163

Address in

{COMMONS}

He would give the House an illustra- | Government, that the assurances which tion of what he meant in the shape of the Ameer was seeking to obtain, and a narrative of a similar kind. Suppose the condition which he was seeking to it were proposed to give an account attach to them, were such as it would of the events connected with the last be improper for the British Government He could not, therefore, Administration, and suppose it were to assent to. stated that the late Government at the accept the explanation which the Chantime of the General Election deemed it cellor of the Exchequer had given as to desirable to disestablish the Irish Church, the accuracy and fairness of that deand suppose the narrative then went on spatch. When the right hon. Gentleman to say" but Her Majesty's Opposition said that despatch was the act of the did not share the sentiments of the Government and not that of an individual Government, and the Opposition ulti- Minister, it was quite unnecessary to mately succeeded in themselves be- apologise for any strong language about coming the Government." That would it, which absurdly enough had been be exactly a parallel case to this objec- attempted to be called a personal attack tionable paragraph in Lord Cranbrook's on Lord Cranbrook; but it was necessary despatch. All the statements contained promptly to unmask its grossly and unin such an imaginary narrative as he fairly inaccurate character, and that inhad described were perfectly true, but accuracy had now been conclusively it was not the whole truth, and a similar shown in the course of the debate. MR. O'CONNOR POWER: Sir, I suppression stamped this despatch with the character which was now universally shall endeavour to follow the example of ascribed to it. The hon. Gentleman my hon. Friend the Member for Cork who had last spoken had made a most (Mr. M'Carthy Downing), and give exingenious defence of the omission in pression to the feeling I entertain reparagraph 9; but he placed it upon a garding this Address. My hon. Friend ground that appeared to him (Mr. quoted several instances to show that the Childers) untenable. He had endea-practice of submitting a Speech which voured to draw a line between "the contains no reference to local legislation settled policy" of the Governments of is very unusual; and he complained that Lord Mayo and Lord Northbrook and the assurances which Lord Northbrook wished to give in 1873. For that there was not a shadow of foundation. He could prove this by the statements of the Government itself, for the despatch was not the only account that had been With regard given of these assurances. to the assurances of material assistance offered by Lord Northbrook to the Ameer in 1873, if the House would refer to the statements to the Ameer at the Peshawur Conference, and even to Lord Lytton's despatch narrating that negotiation, it would be seen that the present Government considered that those assurances had been of the amplest character; and it was not until the last despatch of Lord Cranbrook was compiled, that it was thought essential to throw blame on the late Government. The fact was that the Ameer wanted more unconditional and absolute assurances than any Government whatever had been prepared to concede to him. In a discussion in the other House, in 1874, Lord Derby, speaking with express reference to those negotiations of 1873, declared in the most emphatic manner, on the part of the present

the claims put forward on behalf of the
Irish people had been completely ig-
nored. In my opinion, when we have
been summoned here from different
parts, we ought, at all events, to have
been informed of the intentions of the
Government respecting our own coun-
try, in the condition of which we are far
more interested than in the successful
policy of the Government in Afghanis-
tan. Although I am opposed to the
foreign policy of the present Govern-
ment, I have not taken part in the Party
quarrels or divisions in this House; and
I do not intend to take part with the
Liberal Party in any division which
may be called for on foreign policy,
being convinced, as I am, that, as be-
What
tween the two Parties, it is six of one
and half-a-dozen of the other.
has this debate been this evening? Not
such as to enlighten us as to the right
and wrong of the war, but simply an
attempt on the part of the Government
to vindicate their policy, and an attempt
on the part of the Opposition to show
that something they did on a certain
occasion is not deserving of the censure
which has been cast upon it. Neither

because I condemn and abhor the brutal policy which has been pursued towards the Afghan nation. I shall vote against the Address, because the Government has turned a deaf ear to the cries for justice which have been repeatedly raised on behalf of the Irish people in this House. Ireland repudiates from her heart and soul this blood-stained Imperialism, which tramples on the rights of nations; and though I care not who may betray her honour, by associating her fair name with the unhallowed policy of the Government in this unholy war, I assert that her sympathies are now, as they have ever been, on the side of struggling freemen in every oppressed

