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LIBERAL MEETING AT PENARTH.

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LIBERAL MEETING AT PENARTH. ENTHUSIASTIC PROCEEDINGS AT THE PUBLIC HALL. SPEECHES BY MR. A. J. WILLIAMS, M.P., MR. LLOYD MORGAN, M.P., AND MR. P. J. BYRNE, M.P. A well-attended and enthusiastic public meeting was held on Saturday evening last at the Public Hall, Penarth, for the purpose of hearing political addresses from Mr Arthur J. Williams, M.P. for South Glamorgan, Mr J. Lloyd Morgan, M.P., and Mr P. J. Power, M.P., when, in addition to the gentlemen named, the following were in attendance Mrs A. J. Williams (Coedymwstwr), Mrs J. P. Jones, Mrs F. H. Jotham, Miss Batchelor, Miss Jones, Miss B. Stowe, the Rev J. O. Stalberg, Messrs G. Robson, T. Callaghan, T. Collins, Samuel Thomas, W. T. Lee (secretary of the South Monmouth Liberal Association), George Pyle, &c. The chair was occupied by Mr J. P. Jones, who made a few appropriate remarks in opening the proceedings. Mr Lloyd Morgan, M.P., proposed the following resolution That this meeting expresses its deep satisfaction that the National Liberal Federation, at its Sheffield Conference, has decided that Welsh disestablishment and disendowment should stand first on the programme of the Liberal party as soon as Ireland has obtained Home Rule. It also expresses its hearty approval of the comprehensive programme of wise and just reforms adopted by that conference. In speaking to the resolution, he said their principles had been steadily gaining ground for a long time, and that gain was becoming a very rapid one. The schism which took place in the Liberal ranks in 1886 no longer existed, and the small minority of Liberals who left them had done a great deal more good than harm, for they had oeen tine means 01 purnying tne party. At the next election they would fight as a strong, unani- mous party, and their object would be, not only justice to Iieland, but the carrying forward of the great measure for which they in Wales had for a long time been asking, viz., the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church. (Applause.) They were in precisely the same position to-day as they were during the dark and depressing years which elapsed between 1874 and 1880, when Lord Beaconsfield was in power. The same things were said of the Radical policy then as now, but when the time came they would put Mr Glad- stone in power by a greater majority than before. The present Government had not carried out the measures which they staked their reputation on passing, and they had done absolutely nothing to redeem the pledges they had made. (Applause.) What was the answer to this miserable failure of the session ? The Tories' reply was, We would have passed some of these measures, only you Liberals have been persistently and continually obstructing us by your conduct there." The Government introduced a Bill for harassing Welsh farmers and a Bill for supporting their friends the landlords in Ireland, but, fortunately, neither of those measures was adopted. (Applause.) What the Conservatives meant by obstruction was the opposition they encountered when they attempted to pass the Public-house Endowment Bill. When he spoke of the drink question he did not suggest that it was an easy question to deal with. It was a very difficult question, and one could not help feeling, considering all the crime, and vice, and misery it caused, that it was a question which some Government in the immediate future ought to deal with in a way which should promote the work of temperance. He thought the matter ought to be left in the hands of the people them- selves, and that was the Liberal policy. (Applause.) The present Government had completed its work. and it was now kept in power for one purpose- the purpose of carrying on a miserable, exaspera- ting, cruel policy in Ireland in order to keepaway from the Irish people those good, wholesome Radical reforms which the people of this country were determined they should have. (Applause.) The Tories were attempting to show that the Church was gainihg ground. They, as Radicals, were not attacking the Church, but simply the connection of the State with religious establish- ments, and this connection they intended to bring to an end before long. (Applause.) Mr P. J. Power, M.P. for Waterford, seconded the motion. He said it was directly in the interests of the working people that the Irish question should be settled as early as possible, so that they might grapple with their own reforms. The people of Ireland appealed to the working democracy of this country for help, not on the ground of mere self-interest, but on the grounds of justice and humanity. The Coercion Act was not levelled against crime, but was aimed at poli- tical opponents and political organisations. Its main and only object was to break down the organisations which the leaders had found necessary for protecting the lives of the people of the country. They had been called criminals, and many of the best of their members had been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. If to protect the weak was criminal, if to stop oppres- sion was criminal, if to stand between Lord Clan- ricarde and the poor. people whom he ground under his heel was criminal, then it was glory to be a criminal, and he hoped to merit the epithet as long as he had the honour of being connected with Irish politics. In conclusion, Mr Power said he hoped that England's greatest statesman-Mr Gladstone-would be spared to see Home Rule given to Ireland. (Applause.) lf„ A T tT7:i1J if T» .