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--THE GENERAL ELECTION.I"

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THE GENERAL ELECTION. I" LORD SALISBURY'S ADDRESS. The Mirquess of Salisbury has issued the following Address To THE ELECTORS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM Gentlemen,—Before we submit to Her Majesty our advice that she should proclaim the Diisulution of Parliament, I feel bound, t under existing circumstances, as a matter of re- spect, to plaee before you a brief statement of the issues upon which, iu my judgement, this Election turns. "Much has recently been said concerning tiues,iotis of iuternal legislation. I am deeply sensible of their extreme importance. The diminution of poverty, the prevention "f ruinous disputes in trade, the amendment of the Poor Law, the protection of the lives and health IIf the industrial community are matters of which it is not easy to exaggerate the momentous interest. t-tider our existing Constitution, the working classes are evidently powerful enough to obtain any measure which, upon discussion, they gener- ally believe will conduce to their welfare. No Party will have the power, or is likely to pursue the policy, of refusing to listen to their unani- mous wish. In respect of such measures, the present Election possesses a special and critical importance, principally in that it will determine whether Parliament is to have the power of at once grappling with those questions, or whether the whole time of the next Parliament sliill he devoted to a struggle over Irish g veriiiiietit. Tue policy which the present Government is pre- pared to pursue is sufficiently indicated by the course they have followed during the last six years. They have practically shown tint they iiave no aversion to change, if it is shown to be required by the welfare of the people, but they have never forgotten that stability and confidence are essential to the life of industry. Such reforms as the establishment of local govern- ment in Great Britain, the gift of gratuitous education, the relief of chronic suffering in Ireland, are measures of more extensive social influence than any that have been passed in this country for many years they have been effective in their operation, yet they have passed with little resistance, they committed no injustice and have left 110 resentment behind them. This Session one of the most difficult problems of trii) elucation has been solved by a incisure which has received general assent. We shall be animated by a similar spirit in dealing with the large controversies that are opening nut bef .re us, the relations of labour to capital, the laws wliicli control the acquisition of land, provisions by which poverly may be diminished, and its sufferings rendered less acute. A sound system of finance, based on a pacific policy, has enable 1 ns to mitigate taxation, to deal effectively with difficult social questions, and to provide for the Fleet aid armaments of the country a maten,.1 strength which they n jver possessed before, but which, in the community of armed nations which surround us, is not greater than our need. Similar aims and a similar policy will guide us in the future. "But there is one interest to which this Election is, above all others, vital. It is the interest of a large portion of the Irish people, who are-threatened in effect with separation from Great Britain. To them this election is of terrible importance. On your votes du I iflg the next two or thre. we--ki Nvill depend whether it will be to them a message 1 f hope or a sentence of servitude and ruin. Other questions are not burning as this is upon other matters, if mis- takes are made they can I f-, repaired, and remedial measures, if they are inadequate, can be strengthened and made fuller later on. But for the loyal minority of Ireland the crisis is supreme. A wrong decision now in for them the certainty of bitter and protracted strangle, culminating probably in civil war, and, it may be, ultimate condemnation to the doom which they dread beyond any other fate -tho subjection of their prosperity, their industry, their religion, their lives, to the absolute III lstery" of their .uicieiit and unchanging enemies. I should not be discharging my duty if I did not, before you go to this Election, join my voice to that of others to implore you to pause before you decide to reverse the policy of ceuturies, by casting out of yojr protection the men of Lister and the other loyal 111.11 in Ireland. We do not, indeid, know die details of the revolution (hit is proposed. Ttiey have been carefully concede! from us up to-) tiis tittle perhaps they will be produced when the oppor- tunity for criticism his passe 1 by. We do not know the precise designation and tppe ii- nee of the hollow and fragile securities which no doubt, be offered in order to allay your fears, and to hide the wrong which is beiti,, done Tuey will SJfVe to hinder the w >rld fr 111 seeing the full cruelty of this abandonment, though they will certainly hinder nothing else. But B 11 though, up to the time of my writing, we are ignorant of the details of the projected plan, we know whit its broad feitures must be. It must be the abandonment of the loyalists of Ireland, and especially of the Protestants of l ister, to the unrestrained and absolute power of