THE HOME RULE DEBATE. MR GLADSTONES LAST WORDS. The Division: Unprecedented Scenes. London, June 19. THE HOME RULE DEBATE.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 163, 31 July 1886, Page 9

THE HOME RULE DEBATE. MR GLADSTONES LAST WORDS. The Division: Unprecedented Scenes. London, June 19. THE HOME RULE DEBATE.

The scenes which marked the conclusion cf the great debate on Mr Gladstone's Go-, ve'rnment of Ireland Bill were unprece dented in the history of the House of Com" mons, and can never bn forgotten by those who were privileged or luoky enough to witness them. r < ' ' j When I pqueezed - into a Icotner of the Strangers' Gallery on that fateful Monday-

evening, the Prime Minister had just commended "a few last words " in justification of his^policy, I don't think I ever heard Mi- Gladstone in better voice. To quote that "old parliamentary hand," Mr-Luoy-i- . ".Many as have been the Prime Miniater'a .recent exhibitions of brilliant energy.they wereall eclipsed by his speech in this debate. His voice rang through the Chamber, the box in front of him resounded with energetic blows with which he emphasised upon its lid the convictions he announced, the faces in the gallery beamed delight at his knockdown blows to opponents, ripples of laughter came in as a chorus to the keen irony of his references to Mr Chamberlain, and the hush of breathlees admiration testified to the exquisite beauty of the touching peroration. All the arts of Mr Gladstone's oratory, all his energy, pw t forth with all his apparent ease— the ease which in oratory, as in writing, comeß by* art, not chance were brought into play, and under their spell even the mocking, irritating laugh which certain Conservatives have inherited from Mr Warton, and which is sometimes proof against any rebuke, was eventually eilenced. The brilliant effort of the orator was acknowledged by a tremendous cheer from his supporters on both aides of the House as he resumed his seat, leaving the final issue of the vote." To print the whole of this wonderful speech would be manifestly impossible, but I should like just to give you the peroration. "This," eaid the Prime Minister, "if I understand it, is one of the golden moments ;of our history— one of those opportunities : which may come and may go, but which rarely return, or, if they return, return at long intervals, and under circumstances which no man can forecast. There have besn 3uch golden moments even in the tragic history of Ireland, as her poet says : — One time the harp of Innisfail Was tuned to notes of Rladnssa, And then he goes on to sayBut yet did oftener tell a tale Of more prevailing sadness. But there was such a golden moment— it was mi 1795— it was on the mission of Lord Fitzwillam. At that moment it is historically clear that the Parliament of Grattan was on the point of solving the Irish problem. The two great knots of that problem j were— in the first place, Roman Catholic emancipation ; and, in the second place, the reform of Parliament. The cup was at her lips, and she was ready to drink it when the hand of England rudely and ruthlessly dashed it to the ground, in obedience to the wild and dangerous intimations of an Irish faction. (Cheers.) Ex illo fluere ac retro sublapsa referri Spts Danftum. There has been no great day of hop© for Ire land, no day when you might hope completely and definitely to end the controversy till now— more than ninety years. The long periodic time has at last run out, and the star has again mounted into the heavens. What Ireland was doing for herself in 1795 we at length have done. The Roman Catholics have been emancipated—emancipated after a woeful disregard of solemn promises through twenty-nine years, emancipated slowly— sullenly, not from good will, but from abject terror with all the fruits and. consequences which -will always follow that method of legislation. (Cheers. ) The second problem has been also solved, and the representation of Ireland has been thoroughly reformed, and I am thankful to say that the franchise was given to Ireland on the readjustment of last year with a free heart— (cheers)— with an open hand, and the gift of that franchise was the last act required to make the success of Ireland in her final effort absolutely sure. (Loud cheers.) We have given Ireland a voice : we must all listen— both sides, both parties, I mean as they are, divided on this question—divided, I am afraid, by an almost immeasurable gap. '* We Think We Have The People's Heart." We do net undervalue or despise the forces .opposed to us. I have described them as the forces of class and its dependants, and that as a general description — as a slight and rude outline of a description —is, I believe, perfectly true. I do not deny that many are against us whom we should have expected to be for us, t do not deny that some whom we ccc against us have caused us by their conscientious action the bittereat disappointment. But you have power, you have wealth, you have rank, you have static n, you have "organization, you have the place of power. What have we ? We think we have the people's heart — (cheers) — wo believe and we know wo have the promise of the harvest of the future. (Loud cheers) As to the people's heart, you may dispute it and dispute it with perfect sincerity. Let that matter make its own proof. (Cheere.) Tfce Fi owing Tide is with, us. As to the harvest of the future, I doubt if you have so much confidence, and I believe that there is in the breast of many a man who means to vote against us tonight a profound misgiving, approaching even to a deep conviction— (cheers and cries of "No") — that the end will be as we foresee and not as you — that the ebbing tide is with you and the flowing tide is with us. (Cheers.) Ireland stands at your bar expectant, hopeful, almost suppliant. Her words are the words of truth and soberness. ( "Oh, oh," from the Opposition benches.) She aeks a blessed oblivion of the past, and in that oblivion our interest is deeper than even hers. My right hon. friend the member for East , Edinburgh asks us to-night to abide by the traditions of which we are the heirs. What traditions? (Hear, hear.) By the Irish tradition ? Go into the length and breadth of the world, ransack the literature of all countries, find if you can a single voice, a single book, find, I would almost say, as much as a single newspaper article, unless the product of the day, in which the conduct of England towards Ireland is anywhere treated except with profound and bitter condemnation. ( Loud cheers. ) Are these tha traditions by which we are expected to stand ? No, they are a sad exception to the glory of our country. They are a broad and black blot upon the pages of its history, and what we want to do is to staud by the traditions in which we are the heirs in all mattei-3 except our relations to Ireland, and to make our relations to Ireland to conform to the other traditions of our country. So I have the demand of Ireland for what I call blessed oblivion of the past. She asks a'so a- boon for the future ; and that bcon for tho future, unless we are much mistaken, will be a boon to us in respect of honour no lees than a boon to her in respect of happiness, prosperity, and peace. Such, tit, is her prayer Think, I beseech you, think well, think wisely, think not for a moment but think for the years that are to come before you reject our plan. (Loud and prolonged cheera. ) The Division. "The reply to all this eloquence," continues Mr Lucy in his description of the scene "came with thrilling effect whon those supporters heard the Speaker's ques tion put. The' 'Aye' was rolled out with a volume of sound, with an emphasis, and wich a prolongation of the stirring note that gave occasion and time for successive emotions of' startled t surprise, curiosity, and delight. < The 4 ' Noes ' answered >in , the efcrictefat imitationi and the- ear was entertained* with, a^ repetition of the swinging

