William Gladstone

“ A true union is to be tested by the sentiments of the human beings united. Tried by this criterion, we have less union between Great Britain and Ireland now than we had under the settlement of 1782.
Enfranchised Ireland, gentlemen, asks through her lawful representatives for a revival of her domestic Legislature, not on the face of it an innovating, but a restorative proposal.
She urges with truth that a centralisation of the Parliament has been a division of the peoples, but she recognises the fact that the Union, lawlessly as it was obtained, cannot and ought not to be repealed. ”

“ In intention, indeed, we are all Unionists alike, but the Union which they refuse to modify is in its present shape a paper union, obtained by force and fraud, and never sanctioned or accepted by the Irish nation. They are not Unionists, but paper Unionists. ”

“ Two clear, positive, intelligible plans are before the world. There is the plan of the Government and there is the plan of Lord Salisbury. Our plan is that Ireland should, under well-considered conditions, transact her own affairs. His plan is to ask Parliament for new repressive laws, and to enforce them resolutely for 20 years, at the end of which time he assures us that Ireland will be fitted to accept any gifts in the way of local government or the repeal of coercion laws that you may wish to give her. ”