The Speeches (In Full) of the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., and William O'Brien, M.P., on Home Rule, Delivered in Parliament, Feb. 16 and 17, 1888.Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
History
The Speeches (In Full) of the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., and William O'Brien, M.P., on Home Rule, Delivered in Parliament, Feb. 16 and 17, 1888.
Gladstone, W. E. (William Ewart)
Home rule -- Ireland; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
Well, Mr. Alderman Hooper was proceeded against, and was sentenced for
publishing these reports for a term of one month. He would have had
there no right of appeal, but was again simultaneously charged for
publishing another report; another sentence of one month was pronounced
upon him. These sentences, though cumulative with regard to him, were
not cumulative with regard to the right to appeal. (_Cheers._)
Therefore, while the right honorable gentleman professed to give the
right of appeal for all sentences above a month, by this clever device
he has contrived to inflict upon Alderman Hooper, a member of this
House, an imprisonment of two months, and yet that Alderman Hooper
should have no right of appeal. And there again, sir, I say I am sorry
to use strong words, but I am tempted to do so outside this House, and I
will do so in this House. (_Opposition cheers_) This was explained to be
not only a constitutional violence, not only a clear evasion of the
spirit of the law, but an incredible meanness (_loud Opposition
cheers_), a meanness in the method of administering the Crimes Act, and
a spirit is displayed which, if the Irish people had only a hundredth
part of the courage, the pluck, and perseverance which they had shown
through seven centuries, could only tend to alienate and estrange them
from those who attempt so to govern them. (_Opposition cheers._) The
word that I have thus used I am going to use again. (_Ministerial
laughter._) I am very desirous to invite the concurrence of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the propriety of my application of it, or
whether he considers that nobleness would be a better description of the
circumstances which I am about to describe. Without knowing what I am
going to say, the right honorable gentleman accepts my challenge, and,
therefore, I am justified in exhibiting a specimen of the nobleness with
which this administration of Ireland is conceived and executed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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