then 
 for the first time a deliberate discussion in the 
 common parliament of the two countries on 
 what are common concerns. What follows ? That 
 in the Imperial Parliament only on those 
 matters of common concern to both countries 
 would the Irish members have votes. In my 
 own parliament at the crisis in 1886, when 
 the Home Rule Bill of that year was in 
 debate in the English House, I moved a resolu- 
 tion expressive of the opinion of the Canadian 
 House in favour of the principle of that Bill. But 
 I moved only in favour of the principle. I expressly 
 declared that I limited my motion to the principle, be- 
 cause p.mongst other points I was unable to agree 
 with that portion of the measure which excluded 
 Ireland from representation in the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment. I felt that it would not be final. I felt that 
 it was degrading to Ireland to suppose that she 
 would long remain contented, that you were to ad- 
 minister her aflairs — or rather the common afTaira 
 over her — without any voice of her own in their 
 management. I felt that the more thorough was 
 the success of the Home Rule you gave htj, rising 
 to the dignity and stature which belongs to her, the 
 more she would demand a share of control in those 
 affairs and that she would be likely under such circum- 
 stances to say, Well, you sent us out of Westminster, 
 and we will not return ; we have proved ourselves 
 capable of managing these things which you *iave 
 allowed to us, and we are quite able to manage o jjr 
 own affairs completely. (Hear, hear.) I felt there 
 was a danger, a possibility of this, and that there were 
 ways by no means impossible whereby the repre- 
 sentation of Ireland could be secured in the Imperia', 
 parliament at once without the breaks and inequal- 
 ties which would be involved in their exclusion, 
 (Hear, hear.) To what extent should Ireland be re- 
 
presented ? Just so long as Great Britain chooses to 
 maintain the iniquitous Ac'u of Union I should 
 protest most strongly against the gross injustice of 
 reducing by a single man the representation which 
 the act of union gives to Ireland in the present 
 House of Commons. These are our weapons within 
 the constitution to assert our rights. Until there 
 is a settlement between the two countries we decline 
 to give up one man of our forces. Ana" yon must re- 
 member, your sense of justice wiU not permit you to 
 forget that for many a long year after the act ^ 
 union, our population increased far more pro-" 
 portionately than yours, that it ia we were grossly 
 under represented, and that largely owing to the diffi- 
 culties which have been created in Ireland by the 
 unhappy incompetence, or want of knowledge of the 
 English Parliament to remedy our grievances 
 that the population has been dwindling year by year, 
 you never offered while we were entitled to 
 more members to give us more, and I am sure you 
 would not say that we should be justified in giving 
 up a single man until settlement is come to 
 Letween the two countries. According to the modern 
 doctrine of representation, as my friend has said, it is 
 not land or houses, it is souls that are represented. 
 (Applause). Therefore I am quite prepared for my 
 part so soon as the settlement is reached to agree 
 to a reduction of the representation in Ireland 
 to & just proportion according to the popula- 
 tion, and it will be to a trifle over 80 instead 
 of 103. (Hear, hear). For what subjects is Ireland 
 to be represented ? It wo^ild be the grossest im- 
 pudence on the part of any Irishman to claim a right 
 to vote on your concerns. (Hear, hear). Of course if 
 you ask them to vote upon your affairs they will meet 
 your wishes. (Hear, hear.) But they make no such 
 claim. They claim that right to vote when common 
 concerns are to be dealt with ; they claim no right 
 whatever to vote when your local concerns are dealt 
 with. (Hear, hear.) Now what control shall this 
 Imperial parliament have over Ireland in managing 
 her own concerns? You remember the attitude, 
 or the attitudes, for there was a series, that the 
 Liberal Unionist party from time to time took on 
 the subject of Home Rule. You will remember 
 ft few years ago on the initlaticn of the^ great 
 
8 
 
 struggle, there was a time when Mr. Chamberlain 
 (hisses) was very close indeed to Mr. Gladstone. 
 (Loud applause.) There was a time — if it served 
 any useful purpose (but I won't take up your time), 
 I could read extracts from his speeches which would 
 prove that he was prepared to grant a large measure of 
 Home Rule to Ireland. (Laughter.) But he always 
 more or less, and then perhaps rather less than more 
 (laughter) and now rather more than less (laughter) 
 insisted upon an element which would be fatal to 
 the success of the plan, an element of constant 
 supervision and overlooking, of grandfatherly and 
 grandmotherly superintendence (laughter) over the 
 conduct of Irish affairs. I was telling a meeting at 
 Huddersfield the other night a story which a little 
 reminded me of the attitude of these gentlemen 
 when they were saying rather sympathetic words to 
 fair Eiin upon this subject— courting her a little, 
 but with the reservations to which I have alluded. 
 Just before I came across here an action for breach 
 of promise was tried in my own country. It was 
 brought in a way in which such actions are very seldom 
 brought — by the gentleman against the lady. 
 (Laughter.) He was a schoolmaster, who had been 
 wooing the fair lady, and there was as usual a cor- 
 respondence which was produced upon the trial. 
 The lady, in the course of the correspondence, broke 
 into poetry ; it was not original poetry ; she cut it 
 out of a newspaper and sent it to her lover, and if 
 I rightly recollect, the verses ran this way ;— 
 
 And will you ever love me? ^ 
 
 And ever be my dear ? 
 
