MR GLADSTONE'S ADDRESS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2220, 29 April 1880, Page 2

MR GLADSTONE'S ADDRESS.

Now that Mr Gladstone’s accession to office has been announced, the followaddress, which he issued fo the electors of Midlothian, will be read with interest, as indicating the probable course which will be adopted by tbo New Government :

Gentlemen, —I heartily rejoice that the time has at length arrived when you will bo called upon to declare by your votes whether y r ou approve or whether you condemn the manner in which the government of this great empire has these last years been carried on. This,gentlemen,is well; although, by a striking departure from established practice which must cause great inconvenience, a session opened by Her Majesty with the regular announcement of annual work is, without the occurence of any Parliam entry difficulty, for the first time in our history to be interrupted in a few weeks by a dissolution. In the electioneering addresses which the Prime Minister has issued, an attempt is made to work upon j T our fears by dark allusions to the repeal of the Union and the abandonment of the colonies. Gentlemen, —Those who endangered the union with Ireland were the party that maintained an alien Church, an unjust land law, and franchises inferior to our own; and the true supporters of the Union are those who firmly uphold the supreme authority of Parliament, but exercise that authority to bind the three nations by the indissoluable tie of liberal and equal laws. As to the colonies, Liberal administrations set free their trade with all the world, gave them popular and responsible government, undertook to defend Canada with the whole strength of the Empire, and organised the great scheme for uniting the several settlements of British North America into one dominion; to which, when we quitted office in 1866, it only remained for our successors to ask the ready assent of Parliament. It is by those measures that the colonics have been bound in affection to the Empire, and the authors of (hem can afford to smile at baseless insinuations. Gentlemen, —’The true purpose of these terrifying insinuations is to hide from view the acts of the Ministry and their effects upon the character and condition of the country. To these I will now begin to draw your attention. I feel the irksomeness of the task. Putin such a crisis no man should shrink from calls which his duty may make and his strength allow. At homo the Ministers have neglected legislation ; aggravated the public distress by continual shocks to confidence, which is the life of enterprise ; augmented the public expenses and taxation for purposes not merely unnecessary but inischevious ; and plunged the finances, which were handed over to them in a state of singular prosperity, into a scries of deficits unexampled in modern times. Of these, deficits it is now proposed to meet only a portion, and to meet it partly by a new tax on personal property, partly by the sacrifice of the whole sinking fund, to which live years ago wo were taught to look for the systematic reduction with increased energy and certainty of the national debt. Abroad, they have strained, if they have not endangered the prerogative by gross misuse ; and have dishonored it in the eyes of Europe by filching the Island of Cyprus from the Porte under a treaty clandestinely concluded in violation of the Treaty of Paris, which formed part of the international law of Christendom. If wc turn from considerations of principle to material results, they have aggrandised Russia, lured Turkey on to her dismemberment, if not to her ruin, replaced the Christian population of Macedonia under a debasing yoke, and loaded India with the costs and dangers of a prolonged and unjustifiable war, while they have at the same time augmented her taxation and curtailed her liberties. At tins moment we are told of other secret negotiations with Persia, entailing further liabilities without further strength ; and from day to day—under a Ministry called, as if in mockery. Conservative the nation is perplexed with fear of change. As to the domestic legislation of the future, it is in the election address of the Prime Minister a perfect blank. No prospect is opened to ns of effectual alteration in the land laws, of better security for occupiers, of reform and extension of local government throughout the three kingdoms, of s more equal distribution of political franchises, or of progress in questions deeply affecting our social and moral condition. It seems, then, that, as in the past so in the future, j r ou will look with more confidence to the Liberal party for the work of further improvement; although the inheritance which the present administration will leave to its successors threatens to be one of difficulty and embarrassment without parallel. It is true that you are promised the advantages of “ presence not to say ascendency ” in the Councils of Europe. The word “ ascendency ” gentlemen, is best known fo us by its baneful connection with the history of Ireland - I must assert that the co-equal rights of independent and allied Powers. But in the mouth of the present Ministry the claim is little less than ridiculous. You may judge of our present ascendency in Europe from our ascendency in the Councils of Turkejq where wc recently demanded the dismissal of a Minister who has not only been retained in office, but selected for special honors. There is indeed an ascendency in European Councils to which Great Britain might reasonably aspire,by steadily sustaining the character of a Power, no less than strong, attached to liberty and law, and therefore opposed to intrigue and aggrandisement, from whatever quarter they may come ; jealous of honor, and therefore averse to the clandestine engagements which have marked our two latest years. To attain to a moral and unenvied ascendency such as this is indeed a noble object to any Minister or any Empire. You have then, gentlemen, great issues before yon. The majority of the House of Commons and all the members of that ma jority, have by their unqualified support of the Covcrnment fully taken over upon themselves the responsibility of its acts, if the constituencies are well pleased with the results which, after six years, have been attained, they have only to return again a similar majority, which will do its best to secure to them the like for six years more. But let no individual voter who supports at the election a member of that majority conceal from himself the fact that lie is takingon himself both what has been done already and what may be done by the i same agency hereafter. I have not a ! doubt that the county of Midlothian will 1 nobly discharge its share of the general duty.