unison, and was puzzled to distinguish an^p difference in the volume of the closelymatched monosyllables. The Speaker, aa usage demands, "declared for 'the Government. • The Ayes have it,' he said. The 'JNoes* stoutly, sharply, and almost angrily maintained that they had it. The bells were rung, the question was' put again with the same results, and the combatants, were directed to divide themselves— 'Ayes to the right, Noes to tho left.' Ab the tellers were named the Parnellitea uttered some reproachful and some angry exclamations at the association of Mr Brand and Mr Came in the business of telling for. the ' Noes '—two Liberals to tell the votes that were mainly Conservative. Menacing glances were cast in Mr Chamberlain's direction as the opposite forces poured into opposite lobbies. The old, and many^ of the more calculating or impatient of the young, were already in. the lobbies securing places that would enable them to make an early exit, and tha division was hastened by this not unnatural anxiety to get home. Only a quarter of an hour elapsed before the members were all told— a quarter of an hour of suppressed excitement. Mr Gladstone, pale as the camelia in his coat, was Bolaced with a cheer on his return from the lobby. The time was otherwise spent in watching the arrivals of seceders from recording their vote against the Bill. At length, on the return of Mr Marjoribanks and Mr Brand, there was a hush in the murmur of excited convereation. Thia was an ominous sign. Had they had tha fewer numbers to tell ? Ye 3; their figure t 311, was circulated from mouth to mouth, and was recognised as eealing the fate of the Bill. Tha face of Mr Marjoiibanks told the same tale, and hie lips repeated it to the Prime, Minister and several of his colleagues* These gentlemen, however, behaved as mem not unprepared for the worst, and Mr Gladstone got his paper ready and nmsed his despatch-box on his knee. The other tellers came in from behind the chair. The clerk wrote down the majority figure— 34l — on the official paper. The Government whips fell back into the secondary place, and the document was handed to the vic-toii-us whip, Mr Brand. Then the Tories lifted up their voices in triumph, and when the Speaker re-read the numbers, waved their hats, and, standing up in their places, cheered the mad excitement. And hera events took a singularly dramatic turn. The Parnellites, who in the first impulse of disappointment and rage had directed their attention mainly to the benches on which Liberal seceders sat with tho view of overwhelming these gentlemen with reproach, now turned and confronted tha Tories, rising aa one man in their/ places and cheering against them in defiance. They, too, waved their hate, and some of them so near the opponents of the Bill that to timid spectators a collision did not appear at all improbable. Tha angry competition of voices between Mr OBrien and Major Saundereon, whose hat was flying and his voice eounding in close proximity to the member for South Tyrone, was especia'lv alarming. But at this moment, in the quick succession of events, Mr T. P. O'Connor, mounting his seat, startled the House by calling for " Threo cheers for the Grand Old Man."