 And will you never chide me^7 ■ ^''^ 
 Nor never be a bear? 
 floud laughter). To this the lover with imprudent 
 frankness responded by writing on the margin of the 
 paper and returning it, somewhat in the manner 
 of ^tr. C'-iamberlain towards Ireland — " I will 
 sometimes if you need it; 'Whom the Lord loveth He 
 chasteneth' " (renewed and prolonged laughter). 
 Well, Mr. Chairman, the lady broke off the engage- 
 ment, and, strange to say, the jury found that she 
 was entitled to do it, and they would not 
 give the gentleman any damages. (Laughter). 
 So, I may say, we decline to agree to the terms 
 of the engagement proposed by Mr. Chamber- 
 
9 
 
 lain, by which he is to exhibit his love to us by his 
 corrections (cheers and laughter). No ; we recog- 
 nize that amongst the functions of this common and 
 imperial Parliament which are to continue, amongst 
 the functions of which it cannot divest itself even if it 
 would, is that of supremacy ; That it is a supreme Par- 
 liament,that it has the power of repealing or amending 
 this Act or any other Act, that it has the power, 
 after the passage of this Act, of making laws about 
 Ireland, and that the Executive may, subject to its re- 
 sponsibility to this common Parliament, be given 
 some power in connection with and theoretically 
 affecting all legislation. And we say that these are real 
 powers ; they are existent ; they are not merely nomin- 
 al. But we say that Home Rule would be worse than a 
 lie if they were to be retained upon any such under- 
 standing as that they were not powers reserved for 
 use in some great and serious emergency, in cases 
 in which, presumably, the Irish legislature might 
 commit a grave abuse of the powers entrusted to it 
 and do detriment to the general interests of the 
 Kingdom. (Cheers.) You Lnow that there are 
 many powers in the British Constitution which if 
 pushed to extremes or put into common use, would 
 be destructive of the whole. So of this power, it is a 
 sword which will remain, I believe, sheathed for 
 ever, but it is a sword which you can draw upon 
 some great emergency, which alone would justify your 
 using the weapon. Normally, ordinarily, we must 
 be free to legislate for Ireland in those particulars in 
 which you give us control of her local affairs accor- 
 ding to our own views, even although they differ 
 from yours. What would be the use of setting up a 
 sham House there to make just such laws as you 
 decided were good for us ? It is because you have 
 proved, and it is no disparagement to say it, since 
 the reason of it lies deep in the roots of human nature, 
 the idiosyncracies of individual men and difierent 
 nations, you have proved what any nation would 
 prove under the circumstances — your own incompet- 
 ency to master, your want of time to master, your 
 incapacity to deal with the local affairs of another 
 nation and another country, that we demand 
 a Parliament for them ourselves. And just 
 as we would fail to appreciate many of your idiosyn- 
 cracies, and fail to sympathise with many of your 
 
10 
 
 views, and just as you would think it unreasonable 
 that that circumstance should prevent your views 
 having effect with reference to your own concerns, 
 just as you would think about such interference on 
 our part with you, so, extraordinary as you may'think 
 it, do we think about your interference with us. 
 (Cheers.) Now there is a reason why England, as 
 distinguished from Wales and Scotland why this divis- 
 ion of Britain should have been somewhat slower to 
 apprehend the justice of this demand of ours — a 
 reason also founded deep in human nature. Wales 
 sympathises v/ith us by 28 to 2, Scotland symi^/athises 
 with us by soniething about two to one, in England 
 there is a majority against us of about 70. But it 
 would be entirely a mistake to look at the repre- 
 sentation in the House as evidence of the feeling of the 
 people in either of the three divisions. Your system 
 of producing, or attempting to produce, in the 
 House of Commons a mirror, a reflection, of the 
 public opinion of the people is an imperfect, a 
 hap-ha/jaid system, and the more you extend the 
 franchise, the more you give power to the people to 
 vote, the larger the number of those who do vote, 
 the more obvious does it become that we have got to 
 look a little behind the returns which that imperfect 
 system produces if we want to see what popular 
 opinion is. Now at the last election there were in 
 England — not Scotland, not Wales — in Eng- 
 land about 3,300,000 polled votes, and there was 
 only about 70,000 majority out of that number in 
 favour of the anti-Kome rlulers. You are aware 
 that out of 3,300,000, 70,00" hardly counts ; you were 
 nearly equally divided ; and if you go on counting 
 you will fmd that it accounts for only ten members 
 insteo.d of 70 or 72, so that the strength of public 
 opinion against Home Rule in England, the 
 ?niijority, is multiplied by seven in the returns — 
 t-ovenfoid, seventy men representing a popular 
 sLreugth of ten only. Taking Britain as a whole, 
 you have I think sonie4:hing like a majority of 13 
 a',ainst Home Rule in the House, but on the polled 
 \oLcs there is actually a majority in Britain of 
 2 0,000 men in favour of Home Rule ; and over the 
 ^vhole of the United Kingdom there is a polled major- 
 ity of 245,000 in favour of Home Rule. (Cheers.) But 
 Unionists, those v.ho are al\va}s declaiming about 
 
