Lord Claude Hamilton on Irish Policy

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 121, 23 March 1886, Page 3

Lord Claude Hamilton on Irish Policy

« : . At a dinner given by the North Kensington Conservative Association to celebrate the return of Sir Roper Juethbridge to Parliament, in proposing the health cf the new M.P., the chairman, touching upon the Irish question, said it was said, and with truth, that Mr Gladstone wished to deal with this question. Why, he had j been dealing with the Irish question for the past 18 years, and the result was that he was rejected and despised by the Irish people, who had not sent him a single supporter from the sister isle. He was spurned, rejected, and despised by Irishmen, if not cordially hated by them, because they had suffered morally and pecuniarily from the Irish policy "of that Minister. Irishmen saw the condition of their country getting daily worse and being daily drained of its capital, and they attributed this to the past legislation of Mr Gladstone. Irishmen were shrewd, and at last they had realised that his policy with regard to their nation was a hand-to-mouth policy, was devoid of the elements of finality, and was designed only to place himself and followers in power, which he estimated above principle and even religion. As to the course which the Conservatives should pursue in relation to Ireland, the chairman held that Lord Salisbury onght to remain firm. Let him appeal to the patriotism of Englishmen and Scotchmen, and say — " I will undertake as Prime Minister to see that law and order are maintained in Ireland ; that individual freedom is upheld ; and that every man shall be able to dispose of his labor as, he thinks fit without any interference from any other person." Then, when liberty was re-established and law and order became paramount, let Lord Salisbury give to Ireland, as regarded county government, all that he was prepared to give to England and Scotland, and let him add that beyond this he would not go. Let him say at once that anything that tended directly or indirectly towards Home Rule or a Parliament in Ireland would receive his uncompromising opposition; He (the chairman) belieyed that if the Prime Minister remained firm, and appealed to the loyalty of the people of England and Scotland, he would not fail to secure a majority in the House of Commons to carry out his wishes and his will. — London Times.