Her Majesty's Government on the one | Ministers and ex-Ministers; but it rehand nor the Opposition on the other quires too large a stock of English hypohave endeavoured to show that the policy crisy and self-complacency to succeed in of either of them is one that will recom- such a task. I object to the Address in mend itself to liberty-loving men, or to answer to the Royal Speech, because it those who profess to be actuated by is the duty, Sir, of the Representatives Christian principles. Ireland is often of the people to demand the redress of regarded as an integral portion of the grievances before granting Supplies. I, Empire; but my first duty as an Irish for one, shall exhaust all the Forms of Nationalist is to assert the distinct the House in refusing the Supplies for nationality of Ireland. And why? Be- this wicked war. In the name of my cause, in ordinary times, Ireland is shut constituents I denounce it as a base and out from the observation of Europe, and cowardly aggression on an independent her aspirations are judged by the cari-State. I shall vote against the Address, catures given in the English Press. It is, therefore, when questions of an international character are before the House, that it becomes the duty of Irishmen to stand forward before Europe and declare that their first consideration is the nationality of their own country. The Union between Ireland and England is only a Union in name. It is not a union of hearts. It is the result of the blackest crime ever perpetrated by one nation against another-the destruction of the Irish Parliament. And the Imperialism of Lord Beaconsfield in 1878 ought to be as odious to the Irish people certainly, it was as destructive to liberty-as the Imperialism of Pitt in 1798. It has the same object in view-land. English aggrandisement; it adopts the MR. SULLIVAN said, that the curtain same means of reaching its object-cor- fell last Session upon Her Majesty's ruption and violence; it proceeds from Ministers placing on the back of John the same arrogant, liberty-hating Tory Bull Asia Minor. Now they were going Party, and marches forward to the same to place there Asia Major too. dishonoured victory over the bodies of policy of Her Majesty's Government brave patriots fallen in defence of their seemed to him to be one of universal native land. I have read all that has annexation and war with smaller Powers, been written and spoken recently by with those who might be weak enough English statesmen of both Parties on to be safely bullied, in order that their the subject of the Afghan War, and I territories might be added to that alam bound to say that a good deal of ready overgrown Empire. The state of what they have said of each other is sub-home affairs in England and Ireland stantiated by the official Correspondence was far more serious and far more which has been placed in our hands. The worthy of a winter Session than this accusations they have levelled at each Afghan business, or any of these aggresother are well sustained in the official sive wars of Her Majesty's Ministers. Papers; and as an Irishman I have the What was the condition of Ireland at greatest pity for England, whose politi- that moment? In a commercial and incians are plunged in such violent dissen- dustrial point of view her condition was sions that they seem determined to fight eminently worthy the attention of Her each other like the Kilkenny cats, until Majesty's Government; yet it was at there is nothing left but their tails. We that moment, when trade was depressed, Irish are so often lectured on the sin of and finances paralysed, that they came disunion that we would be justified in forward and prevented the revival of preaching a sermon on the beauty of public confidence by creating gloomy Christianity for the benefit of Indian apprehensions of further financial burViceroys and ex-Viceroys, and English dens and additional wars. They must

The

lay at the doors of Her Majesty's Govern- | public opinion in England had been misment the guilt and blame of whatever led by inspired telegrams from India? financial disaster might occur in Ireland The object clearly had been to fan the from that broken confidence which could only be restored by a policy of peace. They had fondly hoped that after the Berlin Treaty and the return of the Prime Minister from that capital, there would be an end to the torture and suspense to which they had been accustomed for the past two years, but they had been mistaken. Every interest in the country was groaning under the present condition of affairs, for they could not tell from day to day what policy would be brought forth by that Ministry of surprises. Indeed, next week might see the Government spring upon them another war, and that at a time when great numbers of the people of England-in Staffordshire and elsewhere-were suffering from absolute starvation. He should have thought there would have been some reference in the Queen's Speech to the distress from which the people were at present suffering. Grave evils were at the doors of their manufacturers, and that was the moment selected by the Government for a military promenade with a Mission that would not, perhaps, be characterized truly in our day, but which 20 years hence England would blush to name. It was an unjust and aggressive war; and no greater crime that he knew of could be charged to a public Ministry than that of making war on an uncivilized community with an unjust cause. No nation should draw the sword lightly. What were the grounds for the war? The Prime Minister said that we wanted a" scientific Frontier;" and although that had not been avowed by Ministers to-night, he would rather believe Lord Beaconsfield's statement at the Guildhall than some of the reasons which had been advanced in that House. No. That was good for the Guildhall, but it would not do for the Houses of Parliament. They spoke of an "expedition." But what was an "expedition?" It might be scientific or geographical. They euphemistically called the war an "expedition " because they were ashamed to give it its proper name. The Indian Secretary, in his final despatch, was far more anxious to convict the Opposition than to convict the Ameer of wrong. Why had these voluminous despatches been withheld and then flung upon us in a mass, while