11 
 
 the sacreduess of the union, and who will not agree 
 for an instant to consider the propriety, I do not 
 say of repealing but of modifying the union so as to 
 give some local control of local affairs to one of the 
 divisions, the Unionists take no account of the 
 United Kingdom when they talk of the result of the 
 elections. They cut it up in advance before the 
 Home Rule Bill is passed. While they are protest- 
 ing that they will peril their lives, their fortunes, 
 and theii' sacred honours (loud laughter) in pcr- 
 i;r-tual defence of the condition of things as they are, 
 ilisy cut the Kingdom up into divisions They cut 
 of? Ireland, they take away Wales, they take away 
 Scotland, and they take old England by itself ; they 
 say there is an overwhelming majority of seventy — 
 which, as I have shown, ought to be only ten — in 
 England against Home Rule, and they that will not 
 count Ireland, that they do not attach much impor- 
 tance to Wales, that Scotland is not of much 
 account ; and because England by itself has so 
 decided it is impossible that the measure can be car- 
 ried. (Laughter and cheers.) Well, now I want no 
 repeal of the Union ; but this is my contention, that 
 I really must insist that while the Kingdom is 
 united we should talk of the United Kingdom, while 
 the Parliament is one we should deal with its 
 majority as a whole. There is, as I have said, a 
 majority in the Kingdom of 245,000, and in the 
 House there is — or there was in the last 
 session, for now there are about eight vacant seats — 
 a majority of 40. That the majority is found in 
 one part of the kingdom or another part of the 
 kmgdom has, I will not say nothing, but has not 
 all to do with the matter. My own opinion is that 
 it has something to do with the matter. If tlie 
 Liberal Unionists had been able to say that there 
 was a majority in Ireland against Home Rule, they 
 would have said that no matter how large a majority 
 there was in England, Scotland and Wales for it, 
 that the majority against it in Ireland was abso- 
 lutely fatal to the idea. (Cheers and laughter). I 
 know they would, because they succeeded in getting 
 a seat or two in Ireland, by reason of some divisions 
 and other circumstances, and they boast of the si^at 
 or two they got in Ireland as most important cir- 
 cumBtances. They attach great importance, peculiar, 
 
12 
 
 and special importance, to the voice of Ireland if only 
 it say "No" (loud laughter), but if Ireland says 
 " Yes," it might as well be a dumb dog. (Renewed 
 laughter.) Well now, let us look again ; why should 
 it be that of these four divisions of the United 
 Kingdom, England should naturally be slowest to 
 recognize the propriety of the change? Well, there 
 are two reasons. First, England is the most Tory 
 of the four divisions, the most Conservative, and 
 therefore the most averse to change. But there 
 is another reason, lying deep down, once again 
 at the roots of human nature. It is because 
 you have got Home " Rule in England your- 
 selves at present ; you do not appear to sufler under 
 the grievances and difficulties which Ireland, and 
 measureably and considerably Wales and Scotland 
 do. You have got 470 votes out of G70 votes in the 
 common parliament ; you can pass any local law you 
 please, no matter if every man from Ireland, Wales, 
 and Scotland in parliament shall vote against it ; 
 you control your own affairs just now and ours too ; 
 and therefore you are not quite so alive to the impor- 
 tance of the thing. No man knows so well how the 
 shoe pinches as the man that is wearing it, you 
 know (laughter and cheers), and you are not wearing 
 the shoe. But To not suppose that although you 
 have this power if you choose to exercise it, you are 
 not really and deeply interested in tlie change. You 
 are. Although you have got the voting power to 
 pass any law you please for your own concerns, yet 
 you know that the legislation vou wish is delaved 
 and often denied ; you know that proper attention 
 to your concerns cannot be given. Well ; it is your 
 own fault ; it is because you keep on interesting 
 yourselves in and managing other peoples' affairs as 
 well as your own (laughter and rheci-s) ; it is be- 
 cause you do not choose to divest yourselves of those 
 things which do not belong to you and attend to 
 those which do. Then what should Ireland liave 
 control of ? She should have control of her local 
 Irish matters, civil rights within Ireland, her muni- 
 cipal legislation, questions relating to land ; there 
 is nothing more local in the world than the land. 
 (Hear, hearj. You recollect, I daresay, tlie story of 
 a great territorial magnate, he was a duke or one of 
 those dignitaries; a good many years ago he was 
 
