12 JUNE 1886, Page 2

Mr. Gladstone held that he had the heart of the

people and the promise of the future with him :—" As to the people's heart, you may dispute it, and dispute it with perfect sincerity. Let that matter make its own proof. As to the harvest of the future, I doubt if you have so much confidence, and I believe that there is in the breast of many a man who means to vote against us to-night a profound misgiving, approaching even to a deep conviction that the end will be as we foresee, and not as you,—that the ebbing tide is with you, and the flowing tide is with us. Ireland stands at your bar, expectant, hopeful, almost suppliant. Her words are the words of truth and soberness. She asks a blessed oblivion of the past, and in that oblivion our interest is deeper than even hers. My right honourable friend the Member for East Edinburgh asks us to-night to abide by the traditions of which we are the heirs. What tradition ? By the Irish tradition ? Go into the length and breadth of the world, ransack the literature of all countries, find, if you can, a single voice, a single book,—find, I would almost say, as much as a single newspaper article, unless the product of the day, in which the conduct of England towards Ireland is anywhere treated except with profound and bitter condemnation. Are these the traditions by which we are exhorted to stand ? No; they are a sad exception to the glory of our country. They are a broad and black spot upon the pages of its history ; and what we want to do is to stand by the traditions in which we are the heirs in all matters except our relations to Ireland, and to make our relations to Ireland to conform to the other traditions of

our country. So I urge the demand of Ireland for what I call blessed oblivion of the past. She asks also a boon for the future ; and that boon for the future, unless we are much mis- taken, -will be a boon to us in respect of honour no less than a boon to her in respect of happiness, prosperity, and peace. Such, Sir, is her prayer. Think, I beseech you, think well, think wisely, think not for a moment, but for the years that are to come, before you reject this Bill." The division showed 311 for Lord Hartington's motion, to 311 against it, or a majority of 30 against the Government.