Mr Gladstone in Scotland.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3470, 7 February 1880, Page 1

Mr Gladstone in Scotland.

Id one of his addresses in Scotland— that to the people of Dalkeith, Mr Gladstone spoke as follows :—Gentlemen, —I ask the attention of this crowded and immense audience in the capacity, not of a leader of the Liberal party, but of one of its most convinced and not least, loyal members (cheers); happy to follow those who in the two Houses of Parliament have ably discharged the duties of the leadership under unfavourable circumstances, an 4 most anxious to contribute my part, such as it may be towards giving a right direction to the national wishes and convictions on what I think and what I know to be the most important crisis in our national history that basoccured during the last half century. (Cheers.) . . . . The peculiar feature of this crisis is that it is a crisis at which local questions are most unhappily swallowed up in general questions, and domestic questions are to a great extent absorbed in foreign ques- . tions; and, therefore, I must, before I proceed to touch upon these local and these domestic matters, remind you how far I can conceive myself already to hare carried the discussion upon the great and vital question how the foreign affairs of this country and its affairs beyond the seas are to be administered, and how we are to deal with the consequences of that administration in 'our domestic sphere. I have endeavoured to point out, gentlemen, that as the affairs of this Empire stood before the present Government acceded to office" the calls of the business of so vast an Empire afforded much more than ample occupation for the very best and the very ablest men that could be called to the administration of affairs. A certain progress had been made down to the year 1874 in dealing with some of these calls; but the business of the country still remained, confronting us in a great mass at the time when the majority of theconstituencies in the exercise of its undoubted right dismissed us from our offices. Since that time I make this com- . plaint; that 'the shoulders, so to speak, of this nation have been loaded by a multitude of gratuitous, mischievous, and dangerous engagements. (Cheers). I point to Africa, I point to India, I point to Afghanistan, to Syria, to Asia Minor, to the whole of Turkey in Asia; I point lo our assumption practically (and in an alliance with France more critical in its nature)—our virtual assumption of the government of Egypt rI point to our practical annexation of the island of Cyprus (laughter), to all the military dangers and responsibilities of undertaking the defence of the Turkish frontier in Armenia: in fact to an enormous increase of cfcfficuity and labour all over the, world; and 1 challenge it in the first instance upon the most modest and the lowest ground ; I challenge it, gentlemen, on the -;' ground of its prudence. (Cheers.) ■ Com* mon sense, after all, is the rule, as of private so of public life ; and it is a rule of common sense which every one of you would observe in his private concerns not to undertake new engagements, when your hands were full. And we had no business to go into South Africa, into Afghanistan, into Turkey in Asia, into Cyprus, into £o many of those various conutries that one can hardly give a complete and accurate catalogue of them. (Cheers.) We had no business to go therewith these gratuitous and-unneces-sary calls, disturbing confidence, perplexing business, and unsettling the fabric of civilized society in the world. (Cheers.) We had.no business to take these engagements when our hands were full.

But I contend also that the engagements were bad, and, being bad, ought not to hare been undertaken, even if our hands, instead of being full, had deen perfectly empty. But how can I illustrate my meaning? The country has been appealed to repeatedly on the ground that this Government was determined that there should be no diminution of the Empire, but was not at all indisposed to increase the Empire. Well, now, what does increasing the Empire mean for us ? What does the annexation of Cyprus mean for jus? (Laughter.) Pray observe when we annex Cyprus we become bound in honour for its maintenance and defence, we become bound in honour to [hare troops there, wo become bound in honour to raise fortifications if they be required, and to uphold the flag of England which has been there erected. Now, we did the same thing in the Transvaal, a country where we have chosen most unwisely—l am tempted to say insanely— to put ourselves in the strange predicament of the tree subjects of a monarchy going to coerce the free subjects of a republic and compel them to accept a citizenship which they decline and refuse. But if that is to be done, it must be supported by force. But if we are going to Afghanistan to occupy Cabul and Candabar, and some say we are going to occupy Herat (cheers) —and I can see no limit to the operations— everything of that kind means money and means men. (Cheers.) Whence are the money and the men to come? (Cheers.) What do you mean by strengthening the empire ? It is simply loading the empire (cheers(; it is simply burdening the empire. I can understand some extension of territory. I hare no doubt that when the Germans were unfortunately led to annex Alsace and Lorraine they reckoned that Alsace and Lorraine would contribute in men and money to the purposes of the empire just like the rest of Germany; but that is not the case with our annexations, that is not the case with our undertaking the government of Egypt (cbears), the government of Asia Minor, and the government of Syria, and making ourselves responsible for these places. The meaning of it is this, that with the limited store of men and funds which these islands can supply we are continuing to go on to enlarge and extend our responsibilities and our dangers all over the surface of the earth. (Cheers.) Why, gentlemen, let me take —you are many of you agriculturists—a homely illnstration- What would you think of a farmer having a farm of 300 acres who takes another of 200 acres and makes no increase of his farming stock ? This is an illustration of the sort of proceeding going on, but a very feeble illustration. What would you think of the landlord who, having a great avidity for land and being possessed of a splendid estate —for a splendid estate these islands are,—purchased another estate next to his own—or if at a distance from his home so much the worse—purchased another estate, whether near or far, on this condition, that he should pay the tithes—or tiends as you call it—the rates, taxes, and charges of every kind, but that somebody else should receive the rents ? (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, morally, illustrations are utterly feeble. They do not touch the essence of the case, but economically they are sound and true. (Loud cheers.) There is no strength to be added to your country by governing the Transvaal, by overrunning Zululand, by undertaking to be responsible for the whole of the vast mass of the mountains of Central Asia, for keeping in order those wild'and, warlike tribes! It is a sheer, a pure burden imposed upon you; and I appeal to you, the Liberals of Midlothian, to the Conservatives or Tories of Midlothian (laughter), whether this creed of prudence is such a creed as to admit of the perpetration of follies of this kind.