13 
 
 much ofTendcd — I do not know why, probably because 
 his tenants did not give him a triumphal procession, 
 or something of the sort, when he came home. At 
 any rate he made the announcement that ho would 
 leave the estate and not return, but a steady, hard- 
 headed old tenant said, " Pray will his grace take-his 
 land with him?" (Laughter). That solves the ques- 
 tion, they carmot take the land with them, tlie land 
 is in Ireland, the land is Ireland, and tiiercfore we 
 must deal with the land. Now that is a large order, hut 
 fortunately it is an oixlci which has been greatly 
 facilitated, about wliich the lines 6f settlement have 
 been very clearly developed by the legislation and ac- 
 tion that has taken place during the last few years. The 
 principle that the Irish Tenant's position was abso- 
 lutely intolerable, was contrary to tlie laws of God, that 
 it was a di'^grace to man and should have been made 
 contrary to man's laws long ago, was long ago recog- 
 nised, and a strenuous effort was made to modify the 
 position by creating v/hat was called the dual owner- 
 ship, the recognition of the tenant's moral and equita- 
 ble right in Viis improvements, and by creating a tri- 
 bunal 10 fix: the rents. The scheme was bold and it did 
 some, even great good, but it is recognised liy ail that 
 it did not solve tlie question, and the solution of tlio 
 question, it is admitted now, is to be found on other 
 lines — namel}', on the lines of the conversion of tlio 
 occupying tejjants of the great bulk of the small hold- 
 ings of Ireland into proprietors of the soih '1 here is no 
 dispute about that now ; Liberal Unionist, Tory, 
 Kadical, and Nationalist are all agreed that this is tlio 
 method of solving th-e difficulty. Ifow is it to ho 
 solved ? There also the lines liavc ln>en mac].' pretty 
 clear to us ; the credit of the state has been gi anU'd to 
 a certain extent ; the arrangement whereby thero 
 shall be a tiibuvjal for delerniiuing the arrange- 
 ments for pmelu-sing with provisions for the tenant 
 who is to pay, paying the state which guarantees the 
 landlord his price, a fixed sum every j'car for a 
 period ordiuaiiiy about 49 years. Tiiere is the 
 principle of action laid down, and under various 
 ]c;:islatiou which Ikis taken place, 50,000 men 
 have become the incipient proprietors of their 
 holdiiigs. But that is but a drop in tlic 
 bucket : nir.ch more remains to be done. 
 The Inii)eriai credit, which ha.s been granted, 
 
14 
 
 remains an element which is confessedly import- 
 ant to the completion of the operation — the 
 British taxpayer does not want to agree to a pledge 
 of further Imperial credit for Irish land. Ireland does 
 not ask the British taxpayer to pledge further Imperial 
 credit beyond what i;^. now pledged by three acts, the 
 first Ashbourne Act, the successor to that act, and the 
 late Balfour act, for that purpose. But do you sup- 
 pose that if we, the Irish legislature, on the credit 
 of the Irish people, pledge its resources for the 
 large sum necessary to complete the alteration 
 of the bulk of the small holders, into proprietors, 
 if we are to do all that, and take all these risks, that 
 we ai'e going to agi'ee that you shall devise the means 
 and methods and appoint the officers and arrange the 
 whole affair — that we shall pay and you shall spend? 
 (Laughter.) No. (Cheers.) You would not agree to do it 
 in your own case No, and the whole of these questions 
 can be solved by simply putting yoxirselves in our place, 
 everyone of them can be solved if you would only ask 
 yourselves " what would we do in like case." Therefore 
 I say W3 must and shall have the right to deal with 
 the question of the land. Now I am no more a confiy- 
 cator than I am a separatist ; but I believe in the gen- 
 eral principles of settling the Irish land question which 
 have already been laid down with this condition, 
 which I may teil you Ulster perhaps more than any 
 other province concurs with one voice in demanding 
 that for its settlement there is reqiaired the power of 
 compiilsory purchase by a state authority. (Hear, hear) 
 I do not believe that power would be frequently used : 
 I believe its existence would save the necessity of 
 its frequent use, but that it must be obtained is to my 
 mind obvious. In principle it has been obtained 
 already, when you passed the Improvement 
 Act, fixing the rents that a landlord could 
 receive for his land, you i^ractically adopted 
 the same principle of compulsion. What is land 
 worth ? It is worth what you can get for it. 
 Yet you decide that it shall pay what a commissioner 
 says it is worth. You have done it with reference to 
 Labourers' Allotments, where you have given by a 
 cumbrous machinery — which is absurd and ridiculous, 
 but still the principle is there — you have given tho 
 power of taking land in order that laboui'ers may have 
 allotments. (Hear, hear.) So in Scotland witli the 
 Crofters, who represent the same condition, almost 
 critically and exactly, as tho congested districts of Ire- 
 land — the most distressed part of Ireland — you have 
 established the principle of compulsory purchase in 
 order to relieve the Crofters there ; and Ireland, which 
 
15 
 
 is supposed to expend all ycnr time and to be in 
 advance of all other dematids, yet lacks the power of 
 compnlsory pi;rchase in these tT'.strictss, wliose lot is 
 boyond question the hardest lot in the world to-daj'. 
 So that there is nothing dangerous that I can 
 ree in these proposals, and my own belief is that, 
 granted a judicious i..;e of the present pledged Imperial 
 credit, with the notion and knowledge that \vhen its 
 use terminates measures will be taken to settle 
 the question with reference to the bulk of the small 
 holdings involving compulsor\' purchase, the whol« 
 Irish question will bo settled witli greater case than 
 most peo])le imagine, and with great advantage to 
 the landlords* as well as the tenants. (Applause.) Well, 
 they agree, some of them, that we shall have pov»er to 
 make laws on many things, but they say we cannot 
 allow you to appoint the judges and we cannot allow 
 vou to appoint the police ; (Laughter.) — the Imperial 
 Government and Executive must appoint the judges 
 and police. That seems to me very farcical. Give a 
 country the powtr to make any law it pleases upon a 
 certain subject ; it can amend the law, it can repeal 
 the lav;, it can re-enact the law, and it can change 
 the law to its liking — all right — but refuse it the 
 power to appoint the officers who are to intei-pret the 
 laws it makes. Did you ever hear such a thhig? The 
 greater includes the less. If we are to make laws to 
 suit ourselves surcl}' we are to be ci- trusted to find 
 the men who are to interpret the meaning of our 
 laws, and to carry them out. The Irish Legisla- 
 ture must have power to deal with the criminal law 
 as well as the civil lav,'. liven civil laws for their 
 proper administration require quasi penal sanction, 
 a!id they are in eiiVet almost incxtricaljly mixed 
 up. Tlic s]K'cial conuilitMr^ which h;ive exf ilcd the 
 suggestion that ehe should not have power to make 
 crimir.al lav,.-; relate to the topic I hdve been dis- 
 cussing — the land. Apart from the land, and apart 
 from what is called agvaiian outrage, the condition of 
 Ireland as to crime coip.pares favourably with your 
 own, and I bclicvp villi any country in the world. 
 (Applause.) AVe all agree that — although I do not 
 stand liere to ]^rJ!i;ite or excuse crime or outrage — the 
 condition of Ii isli Ir^uI v.as intolerable, and that it did 
 give lise to — Ihouuh it ii;ay not excuse — the agrarian 
 crime whiv-h we regret. We all agree that this con- 
 dition h»> lo b.e chiiiiged. .^nd I have just di!-:cuss( d Ih;^ 
 lines of its ; tih:! ion. Vvh.e:' i '.. i . changed Tn-land will be- 
 come normal ao to crime, <;r. if uhiiornial. abnorinal only 
 because she has less crime lliau olht-r coinitries ; and 
 what i;paEon can there be for her own legislature not 
 
