Page:Mr Gladstone or Lord Salisbury.djvu/11

 to annihilate local responsibility, and daily to give emphasis to the fact that the whole country is under the domination of an alien race, no system could be devised more likely to secure its object than that now in force in Ireland. We hold that the continuance of such a system is unjust to Ireland, useless to England, and dangerous to both. It has irritated Ireland almost beyond endurance, and it has resulted in preventing the Imperial Parliament from giving its attention to many reforms of which England stands in need."

Surely those have no claim to be called Unionists who try to perpetuate a state of things so dangerous and unjust. Real union is only possible between free and equal peoples; where one has the right of self-government and the other is denied this, there may be conquest and subjection, there is no union. There is the bond which power forges, which holds as a chain; but there is no voluntary uniting bond of sympathy or fraternity. The paper union is the indenture of forced servitude, not the freely-executed partnership deed. I ask voters to test, bend, and break this counterfeit self-styled Unionist coin, even though it is now to be manufactured for the Primrose League by a Birmingham firm. It has been in enforced circulation eighty-six years, and has only purchased three-quarters of a century of discontent, disaffection, and conspiracy.

The choice at the ballot-box is only between a Government to be headed by Lord Salisbury and one to be headed by William Ewart Gladstone. The new democracy cannot vote for Lord Salisbury. Whilst his party held office they kept back the suffrage to which to-day they appeal. Whilst his party held office they hindered the redistribution of political power which has since more nearly proportioned parliament and the people. If you want to know how to cast your ballot, voter, look where Mr. Goschen stands by