gentleman who sits next him (Mr. W. H. Smith) is a person who in former
years might easily have come under the same category. (_Nationalist
cheers._) The right honorable gentlemen sold _United Ireland_ in his
day. ("_Hear, hear._") I mention it not as a reproach to him, for he was
an extremely good customer; but if he had not parted with his Irish
business as he did, under the subsequent legislation of this Government,
the right honorable gentleman would have been liable at this moment to
three months on a plank bed for having for six months sold the paper.
(_Cheers._) I hope that chivalry on that side of the House has not died
out, and that they will not resent in the case of a miserable shopkeeper
at Killarney what they will condone in a Misister of England. I can
speak of my own knowledge of that policy, and its absolute and downright
failure, even against so vulnerable and perishable a property as we know
a newspaper is. But the right honorable gentleman has not succeeded in
suppressing a single newspaper, and he never will, although he has
proceeded from the editors to the printers, and from the printers to the
printer's devils. (_Cheers._)
There is only one redeeming feature in the right honorable gentleman's
policy, and that is its colossal and monumental failure. That fact
actually softens in the hearts of the Irish people the memory of the
atrocities he has committed against them. We feel that we have taken his
measure now, and that we are a match for him. (_Irish cheers._) We feel
that he has failed, and that he will go on failing as long as grass
grows and water runs. We are almost grateful to him for what he has done
to advance the Irish cause by awakening the consciences of Englishmen
(_Opposition cheers_), by knitting the two peoples together in common
human sympathy, and common abhorrence of the brutal and cruel system of
terrorism which he is exhibiting in full working order in Ireland. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer claimed at Hastings that at all events the
Chief Secretary had held his own. This was rather a meek and unassuming
claim, after the high and swelling boasts that we heard from the same
lips in the palmy days of last session. (_Cheers._) But has he even held
his own? He has demoralized every department of his own Irish
government, and every class of his own officials. There is not an office
in Dublin Castle that is not at this moment subjected to as much
espionage and as many precations against betrayal as if it were the
palace of the Czar. ("_Hear hear._") He has the distinction of having
developed an entirely new phase of the Irish difficulty among her
Majesty's soldiers.
My friend Mandeville and myself were whirled away by special train in
the middle of the night to Tullamore, and I confess I felt considerably
consoled when I heard that the next use the right honorable gentleman
had to make of a special train was to take her Majesty's soldiers away
from Tullamore for cheering Mandeville and myself. (_Laughter and
cheers._) Don't let him ride off on the statement that these were mere
Irish soldiers. Some of them were, no doubt; but there were also his own
countrymen, the Scottish Fusileers. (_Cheers._) By some unhappy accident
they too had to be hurried off by special train for some awkward
manifestations at Mitchelstown. The right honorable gentleman had to
employ police patrols to watch the prison officials. He cannot even
count on the Royal Irish Constabulary, for to my own knowledge he had to
employ policemen to watch the police. (_Laughter and cheers._) That is
what is called "holding his own in Ireland." He succeeded only in
kicking out a few of the bonfires that were lighted on the occasion of
our release; but the spirit of nationality that lighted them is beyond
his power. It will burn when the memory of his unhappy time in Ireland
will be a mere speck among the dark clouds of misgovernment, which are
passing away into a forgotten and forgiven past.
The right honorable gentleman and his friends plead for a little more
time. There are in this House many members who can remember Mr.
Forster's triumphant account of his experience at Tullamore; that he was
winning; that the people were with him; that the followers of my
honorable friend (Mr. Parnell) were a mere back of broken men and
reckless boys, and that you had only to give him (Mr. Forster) a little
more time to make his victory appear to all the world. That was seven
years ago; but the triumph has not appeared. Does the wildest man in
this House imagine that the second Tullamore experience will be more
successful? Does the Chief Secretary's best friend claim that he is a
cleverer man or a more profound statesman than Mr. Forster? He is no
doubt in a position to inflict untold suffering on our poor people. I do
not deny that it is no child's play for us. No man's health is exactly
the same after imprisonment of the sort that some of my poor friends are
enduring to-night; but the sufferings in the prison cell are only small
compared with those that the Chief Secretary is bringing on many a
humble family ("_Hear, hear_"), to say nothing of the petty persecution
that is going on at the hands of every village constable who has a
quarrel with the people, and of the confusion, uncertainty, and ruin
into which the right honorable gentleman is plunging the whole business
of the country. It is a burning shame that such an ordeal should be
inflicted on a people whose only desire is to live in peace, and to rule
in peace in their own land. ("_Hear, hear._") It is sometimes almost
unbearable, but the Irish people will bear it. We are not cowed. We are
not even embittered.
The right honorable member for Mid-Lothian has accomplished in two years
what seven hundred years of coercion had not accomplished previously
(_Irish cheers_), and what seven hundred more would leave unaccomplished
still. He has united the hearts of the two peoples by a more sacred and
enduring bond than that of terror and brute force; and our quarrel with
England, our bitterness toward England, is gone. (_Cheers._) And it will
be your fault and your crime if it ever returns,--a crime for which
history will stigmatize you forever. We, at all events, are not
disruptionists. (_Cheers and counter cheers._) It is you who are the
disruptionists and the exasperationists and the separatists. We have
never made a disguise of our feelings. We say what we mean.