16 
 
 dealing with the qnestion of crime? Then as to education. 
 You have your opinions ; I don't belie\e you all agree 
 about educatioon (laughter). Some of you are for School 
 Boards, some for the church schools, and so on and so 
 on, some for conscience clauses, and some for secular 
 education, and more every-day education — I am not 
 speaking of this audience, but of England as a vholo. 
 Settle it as you please ; we have nothing to do nith 
 the education of your children, and we don't 
 want to meddle, to intei-fere with it. But leave us 
 to settle ours. Let us arrange it according to our own 
 views. Next to the question of the land the question 
 of Education is the most local, and comes closest to 
 the luarts of the people. But I quite agvee that jiast 
 conditions of excitement, of quarrel, of frantic sus- 
 picion and despairing exclamations of anxiety may 
 justify what I myself don't believe are necessary at 
 all, certain restrictions upon this subject of education 
 and upon the cognate subject with which it is mixed 
 up, of religion. I tell you I don't think they are 
 necessary — shall I tell you why ? It is not alwr»j-s 
 pleasant to an English audience to know why, but we 
 had better speak the truth. (Hear, hear.) For many 
 long geiierations the great majority of the Irish 
 people weie ground down under the iieel of a 
 minority. (Hear, hear.) They saw the State 
 Church, established by the State, endowed by the 
 State with enormous endownenits out of proportion 
 to all possible good they could, do, and still more 
 out of proi^orlion to all the good they did (applause), 
 endowed in addition with tithes levied off the lands of 
 the poor peasants who could barely keep life and 
 souls together, and who were contributing out 
 of their poverty to the suppoi't of the alien church, 
 while they were obliged out of their poverty to support 
 their own. For long years they struggled against that 
 condition, a'nd against conditions which debarred 
 them from education, from the performance of the 
 rites of their religion, and produced many other in- 
 famous disabilities ; and what did they struggle for ? 
 Ascendancy? Domination? The triumph of the 
 majorit}- over the minority, to be substituted for the 
 triumph of the minority over the majority? No. 
 They asked for equal freedom, for religious equality. 
 They asked you to recognize the great princiijle that 
 a man's religion is a thing between the individual 
 man's conscience and his i^Iaker. (Loud Applause.) 
 And they asked no more. (Cheers.) And you so ground 
 into the hearts and souls and brains of the Irish 
 people by the course which you pursued in the bad 
 days of old of which you have long since repented, 
 
n 
 
 these good doctrines of religions eqnality and of freedom 
 of conscience that 1 do not believe you need impress 
 them further, if without a single restraint you were ta 
 say Ireland shall settle the question of religion, Ireland 
 shall settle the question of education. (Applause.) 
 Notwithstanding that, as a practical man, I believe in 
 making as easy as possible the passage of a great 
 measure, in soothin" all apprehensions that can be 
 soothed, even though I don't share them ; and I 
 believe in something more. It has been said by some 
 gentlemen who are Nationalists in Ireland that it is hu- 
 miliating to Ireland to have restrictions imposed. I say 
 no. (Hear, hear). I rejoice that when the United 
 Parliament is framing a written constitution, when it 
 is declaring what the principles of Government shall 
 be for one of the communities which compose 
 the United Kingdom it should lay down the 
 great and fundamental principles of civil 
 and religious liberty. (Hear, hear.) It is a possession 
 for the world ; it is a great thing for humanity, and 
 I will even venture to hope that some day or other, not 
 far removed, you may be far enough advanced to apply 
 to yourselves these doctrines. (Loud applause.) There- 
 fore for my part I approve of every word and line of 
 thos<^ provisions of the Bill of 1886, which declares that 
 the Irish legislature shall not make any law (1) Respect- 
 ing the establishment or endowment of religion, or 
 prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or (2) Imposing 
 any disability or conferring any privilege on account of 
 religious belief, or (3) Abrogating or derogating from 
 the right to establish or maintain any place of denomi- 
 national education or any denominational institution 
 or charity, or (4) Prejudicially affecting the right of any 
 child to attend a school receiving public money without 
 attending the religious instruction at such school. 
 You lay all these down for us and we accept them 
 heartily. Some day or other you will be wise enough 
 and liberal enough to enact them for yourselves. (Loud 
 applause). We agree also to the establishment of a 
 tribunal which shall at the instance of the executive 
 decide finally with reference to any law that the Irish 
 Legislature may pass, and which the Executive may chal- 
 lenge, whether it is within those powers. To you this 
 question of limited powers is a novel one. To us who 
 live away on one side or other of the line which divides 
 the great North American Continent it is a common 
 one, because we live in a country of limited powers. 
 Bnt you will understand that while the government of 
 this country is sovereign and omnipotent, can pass 
 any law it pleases, can unniarry any of you, can take 
 away the property of any of you, do anything 
 