those with whom they have been in conflict for centuries, of the men, and the followers of the men, who,u crimes were denounced b-.fore the wiiole world by the judgment of impartial Judges sitting in the Special Commission. Ireland, we have baen informed, is to be governed by an Irish Parliament ruling through Irish Ministers. They deceive you grossly who tell you that this is a restoration of the form of government which was abolished at the Union. During the seven centuries through which the two Islands have been connected, no such government has ever existel in Ireland. Nevtr until now has any British Statesman pretended that Ireland could be governed 011 such a plan, For generations the Irish population has been divided into two sections, between whom a bitter antipathy has prevailed. It is due to historical causes, to struggles that have endured throu 'h centuries, tu differences of origin and race and it is acutely aggravated by differences of religion. With whichever section we may sympathiStJ, it is flagrantly unjust to make either of these sections the absolute master of the other. They must be governed as part of a larger system, in which their antagonism can be controlled by more im- partial associates. Hut an Irish Parliament, governing through Ministers dependent upon it, in us1, give over the smaller of these two intensely hostile sections to the^unrestrained despotism of the larger, The Loyalists are the smaller section. Tiley are also the more industrious, the more prosperous, the more exposed of the two to un- just taxation and predatory legislation They are linked to Englishmen and Scotchmen by many ties of similarity and kinship, by many evmmon efforts and common sufferings in the past. There would b<j no risk whatever of their being abaudoned now by you, if the danger in which they stand could bj brought home t,) YOLir minds. But the prophets who say 'Peace' where there is no peace, are exhausting every effort to mislead you. The danger is denied. It is said that the antagonism of the Nationalist Party is all imagination, anI. that the men who Worked the Land L and the Plan of Campaign, all whose methods of government hive been notorious for the last fittecll yeus, would be the most tolerant, the most honest, and the most high-principled of rulers. "To us such a contention seems ridiculous. But it is 11-t a question what one Party or the other in this is'and may say. What do the men my whose fate is in the balance, whose whole future existence is at stake Do they ignore or deride the danger The Belfast and Dublin Conventions have show n to all who are not wii- fuliy deaf that the L of Ireland entertain no illusion as to the character and policy of an Irish Parliament ruling through Irish Ministers. We have the testimony of Loyalists of every rank, gathered from every part of Ireland (not fr,,til northern as we are told), imploring you in accents of passionate earnest- ness to secure them ^from the fate wliieli the Party strategy of English politicians is pre- paring for the 111. They represent no Isolated or sectional interest. Landowners and tenants, cultivators and traders, men of the world and ministers of religion, speak wit 11 one voice in assuring you that the penis (hey see before thorn are no: imaginary They of that they do know. It cannot be pretended that their judg- ment 16 biassed by any Party feeljng. When Presbyterians, Wesleyans, Baptists, join with the members of the Disestablished Church, and with many Roman Catholics—ei^ht out of every nine of the non-episcopal iiiiiiis-ors have signed their namts to the stirring appeal for succour which they have addressed to you -it is an audacious mockery to tell you that their entreaties have been prompted and arranged by the cunning of some C uiservative organisation. When there is such a striking unanimity among those who agree in little else, but who are alike in this,! that they alone know, by the knowledge of long intimate personal experience, what manner of men they are under whose feet you would place them, what kr.d of subjection you are forcing for them, you cannot refuse credence to the witness of their bitter cry, or throw a doubt 011 the sincerity of their prayers. "It is for you to determine whether this rash experiment, this dang.-rous novelty, shall be tried. We have shown by experience that under the exis! i-iL, system Ireland call be maintained j in peace and o der that under a steady govern- iiielit the interests of all classes have been pro- 1 tected, and confidence and prosperity it,il progress lure returned. You are asked to shatter these results to try in Ireland a mode of government which has never been tried before, but whoso WI rking many sinister memories in this and other lands will help us to furecast and for this purpose to subjugate the people who are bound most closely by history and kinship to the inhabitants of Great Britain, and to fasten 011 their necks a yoke which they abhor. I pray that, you may be guided to shrink frjm this great outrage on liberty, 011 gratitude, and on good f lth, 11 Your obedient servant, SALISBURY.

PROFESSOR TYNDALL ON THE IRISH…

_._----THE SCOTCH HOME RULERS…

CARDIGAN SHIRE. !

' REPRESENTATION OF CARMARTHEN…

------------MAJOR JONES AT…

W ELSH CANDIDATES.

--_.__---_------LLANWRDA.

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