=Source.=--Morley's _Life of Gladstone_, vol. iii., pp. 292-295.
(Macmillans.)
What Mr. Gladstone called the basis of his new government was set
out in a short memorandum, which he read to each of those whom he
hoped to include in his Cabinet: "I propose to examine whether it
is or is not practicable to comply with the desire widely prevalent
in Ireland, and testified by the return of eighty-five out of
one hundred and three representatives, for the establishment by
statute of a legislative body to sit in Dublin, and to deal with
Irish as distinguished from Imperial affairs, in such a manner
as would be just to each of the three kingdoms, equitable with
reference to every class of the people of Ireland, conducive to
the social order and harmony of that country, and calculated to
support and consolidate the unity of the Empire on the continued
basis of Imperial authority and mutual attachment." No definite
plan was propounded or foreshadowed, but only the proposition
that it was a duty to seek a plan. The cynical version was that a
Cabinet was got together on the chance of being able to agree. To
Lord Hartington Mr. Gladstone applied as soon as he received the
Queen's commission. The invitation was declined on reasoned grounds
(January 30th). Examination and inquiry, said Lord Hartington, must
mean a proposal. If no proposal followed inquiry, the reaction of
Irish disappointment would be severe, as it would be natural. He
could not depart from the traditions of British statesmen, and he
was opposed to a separate Irish legislature. At the same time,
he concluded, in a sentence afterwards pressed by Mr. Gladstone
on the notice of the Queen: "I am fully convinced that the
alternative policy of governing Ireland without large concessions
to the national sentiment, presents difficulties of a tremendous
character, which in my opinion could now only be faced by the
support of a nation united by the consciousness that the fullest
opportunity had been given for the production and consideration
of a conciliatory policy...." The decision was persistently
regarded by Mr. Gladstone as an important event in English
political history. With a small number of distinguished individual
exceptions, it marked the withdrawal from the Liberal party of the
aristocratic element....
Mr. Goschen, who had been a valuable member of the great Ministry
of 1868, was invited to call, but without hopes that he would
rally to a cause so startling; the interview, while courteous
and pleasant, was over in a very few minutes. Lord Derby, a man
of still more cautious type, and a rather recent addition to the
officers of the Liberal staff, declined, not without good nature.
Most lamented of all the abstentions was the honoured and trusted
name of Mr. Bright.
"ULSTER WILL FIGHT" (1886).
=Source.=--Winston Churchill's _Life of Lord Randolph Churchill_,
vol. ii., pp. 60-65. (Macmillans.)
Lord Randolph crossed the Channel and arrived at Larne early on the
morning of February 22. He was welcomed like a king.... That night
the Ulster Hall (in Belfast) was crowded to its utmost compass.
In order to satisfy the demand for tickets all the seats were
removed, and the concourse--which he addressed for nearly an hour
and a half--heard him standing. He was nearly always successful
on the platform, but the effect he produced upon his audience at
Belfast was one of the most memorable triumphs of his life.... "Now
may be the time," he said, "to show whether all these ceremonies
and forms which are practised in Orange lodges are really living
symbols or only idle and meaningless ceremonies; whether that which
you have so carefully fostered is really the lamp of liberty, and
its flame the undying and unquenchable fire of freedom.... Like
Macbeth before the murder of Duncan, Mr. Gladstone asks for time.
Before he plunges the knife into the heart of the British Empire,
he reflects, he hesitates.... The Loyalists in Ulster should wait
and watch--organize and prepare. Diligence and vigilance ought to
be your watchword; so that the blow, if it does come, may not come
upon you as a thief in the night, and may not find you unready, and
taken by surprise. I believe that this storm will blow over, and
that the vessel of the Union will emerge with her Loyalist crew
stronger than before; but it is right and useful that I should add
that if the struggle should continue, and if my conclusions should
turn out to be wrong, then I am of opinion that the struggle is not
likely to remain within the lines of what we are accustomed to look
upon as constitutional action. No portentous change such as the
Repeal of the Union, no change so gigantic, could be accomplished
by the mere passing of a law. The history of the United States will
teach us a different lesson; and if it should turn out that the
Parliament of the United Kingdom was so recreant from all its high
duties, and that the British nation was so apostate to traditions
of honour and courage, as to hand over the Loyalists of Ireland to
the domination of an Assembly in Dublin, which must be to them a
foreign and an alien assembly, if it should be within the design
of Providence to place upon you and your fellow-Loyalists so heavy
a trial, then, gentlemen, I do not hesitate to tell you most truly
that in that dark hour there will not be wanting to you those of
position and influence in England who would be willing to cast in
their lot with you, and who, whatever the result, will share your
fortunes and your fate. There will not be wanting those who, at
the exact moment, when the time is fully come--if that time should
come--will address you in words which are perhaps best expressed by
one of our greatest English poets:
'The combat deepens; on, ye brave,
Who rush to glory or the grave.
Wave, Ulster--all thy banners wave,
And charge with all thy chivalry.'"
... A few weeks later, in a letter to a Liberal-Unionist member, he
repeated his menace in an even clearer form: "If political parties
and political leaders, not only Parliamentary but local, should be
so utterly lost to every feeling and dictate of honour and courage
as to hand over coldly, and for the sake of purchasing a short and
illusory Parliamentary tranquillity, the lives and liberties of
the Loyalists of Ireland to their hereditary and most bitter foes,
make no doubt on this point--Ulster will not be a consenting party;
Ulster at the proper moment will resort to the extreme arbitrament
of force; Ulster will fight, Ulster will be right; Ulster will
emerge from the struggle victorious, because all that Ulster
represents to us Britons will command the sympathy and support of
an enormous section of our British community, and also, I feel
certain, will attract the admiration and the approval of free and
civilized nations."