t a national and an imperial
need. We present to them no material inducement in the shape either of
bounty or bribe, and they have to face the prospect of a spell of hard
training from which most of the comforts and all the luxuries that any
of them have been accustomed to are rigorously banished. But then, when
they are fully equipped for their patriotic task, they will have the
opportunity of striking a blow, it may be even of laying down their
lives, not to serve the cause of ambition or aggression, but to maintain
the honor and the good faith of our country, to shield the independence
of free States, to protect against brute force the principles of
civilization and the liberties of Europe. [Loud cheers.]

* * * * *

MR. ASQUITH AT DUBLIN.

Speech in the Round Room of the Mansion House, Sept. 25.

My Lord Mayor: Some weeks ago I took it upon myself to suggest to the
four principal Magistrates of the United Kingdom that they should afford
me an opportunity of making a personal appeal to their citizens at a
great moment in our national history. I have already delivered my
message in London and in Edinburgh. To the first of those great
communities I was able to speak as an Englishman by birth and as a
Londoner by early association and long residence. To the second, the
capital of the ancient Kingdom of Scotland, I had special credentials as
having been for the best part of thirty years one of their
representatives in the House of Commons, ["Hear, hear!"] and now,
indeed, by one of the melancholy privileges of time the senior among the
Scottish members. [Laughter.] But, my Lord Mayor, tonight when I come to
Dublin I can put forward neither the one claim nor the other. [A
Voice--Home Rule.] I base my title, such as it is, to your hospitality
and your hearing upon such service as during the whole of my political
life I have tried with a whole heart and to the best of my faculties and
opportunities to render to Ireland. [Cheers.] I come here, not as a
partisan, not even as a politician, but I come here as for the time
being the head of the King's Government, [cheers,] to summon Ireland, a
loyal and patriotic Ireland, to take her place in the defense of our
common cause. [Cheers.] My Lord Mayor, it is no part of my mission
tonight, it is indeed at this time of day wholly unnecessary, to
justify, still less to excuse, the part which the Government of the
United Kingdom has taken in