MR GLADSTONE UN IRELAND.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1106, 13 July 1883, Page 3

MR GLADSTONE UN IRELAND.

Speaking at the opening of the National Liberal Club on the 2nd of May, Mr Glads one referred to the tremendous drill un 1 upon Parliuiiieiiiary time growing out of the con Htinn o' Lelund, winch the 1 loyvnicen ha bad to meet, and command as follows ; -Wo bad to dml with ri fu-al of rent —tha'i is a refusal of com race—winch threatened to becom • general through m. the con nry. Wo had to deal with a diffusion of di,con tout and agrarian crime such as w. Ip far to destroy the peace an i security of life and property. We had also to deal with to u. sem agency of secret societies, breakin out from time to time in the commission, riot of mere offences against property, bu in horrible and atrocious crime. The res is tauce to rent, which was to be a uacioua and a universal r-sist nice, I will imt sa. has absolutely ceased, but has genera 1!\ ceased. That wide eiteu ion of agra ia crime has been re luce i, lam thankful in say, to a prop non which I may call one sixth of what it w is—a redaction such as to leave the ordinary operation of social life generally undisturbed as they are m ordina y civilised countries. With regard to secret societies, I hope you will not think that tnere has been or that there is any want of energy or efheiency in carrying on the war against those pestilent and most demoralising agencies. 1 sorrowfully admit that even for those societies it may with some truth be urged that they are tho exti erne growth of a disease for the original pro luetion of which abuse ami misgovern ment in o her ways may have been respon si de. It is our duty to take care that no secret societies ami no prevalence of crime shall induce us to deal out anything less than full equity ami justice upon every public question to the whole people of Ireland in common with the other portions of the United Kingdom. So then, my lords ami gem Israeli, if I am compelled to comers to you with pain, if not almost shame—with pain at leaao, and with extreme pain- that toe work of legislation on which your hearis and mine are set has been sadly maired, and if I plead to you the development oi events in Ireland as a reason, you will se that the time otherwise occupied his not been wasted in any idle show, but that we have applied ourselves, an 1 Parliament has applied its power and resources with iff -et, in vindication of tho first principles of civi lised society and of that order which is essential alike to the highest and lowest in the laud.