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SIR GEORGE TREVELYAN IN WALES.

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SIR GEORGE TREVELYAN IN WALES. GREAT MEETING AT ACREFAIR. Sir George Trevelyan, addressing a meeting on Friday night, at Bangor, contended that crime had diminished to an almost infinitessimal degree under the late Government, and that the feeling between Ireland and England was perceptibly less bitter when Lord Spencer left Ireland than when he went to that country. He strongly protested against the attempt to suppress free speech and the freedom of public meeting in Ireland. On Monday evening Sir G. 0. Trevelyan, M.P., addressed a crowded meeting of the electors of East Denbighshire, in the Iron Warehouse, Acre- fair, near Ruabon, a bnilding capable of accom- modating 3000 persons. The right honourable baronet arrived from Bangor in the course of the afternoon at Brymbo Hall, the residence of the Right Hon. G. 0. Morgan, the representative of the division, by whom he was accompanied' to the meeting, preceded from Rhos, a distance of four miles, by a torchlight procession. Their reception at Acrefair was of the most enthusiastic description. Mr. Osborne Morgan took the chair, and amongst those on the platform were Mr. J. Deasy, M.P.; Messrs. J. W. Taylor, James Sparrow, C. Jones, Professor Morris, Rev. W. Evans, Messrs. W. Humphreys Owen, W. Coward, J.P., W. Hawkins Tilston, Edward Hooson, Councillor J. M. Jones, Messrs. J. J. Evans, G. Garside, J. Garside, B. Bowen, T. Savage, and C. J. Gibbons. Previously to the commencement of the proceedings the audience sang Hen wlad fy Nhadau," and a song written specially for the occasion, the refrain of which was Trevelyan ydyw'r dyn (" Trevelyan is the man ".) The chairman said he would not detain the meeting, but at once call upon Sir George to address them. Sir George Trevelyan, who was greeted with loud cheers, said he felt proud to appear on a political platform in Mr. Osborne Morgan's old political home. (Cheers.) Mr. Osborne Morgan was a man who believed in his own noble creed, and that was no small thing in these days, because this was a time when only the brave men stood to the Liberal cause without flinching. In all great movements 1h3 main principle of Liberalism was to take men as they were, and make the best of them to let them be self-governing, and to let them make their own mistakes and learn by their own experience, being quite certain that if they did so they would gradually begin to understand their own best and highest interests. (Cheers.) That was the Liberal idea of government, but that was not government as it was understood in Ireland, and as it was understood in Wales. He would take the case of Ireland first. It was not too much to say that in that unhappy country the public opinion of the great majority of the people was absolutely dis- regarded. It went for nothing, and indeed it went for less than nothing. (" Shame.") It was not too much to isay that the demands which were made by Ireland were refused because the Irish people asked them. The Liberal Government suc- ceeded in getting through the House of Commons a measure to assimilate the registration in Ireland to what it was in England and Wales, but when they came to the House of Lords they were from time to time thrown out, and the Lords could give no reason whatever for rejecting them. And who could wonder at Ireland being ill-treated by the House of Lords ? Who were the representatives of Ireland in the House of Lords? Who were the peers who were there to tell them what Ireland thought? Of the 101 genuine representatives of Ireland in the House of Commons there were 15 Conservatives of the 28 sham representatives of Ireland in the House of Lords there were 27 Con- servatives. And that was the constitution which the Irish people were told they must be content with and if they were not content, statesmen who, like Mr. Osborne Morgan and himself, gave them a word of sympathy were lectured and abused as if they were traitors to the empire. (" Shame.") They were told that the House of Peers might not pro- perly represent Ireland, but that the House of Peers were very wise, and knew what was wanted for Ireland better than the people did themselves. (Laughter.) Wherever else that sentiment would go down, it would not go down in Denbighshire. (Cheers.) The people of Denbighshire had had their differencies with the House of Lords, and he thought they came out of the struggle very triumphantly. They sent to Parliament a good many years ago a gentleman who spoke well on many subjects, but who was specially commissioned to go to Parliament and tell Parliament and the country that it was contrary to justice, religion, and humanity that the Nonconformists should be prevented burying their dead in the National Church grounds with their own form of worship. (Cheers.) The time had gone by when this was a matter of controversy. Everybody admitted that to refuse such a demand was gross religious bigotry. (Cheers.) How many times did the House of Lords throw out that bill, and what a bitter struggle was it before they passed it into law ? There they had a measure of the wisdom of the House of Lords compared with the wisdom of a popular constituency like that of Denbighshire. The prej udices of the House of Lords had never been exhibited in a more dis- astrous manner than in rejecting year after year measures which four out of every five Irishmen desired, and against which no solid reason could absolutely be given. Why was it that so great a sympathy for Ireland existed in the minds of the Welsh people 1 It was because Wales had received the same treatment as Ireland, and, therefore, felt for her the sympathy which came from a common experience, and a bitter experience it was. In Wales, as in Ireland, there was not even a pretence of arranging the institutions of the country in accordance with the wishes of the vast majority of the population and in Wales, as in Ireland, there was no desire to give the people a reason which would satisfy them as to why their wishes were neglected. If there was a reason which could be given for the maintenance of the Established Church in Wales, it had better be given as quickly as possible, because, in the opinion of the great majority of the people of Wales, there is no just reason whatever. (Cheers.) It was because that Was so that the Government, with their mechanical majority, refused last session even to hear the case of Welsh Nonconformity stated by Mr. Dillwyn. There