18 
 
 except turn a man into a woman, or a woman 
 into a man (laughter), the government of limited 
 powers, the legislature whose powers extend only so 
 far, if it tries to go further, going beyond its powers, 
 its act is inefficacious, it is void, it is waste paper, it is 
 invalid. I authorise jou as my attorney to sell my 
 property called Greenholme ; I have another 
 property called Yellowtrees, and you proceed to sell 
 It. Why of course your act is void ; I allowed you to 
 sell Greenholme ; you sold Yellowtrees. So it is waste 
 paper. If you authorise the legislature lo legislate 
 about one thing and it proceeds to legislate about 
 another, that act is void. Yet anxieties or heats may arise 
 as to whether it was going beyond its powers or not : 
 therefore there is a wise and wholesome provision re- 
 ferring it, speedily and expeditiously to a tribunal to 
 determine as to whether it is within or without, and so 
 the minds of all people are set at rest, and it is 
 either within or without the power, as established 
 by the higher court. You must give us the great 
 blessing and liberty of taxing ourselves. (Laughter.) 
 You have enjoyed largely that luxury for a long time. 
 You must hand it over to us, and we will promise to use 
 it as little as we can. (Laughter.) Revenue. We must 
 contribute to Iiaperial expenditure ; we aie bound to 
 contribute our proper proportionate share of those 
 common concerns which are to be disposed of in the 
 Imperial Parliament, but it is conceded on all hands 
 that the principle of contribution proposed in the Bill 
 of 1886 was unjust to Ireland. The country is a very 
 poor country, and the masses of the people have not 
 a surplus out of which to pay large taxes, because they are 
 ground down by poverty. It is a country of small accum- 
 ulations ; it is a country whose industry is almost entirely 
 the agricultural industry, and you have heard, I dare say, 
 from some neighbouring farmer that that industry is not 
 exactly prospering just now. It is a country of dwindling 
 population, whose occupants are all to be engaged as wo 
 nave all agreed in the task of buying the land on which 
 they live, and on terms which will oblige them to pay 
 considerable sums for fifty years, and though each 
 year makes them more and more proprietors, no year 
 diminishes the sum they have to pay until they are 
 free ; and so their capacity to pay is limited. (Hear, 
 bear.) It is a country to which gross injustice has been 
 done in times that are past with reference to the 
 debt and to the expenditure. It is a country which 
 claims that your system of government which involved 
 a system for keeping down the people, is an extrava- 
 gant system. Again as everyone of you that keeps a house 
 knows it is much easier to raise the expenditure £100 
 
19 
 
 a year than it is to cut it down. Economies can be 
 made only slowly, and revenues have to be made ade- 
 quate at once. I therefore appeal to the sense 
 of honour and justice, as well as to the sense 
 of liberality and generosity of the British people 
 with reference to the financial tenns of the scheme 
 that they give Ireland a fair chance (applause), 
 that they do not expect exorbitant terras from her as 
 to her contribution to the Imperial expenditure, know- 
 ing as they do what her wealth has been and what her 
 taxation has been. For it is known that relatively to 
 her tax-paying power she has been taxed a great deal 
 too heavily. Notwithstanding that taxation, your 
 system has been such that you have reaped very Uttle 
 net benefit from Ireland up to to-day. If you reap as 
 little in the future as in the past, you are no worse off 
 with reference to Imperial taxation, but you are very 
 much better, in connection with every other thing, and 
 be sure the advantages to be reaped will secure prosperity 
 for Ireland and consequently for England as well. I 
 say to you then that we want nothing but this, 
 that Ireland shall control Irish affairs, that Great 
 Britain shall control the affairs of Great Britain, 
 and that Great Britain and Ireland in the great 
 and supreme Imperial Parliament shall continue 
 to control the common affairs of the two countries. 
 (Applause.) I admit there are difficulties in the way; 
 I admit that hair splitters w&y find something to cavil 
 at in every line aud word of a great constitutional settle- 
 ment like this. I am a lawyer myself, but I devoutly 
 thank God that the great jury that is to dispose of this 
 question is not composed of lawyers. (Applause and 
 laughter.) They will take very little account of these 
 hair splitting cavillings, of these far-fetched theories, of 
 the solution of this question the great doctrine that it 
 these imaginations and suspicions. They will apply to 
 is impossible to provide against all conjectures, and 
 phantoms of the imagination, and that with good will 
 and an earnest desire on the part of both parties to 
 earry the matter to a prosperous conclusion they are 
 of no consequence whatever, — (cheers) — that the true 
 concern and salvation of peoples, the true methods of 
 achieving a constitutional settlement are by reaching 
 foundations of justice and fair play, of common interest 
 and consent, and that then all other things will settle 
 themselves, and therefore you will not ask for complete 
 logical accuracy, particularly when some of the gravest 
 defects are due to the fact that some of the other 
 divisions of the country are not yet prepared to accept 
 what I have no doubt in a few years vou will be dis- 
 posed to accept, a further extension of Home Bule to 
 