war flame. Else, why were the Government dumb while the newspapers commented on the false telegram about the alleged insult? The Ministers put into the Royal lips a version of the story of the wolf and the lamb. The object of the Viceroy had been to pick a quarrel with the Ameer: on the same pretences on which they had gone to Afghanistan they might go to the North Pole. As for the despatch which had been issued by Lord Cranbrook to hocus the people, it was a Party document manifesting much more anxiety to show that the Liberal Party were wrong than that the Ameer deserved punishment. It was of a piece with the false telegrams sent from Simla with the tacit connivance of the Government officials to arouse the war feeling in this country. It was one of those tricks of political life which were unbecoming the dignity of Cabinet Ministers. He considered the Ameer came out of this quarrel with credit, whilst it was greatly to the reproach of Her Majesty's Government. They wanted to fasten a quarrel upon him in order to put Residents in his towns. He had previously known that Residents were spies, who would undermine his power, and he got a promise from an English Viceroy that no Residents should be put in his territory, and now that promise was sought to be evaded. Russia gave them an undertaking and now she was violating it. Let them settle with Russia; but she was strong and the Ameer was weak. Was that a policy worthy of Great Britain, when they wished to make the Indians pay for their "scientific Frontier? Just as they struck the Ameer rather than Russia, because he was weak and Russia was strong, so they taxed the Indians rather than the English, because the former were unrepresented in Parliament, and had no one to take their part. They were plunging India into bankruptcy; but for a country which had felt the march of Great Britain's wonderful civilization his voice at least should be raised, and his vote given to whoever in that House made a struggle against that unjust war, and against the imposition of additional taxation on people who were not represented; and he believed he might say that the voice and vote and

the best will of Ireland would be given | land before they were committed to a with a protest against a public wrong, war. He was sorry there was not a and to defend those who could not speak large number of Irish Members present; for themselves. but he thought that the expression of the regret of the Members who were there would, perhaps, be the means of bringing over a good many more, so that if no satisfactory statement was forthcoming from the Government they might try their strength.

MAJOR NOLAN said, he regretted that no answer had been given by the Government to the remarks which had been made as to the omission of any reference to Ireland. He regretted that there were not more Irish Members present; but he hoped that they would SIR JOHN LUBBOCK thought the be there before the end of the Session hon. Member for Mayo (Mr. O'Connor to protest against the total omission of Power) very inconsistent, for while conIrish affairs from the Queen's Speech. demning the course of Her Majesty's It might be said that England and Scot- Government, he announced his intention land were also omitted; but he objected of not voting against them. This was to the total omission of home affairs. not a matter simply between Her MaHe might be told that the whole in- jesty's Government and the Opposition. terests of the country were entirely with These were questions in which they the war; but he thought there were were all deeply interested; and he could many grievances in Ireland-the Land not understand how hon. Members could Question, for instance-which most of use expressions which touched the very them would say ought to be settled verge of the usage of Parliament, and before any foreign war was considered. then declare that they were not going to When they saw the tremendous slap in vote. He had also referred to South the face the Ministry were giving Africa; but the fact was that this country Russia by that war, they could not say had spent its money and its blood there, in what they were involved for, or that because it honestly believed it was nethe war in Afghanistan would not be cessary to protect the lives and property followed by war with Russia. Then, of Englishmen. It might be an error of again, there was not a word in the judgment; but he thoroughly believed Queen's Speech about the Irish Univer- that there was nothing to be ashamed sity, and he was afraid the Government of in our conduct there. We were, in would not do anything on the Land fact, making heavy sacrifices, believing Question. If the Ministry would give that we were doing our duty. The hon. something moderate in that direction, and learned Member for Louth (Mr. they would be satisfied. He would Sullivan) had condemned our previous allow that the Government had done dealings with the Ameer, and he (Sir some good last year; if they would give John Lubbock) was previously of somethem the University, it would be some- what the same opinion himself; but he thing more. The absence of any refer- was bound to say that upon reading the ence to Irish affairs left the Members in Papers he had altered his views. In a most painful_position in facing their 1855 the Ameer made a stringent Treaty constituents. In face of a war, he con- with us, and yet after receiving a friendly sidered that a country which elected Mission from Russia, when we wished to its Members freely had a very great send one, he refused to accept it; and superiority over the country which could again, after he had had ample time to not elect its Members freely. There consider the matter he treated all comwas a vast number of persons in Eng- munications with contempt. In this and land who were not represented; but, as other matters it seemed to him that we a matter of fact, England could elect its had just cause of complaint, and he (Sir Members more freely than Ireland. At John Lubbock) thought that the Ameer present the householders in Ireland were brought this war upon himself. Whether not represented in that House; and he the war was politic was quite another did think it most unfair that they should question, upon which he should probe pledged to a war, and plunged into it bably quite agree with the hon. Memwithout having some vote in the matter. ber. He could not keep from expressing He thought that they ought to have his astonishment when last Session Her some declaration by the Government to Majesty's Government came down with a franchise equal in Ireland as in Eng-large Supplementary Estimates and pro