had been an attempt to justify this action, by saying that the desire of Wales to get the opinion of Parliament on her great grievance was a form of obstruction. (Laughter and cheers.) That was the only excuse for those Liberal Unionists who voted with the Tories on that occasion. The men who made this charge were the very men who, session after session, consumed so much time in excluding Mr. Bradlaugh. The opponents of Establishment in Wales were pursuing an object which was per- manent and durable, because he would venture to say if once ecclesiastical privilege was extinguished m Wales its torch would never be relighted. But the opponents of Mr. Bradlaugh spent oceans of time over a question which was already a thing of the past. A good many of the members who voted ^gainst Mr. Bradlaugh did so for party purposes. Would anybody tell him Lord Randolph Churchill and Mr. Balfour believed that they would have their conscience painfully affected by a man of un- Sound religious views sitting in the House of Com- nions I (Laughter.) But the opponents of the Welsh Church were in grim earnest. The Times that morning had asked how long he had shewn a feeling towards Establishments. Why, when he Was a young politician, and when an official career 11 Was of much more importance to him than it was £ ?w, he resigned that position against the advice of nis friends, because he thought the Education Bill of the Government to which he belonged was too favourable to the Established Church. He was in earnest then, and he was in earnest now but he Was not more in earnest than 19 out of every 20 in that room. When so-called Liberals and the men Who wasted months over Mr. Bradlaugh refused to hear the case of poor little Wales on the excuse that e Welsh were guilty of obstruction, all he could was that they were giving a melancholy proof th + ■ee^n§' towards their old party was such di<f were willing to adopt any argument to W ?flfc to promise redress to the -i. ■^onconf°rmists, the Government had e "self responsible for the tumult and scandal iusi- ex'sted on the tithe question since that day, turn made itself responsible for all the hn« • ail(^ .scan(ial and fcir deeper misery which rpfi,eXiSiec* iri.Ireland since the day Lord Salisbury liari /f °.^° 'n 188(5 that act of policy which he bv t-ii0-16 m.^7, *or his colleagues admitted acti°u that the arrears which they were min-lif11!' °Ut P°°kets of the Irish tenants had h ve remained within those pockets. He kpf>n,-«en una^e to get from statesmen a reason for uttJtiJ* Welsh Establishment, and he was y unable to invent one for himself. He had diligently studied all the defences of Welsh Establishment, most of which were by clergymen of the Establishment, and the result had been to make him feel the depth of the gulf which in their Church existed between the lay and the clerical men; but it unfortunately happened that the Church was supported by laymen, so that sooner or later they must get some good arguments which laymen could accept, or at any rate in order to sup- port that the gentleman who spoke at the recent Church Congress said that the tithes were paid by the Welsh in the days of their independence. The argument told in the opposite way from that which it was intended. The older the tithe was the more it brought them back to the days when all Wales and England were of one religion, and when the tithe was paid for the religious services of all, and not of the rich minority who now enjoyed the Church. Here again the Times said that he misled the Welsh people by saying that this was the money taken out of the poor for the benefit of the rich. What he said—and he said it again-was that the tithe was public money—(cheers)—that it was paid in such a manner that the rich have their church paid for them, and that the poor had to pay for their Church-(hear, hear)-and that it ought to be devoted to public purposes which would benefit rich and poor alike; and none except those insane people who thought that this money belonged to the Church, and did not belong to the public and to the nation—people who had bewildered themselves with theological talk—could possibly gainsay one single word he had uttered. (Cheers.) If Wales were allowed to expound her own religious con- science by the mouths of her representatives, who were the only people to whom he looked in matters of legislation, they wonld very soon see the last of ecclesiastical privilege. (Cheers.) Mr. Jasper More told them the remedy he proposed was that the next Church Congress should be held in Wales. (Laughter.) It would be a very great honour to the Principality but if no better reasons could be given at it than at the last Church Congress for keeping up the Welsh Church, the people who summoned the congress had better spare their pains and go where those arguments would go down, and he thought they would have to go very far indeed. (Cheers.) They were told but not, perhaps, with quite so much confidence as they were told six months ago-that the Tory party had equal claims with themselves to be called the party of reform. (Laughter.) A party of reform that was in favour of keeping up such a monument of monopoly as the Church in Wales The Conservative party showed at every turn that, though they had to accept representative government, they did not believe in it. (Hear, hear.) Mr. J. Sparrow moved the following resolution —" That this meeting desires to offer its warmest thanks to the Right Hon. George Otto Trevelyan, Bart., M.P., for the able address delivered by him, and to record its high appreciation of the great services rendered by him to his country for many years. It would also place on record its continued confidence in the Home Rule policy of Mr. Glad- stone and his colleagues, and emphatically denounce the recent arbitrary conduct of the Government, so contrary to the pledges given by its supporters at the last general election and by the Government it- self during the discussion on the Crimes Act in Parliament." The resolution was seconded by Mr. G. W. Taylor, supported by Mr. Deasy, and carried by acclamation. The Rev. Mr. Edwards proposed a resolution thanking Mr. Osborne Morgan for presiding, and at the same time conveying an expression of unabated confidence in him as the representative in Parlia- ment for East Denbighshire, which he had so faithfully served for 19 years. The Rev. W. Evans seconded the motion, which was also adopted unanimously, the proceedings then terminating.

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