20 
 
 the other divisions ; you will not insist upon complete 
 logical precision and reform in a matter we are bound 
 to present before you somewhat imperfectly, just because 
 it IS not ripe for similar action in the other parts of the 
 kingdom. (Applause.) There are great difficulties — tact- 
 cal difficulties. "We have a small majorit}', a composit 
 majority. The Duke of Devonshire and Mr. Chamber- 
 lain say we have not the right to propose a measure 
 with such a majority, it is true we turned the others 
 out, but we had no right to go in. And Sir Henry 
 James, if he is rightly reported in a condensed report 
 of his statement which I have seen, says they are going 
 to oppose every line and letter of the Home Rule bill. 
 "We are to be met with virulent opposition, the sort of 
 opposition toryism used to give to liberalism, accen- 
 tuated by liberal unionism (Hear, hear). The three 
 leaders of the Liberal Unionists, the Duke of Devon- 
 shire, Mr. Chamberlain, and Sir Henry James, 
 flinging the banner of defiance out just before the 
 opening of the session of Parliament. But what have we 
 to depend on in this democratic age of the United King- 
 dom ? Upon the continued and sustained expression 
 of the confident hope of the people that the Government 
 will be thorough and will be bold. (Prolonged cheers.) 
 Eemeniber that your duty is not ended, as it did not 
 begin, with the late election, that you have got a grand 
 duty to perform every day and every hour during this 
 year, and show unmistakably when this measure 
 comes forward if you approve of it that you do ajprove 
 of it; show unmistakably that this Government if it 
 merits your confidence, does do so. I do not 
 despair ; I am even not desponding ; but I should des- 
 pair, at any rate I should despond if I did not think 
 that the people would fully realize that duty, and would 
 manifest unmistakably in public meeting and otherwise 
 their lively interest and approbation of the measures 
 which are to come forward. There can be no doubt 
 that within the last few years the Liberal 
 party has lost much. It has lost riches, it has 
 lost nobility, it has lost class and privilege to a large 
 extent, though with honourable exceptions whom you 
 will value all the more I am sure from their raritj', anu 
 from the difficulties under which they feel themselves, 
 separated as thoy are from those with whom under 
 other circumstances they would have been glad to 
 act. (Cheers.) But although j'ou have made these 
 losses, these losses may turn out your gain. There 
 are very few goods in this world of ours that are unmixed 
 goods ; and you may depend upon it that however 
 much a great many of tliese ornp.mental appendages of 
 the Liberal party edded to your respectability and to 
 
21 
 
 yotir stabflitv, they were rather a drag upon Tiiberal 
 and Eadical legislation. (Loud applau>e.) Now, how 
 are you going to make up for it ? The way is easy ; 
 the way ii this. I will give it to you by au example. 
 I suppose there are none of you old enough to remem- 
 ber, but most of you have read about the great l?eforni 
 Bill of 1832. When that Reform Bill was introduced 
 the Tories said it was madness, it was insanity, 
 it never could pass at all. But you know 
 what happened ; it did pass. But to what did it owe 
 its success; to what did the Government owe its 
 triumph ? To its boldness. It frightened the 
 classeSj but it seized hold of the masses. They lost 
 the few; they gained a nation. And that at a time 
 when the franchise was so restricted that it was the 
 feeling of those who had not a vote that influenced 
 those who had. But now that the men have a vote, 
 it is not merely their moral influence — they have the 
 voting power, and if democratic Britain say so, I say, 
 if this government is faithful to its principles, it has 
 before it a sterling, brilliant, honourable and useful 
 career. (Applause.) There are two conditions upon 
 which for my part, as far as I can see, its success de- 
 
 {)ends, and though I am not authorized to speak for its 
 eaders — I am here only a humble member of a party 
 — yet I believe I express their convictions when I say 
 there are but two conditions which we expect as the 
 price of our earnest and strenuous support of the pro- 
 gramme of the Liberal party. They are not new con- 
 ditions ; they are old ; they are not conditions to which ve 
 ask your consent now — they are conditions to which you 
 have already consented and the observance of which we 
 ask. viz., that you will put a good, honest Home Rule Bill 
 in the front, and after putting it there you will 
 keep it there; and so doing I am sorry to say — 
 sorry for you and sorry for the cause — there will 
 be, I believe, very ample time to advance many 
 other useful democratic measures. Because you know 
 apart from our difficulty of a majority of forty in the 
 House of Commons we have a hostile House of Lords, 
 and that hostile House of Lords declares it is going to 
 throw out your Bill once, and twice, and thrice, and 
 force it before the people again. (A voice : " Let them 
 do it.") If they do so it will take some time — a couple 
 of sessions to test the question out, and in the mean- 
 time I see that that is going to be done which I hoped 
 and prayed would be done from the time it Mas formed, 
 that *^^e time is not going to be wasted, that 
 the ]N.iWcastle programme is not going to re- 
 main as a programme only (Loud and continued 
 applausej — that the resolutions of great meet- 
 
