A lively correspondence has been going on during the week
in the Daily News, on how to restore the Liberal Party to its ascendency. It began with a letter of Mr. Labouchere's last Saturday, and has since been continued by Lord Kilcoursie, Mr. Haig, and others. Mr. Labouchere's prescription is a complete purge of all Unionists. Let the Liberal Associations through- out the country, he says, send up deputations to a central caucus ; then let that caucus choose its creed and its leader- Of this the result would be, of course, that Home-rule for Ire- land would, under the existing circumstances of the case, become the first and most important of the principles adopted, while Mr. Gladstone would be the chosen leader. Then let all who cannot accommodate themselves to this decision be ruled out of the Liberal Party, and let the Liberal Party begin to agitate actively till it can carry its creed into action. Lord Kilcoursie, Mr. Haig, and others do not approve of this drastic policy, and insist, with a good deal of justice, that this means not so much the revivification of the Liberal Party, as acquiescing in its dwindled numbers, which is, of course, true. But though they vainly seek after some Medea incantation by which the mutilated body should be made whole, they have really nothing to pro- pose but piteous appeals to Lord Hartington and Mr. Cham- berlain to make it up with Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Labouchere's resolve to bid the crippled party act as if it were the whole, is at least manlier than these unavailing exhortations to ignore facts. Why not recognise boldly that the nation for the present finds the Liberal Party unequal to the situation, and that the Liberal Party needs retirement, meditation, and a new unction of patriotic spirit ?
Previous page