« jjxr a. o. vyiiiiamg, ivi. r., in supporting the resolution, said that in the next Parliament they would have to consider how to deal with an ob- structive Tory minority. There must be no non- sense about the future executive. The great mischief of the Liberal Party in the past had been that they bad accepted the Tory traditions in one sense and not in another. The Tories had got the House of Lords, and they did not stop at a good deal of jobbery when they dealt with the great preferments of the State. Suppose the Radicals obtained a large majority, and suppose they carried Home Rule by a large majority, and the House of Lords refused to pass it. According to the Tories, that would be the case, and would go on until the Radical majority would dwindle, and until the people got tired of the business. Suppose the Radicals, however, made Mr Tim Healy Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and Mr John Dillon Chief Secretary for Ireland. (Applause.) Mr Tim Harrington would make a good Chief Justice of Ireland, and a juster judge than Peter ► the Packer." Thomas Sexton would make an admirable President of the Local Government Board, and there would be fewer jobs if they had Mr Sexton in that capacity. (Hear, hear.) Colonel Nolan would make a good inspector of constabulary—(laughter)—and there would be very little batoning after that. Sir Andrew Clarke could look after her Majesty's forces. Did they think the Hussars would be ordered out to bayonet the people with such an executive as that in Ireland? The Rev William Tuckwell would make an admirable bishop. (Applause.) Mr Disraeli, that astute Radical-for he was un- doubtedly an intellectual Radical; he began as a Radical, and died as a Radical, and his last great measure was a Radical measure-became by his adroitness and astuteness, first the steward and ultimately the maste&of the Tory party, and if he had been living during the last five years Home Rule would have been settled long ago, and by a Tory Government. in 1843 Mr Disraeli said Ireland had arrived at a stage when it required a great man to have recourse to great remedial measures to effect this policy and those changes which a revolution would do by force. How prophetic that statement was. The great man was Mr Gladstone, and the remedial measure was Home Rule. (Applause.) Mr M'Carthy proposed a vote of thanks to Mr Lloyd Morgan and Mr Power, and a resolution of continued confidence in Mr A. J. Williams as Parliamentary representative for South Glamor- ganshire, pledging the meeting to use every straightforward effort, when the time came, to return him by a triumphant majority. (Ap- plause.) Mr Pyle seconded the proposition, which met with unanimous endorsement. In response, Mr Williams warned his supporters not to be too confident; this was always the great danger in a strong Liberal constituency. A vote of thanks to the chairman, cordially ex- tended, closed the proceedings. A CONTEMPORARY ON lIB. WILLIAMS' SPEECH. Mr Arthur J. Williams playfully suggests a novel method of taming the shrew, or, in plainer terms, bringing the incorrigible lords to reason. His scheme, as unfolded at a meeting of his Penarth constituents, might be tried whenever the Liberals get into power. We do not, of course, seriously suggest the appoint- ments jocosely proposed by the member for South Glamorganshire, but we should like to know why some of the Irish offices at the disposal of every Government should not be at once filled by capable Irishmen. An Irish Secretary, for instance, would look well even on paper, and probably much better on the field, and Mr Tim Harrington would probably make a more satisfactory Chief Justice than some of his predecessors have done.. But what Mr Williams suggested might with advantage have been established as a precedent at the date of the Union. Instead of forcing Englishmen and English institutions upon Ireland, the government of Ireland by Irish officials and from an Irish point of view would probably have fiven great satisfaction, and would, at least, have created an impression that Irish sentiments were not to be outraged. The member for South Glamorgan- shire holds tenaciouslv to the conviction that, how- ever clean a sweep of Unionism the next general elec- tion may make, the Lords wiil still prove recalcitrant and kick. We regret that we are not in a position to question this. The lords have, on so many previous occasions, knocked their heads against the everlasting rocks that we shall not be surprised to see them foolishly repeating the experiment. Of course, the "mend them" or "end them" cry would inevitably be rung out at once with such deafening shouts as to cause trembling even in the Upper Chamber, but it is to be hoped that before Mr Gladstone introduces his Home Rule Bill he and his colleagues will duly con- sider how to deal with a stubborn House of Peers. This is clearly one of the factors of which cognisance must be taken. Only let the lords know that Home Rule must be carried at all hazards, and they may prefer early surrender to a worse fate. They have never been regarded as immovable, but it will be their own fault if all England be forced quickly to the conclusion that they are lemovable.—South Wales Daily Newt.

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