ings of fhe quintessence of the Liberalism 
 and Kadicalisrn of the country are going to be 
 formulated into bills to be submitted to the 
 Parliament and forced through the House of Commons 
 unless the Liberal Uuionists turn, tail altogether and 
 become Tories in e ry thing (applause) and to be sent to 
 the House of Lords ; and they may do one of two things, 
 one negative. They may either reject altogether or 
 mar and mutilate and emasculate, as they have beea 
 accustomed to do, Liberal legislation. Well, I hope il 
 they do, the leader the Libeial Government will not 
 accept any compromise which shall destoy the efficiency 
 of the measures. (H-ear, hear.) Let the House of Lords 
 heap up wrath against the day of wrath if it will, and let 
 the responsibility for rejection fall upon those who make 
 a good measui-e a bad one. There is only one kind of 
 measure which I could accept in any imperfect spirit 
 of I'cform from them, and that is a measure affecting the 
 franchise, and in which it would be advisable for us to 
 accept half a loaf rather than no bread. (Hear, hear.) 
 I believe that any electoral reform necessary to gett- 
 ing the opinion of the people and other J^Radical and 
 democratic reforms will be pushed vigorously forward ; 
 arud granted that you ^ive us what is naturally granted, 
 that you keep your pledge made now for six years, I 
 believe you may count on the support in continuance 
 of this alliance of these gentlemen as strenuously as 
 in support of Home Rule itself (applause), and for 
 this reason ; it is interest as well as sympathy, because 
 we feel that the chances of carrying Home Rule depend 
 on the progress of this country, and that it is the grow- 
 ing strength of this Government which will enable na 
 to overcome the opposition of the House of Lords either 
 at the polls or now. (Cheers.) Therefore we have the 
 deepest interest, from our own narrow point of view, in 
 taking this course. But thank God we are pot anima- 
 ted by that alone. (Applause.) "We feel deeply indeb- 
 ted to the Democracy of Britain for the interest it has 
 taken in this cause. I always relied that as 
 soon as Britain was enfranchised it would mver 
 consent to set its heel on the democracy of the 
 sister isle. (Applause.) Let her determine never 
 to do that, and that the incidents of despotism shall 
 be limited to a despotic monarchy, and shall not mark 
 the rule of a democratic nation, and she will reap those 
 rewards and blessings which are the due of just 
 and generous action under circumstances of great 
 difficulty and sacrifice, even if you are to contemplate 
 failure, better a thousand times temporary failure 
 occasioned by the departure of a few more weak-kneed 
 men, by the turning up of a few more broken reeds 
 that piei'ce the Land, (Laughter and applause), 
 
23 
 
 —better far, I say, such a temporary failure, which 
 ^ivfs not merely a possibility but the sure prospect 
 of a hpeedy and hnnourable resurrection than a failure 
 which would be due to some paltering with your 
 pledged bond, to some paltry and ineffective measure 
 which would not be capable of carrying out the great 
 object you have in view, and which would result in 
 your fall by the necessary withdrawal from the 
 confidence of the Irish people in consequence of the 
 abrogation of the pledge, which would leave you thrown 
 out without the possibility, aye, and I will say the 
 right of soon again assuming a position of power and in- 
 fluence. (Applause.) I have spoken too long. ("No, no.") 
 I have spoken to you in great plainness ; I make no 
 pretence to be an orator. (" Oh.") I am a 
 plain man, who tries to say plain things in a 
 plain way to plain men like myself. I try to form 
 a clear idea and conception of what the right is, and 
 I try to explain my views as clearly as my limited cap- 
 abilities will allow. That is my whole pretension to 
 speak, and that is what I have done to-night. 
 (Applaiise) I have given you my whole heart. I 
 ask you to ponder over these things and I ask you to 
 consider whether there is in them anything inimical 
 to this country and to the safety and security of thia 
 Kingdom ; whether they donot in fact constitute a 
 proposal, a God-given opportunity for healing a sore 
 centuries old, for making it, in truth, for the first time 
 a really united Kingdom, for setting forward Ireland on a 
 fresh career of happiness and prosperity, and with that 
 creating a fresh career of happiness and prosperity 
 and renewed vigour and vitality for this venerable 
 kingdom, for this ancient Parliament, this ancient 
 Parliament which I wish to see once again restored 
 to its dignified and efficient conduct of its transcendent 
 concerns, and for it is the devout wish of my heart that 
 it may live and flourish for centuries to come. (Loud 
 and long-continued applause). 
 
 The following jfesolution was then unaaimously 
 adopted : — 
 
 " That, meeting thus, on the eve of a very moment- 
 ous Session of Parliament, we desire to express our un- 
 wavering confidence in the Government of Mi. Glad- 
 stone. The wise and vigorous administrative measures 
 which have marked its commencement lead us to 
 believe that its legislative spirit will be such as the 
 country urgently requires. We fully rely on its 
 thorough and determined efforts to unite countries too 
 long divided, to secure more equitable Parliamentary 
 representation of the people, and to place on the British 
 Statute Book enactments more worthy of the nineteenth 
 century and a Christian country." 
 
Printed and Published by Southwell and Goodwin, 
 2, Newark Street, Bath, in the County of Somerset. 
 
 91 
 
 4936X4'^