The right honorable gentleman, the member for Newcastle, and many
another good friend beside him, have been over in Ireland this winter,
and they can tell you that when the name of England is uttered now in an
Irish crowd, it is no longer uttered with hatred, but with hope and with
gratitude to those awakening British hearts which have never authorized
this policy of the Government in Ireland. You are the Separatists. We
are for peace and for happiness, and for the brotherhood of the two
nations. You are for eternal repression and eternal discord and eternal
misery for yourselves, as well as for us. We are for appeasing the dark
passions of the past. You are for inflaming them, whether for purposes
of a political character I do not know, but for purposes in the
interests of that wretched class of Mamelukes whom you support in
Ireland, who are neither good Englishmen nor good Irishmen, and who are
being your evil genius in Ireland, just as they have been the scourge
of our unhappy people.
That is the state of things; and in such a cause and between such
forces, I believe the end is not far off, and to the God of justice and
of liberty and of mercy, we leave the issue. So far as we ourselves are
concerned, we shall be amply compensated, whatever we have suffered and
may have to suffer in our grand old cause, if we can be sure that we are
the last of that long and mournful line of men who have suffered for it.
And, believe me, upon the day of our victory, we will grant an easy
amnesty to the right honorable gentleman opposite for our little
troubles in Tullamore, and we will bless his policy yet as one of the
most powerful, though unconscious, instruments in the deliverance of
Ireland. (_Loud Opposition cheers._)
Mr. FINLAY (_who arose amid loud cries of "Balfour" from the Opposition
and Home Rule benches_) said that the honorable member who had just
spoken had charged the Unionist party with inflaming passions and
animosity in Ireland that were in a fair way of dying out. He was not
aware of any section of the party against which that charge could be
made. It had always been the mission of the Unionist party to see that
equal justice should be done in Ireland, and to appease those
animosities which were the relics of past misgovernment and past
misfortunes. They believed that in a country so divided as Ireland was,
equal justice might best be done in an Imperial Parliament, and not by
handing over one part of the country to the domination of another. The
honorable member had said that there was no bitterness on the part of
the Irish members towards England. But the party had three voices. One
was the voice that spoke in the House of Commons, the second the voice
that spoke in Ireland; but to get at the real springs of the movement,
they must hear it on an American platform. (_Ministerial cheers._) He
objected to that House being turned into a court of appeal from judicial
sentences in Ireland, and he regretted to have heard the cheers which
came from the Opposition side of the House when the honorable member for
West Cork had said that he recommended the tenants at Mitchelstown to
resist the law by force. (_Mr. Gladstone expressed dissent._)
Errata
The first line indicates the original, the second how it should read:
p. 2:
notwithstanding a similiar observation
notwithstanding a similar observation
think it right hriefly
think it right briefly
p. 4:
bound to make kown
bound to make known
Lord Sailsbury continued
Lord Salisbury continued
p. 6:
He declared that "if Parliament passed ant act for granting
He declared that "if Parliament passed an act for granting
p. 7:
comments on tne
comments on the
p. 11:
beyond the the Channel
beyond the Channel
p. 12:
narrowly than almost anywhere else), I will find their way
narrowly than almost anywhere else), will find their way
p. 13:
the purpose on this occsion
the purpose on this occasion
in a proportionate diminution of derelect farms.
in a proportionate diminution of derelict farms.
p. 14:
we have read with increased satisfacfaction
we have read with increased satisfaction
p. 20:
I think, the symathetic silence
I think, the sympathetic silence
exhibit the tase of the Prime Minister
exhibit the taste of the Prime Minister
p. 22:
in process of accomplisment
in process of accomplishment
p. 24:
I argued that the Land League, as i operated at that time
I argued that the Land League, as it operated at that time
p. 25:
at this moment from the slighest shadow
at this moment from the slightest shadow
p. 29:
has been resorted to to mislead
has been resorted to mislead
Their vicissitudes would furnish a theme for an epic (_rewewed
laughter_)
Their vicissitudes would furnish a theme for an epic (_renewed
laughter_)
p. 32:
Three days ago my honorable friend and collegue
Three days ago my honorable friend and colleague
they had the cowardice to abandou
they had the cowardice to abandon
p. 34:
the plank bed, or bread-and-water diet-solitary chnfinement
the plank bed, or bread-and-water diet, solitary confinement
p. 35:
the most terrible Coercion Act ever passsd
the most terrible Coercion Act ever passed
the other side of the House when I ventnred
the other side of the House when I ventured
p. 39:
has only made it more secure and more irrestible,
has only made it more secure and more irresistible,
by any land commissioner or judical tribunal
by any land commissioner or judicial tribunal
over and over again in most portentious accents
over and over again in most portentous accents
p. 40:
Is the Leage gone
Is the League gone
p. 41:
the Chief Secretary,--public speakers and public newspapers Public
speeches are the merest appendages of our organization.
the Chief Secretary,--public speakers and public newspapers. Public
speeches are the merest appendages of our organization.
p. 43:
what they will condone in a Misister of England.
what they will condone in a Minister of England.
and as many precations against betrayal
and as many precautions against betrayal
p. 44:
were a mere back of broken men and reckless boys
were a mere pack of broken men and reckless boys