A SANGUINE GLADSTONIAN.
[To THE EDITOE OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I am, and have been for many years, a thankful follower of Mr. Gladstone. I have felt that when a Prime Minister considers possible the great concession which he pro- poses, it is by no means unreasonable for a hard-worked clergyman to be glad that such an effort to save Ireland by faith in her should be made ; and it seems to pie a duty to support a leader who is trying to apply some of the principles of the Sermon on the Mount to this great political question. I bear with great equanimity the weekly attacks of my Spectator, feeling how glad you, Mr. Editor, will be to have been proved wrong in the good days we hope for. I have always believed that the beat way of smoothing asperities, and helping opponents to understand and respect each other, is to throw them together, to give them responsibility, and a com- mon work to do. This, I take it, is Mr. Gladstone's plan for his Irish Parliament.
What has puzzled me most in my great leader is his ap- parent shrinking from meeting with opponents from Irish Unionist organisations, and the curious way in which the earnest convictions of the Irish minority are severely let alone. I should have expected an earnest missionary effort; I should have expected that even the weight of his eighty- three honourable years would not have prevented Mr. Glad- stone from going to Ireland and dealing personally with the opponents of his policy ; ] should have expected him to call together the leaders of both the Home-rule and Unionist parties, that all might have lessons in common-sense, self- restraint, and common charity. My views can only be of interest to the editor of a Unionist paper because they are those which, more perhaps than any others, are shared by very many Englishman who are poli- ticians chiefly because of their Christianity. Thousands of votes must have been given to Gladstonians at the last Elec- tion because men felt as I do. If our faith is shaken in our leader by his own action, it would no doubt please you even beam than if we had been convinced by your arguments. My great longing is that our brave Premier may prove that he has as much sympathy with conscientious opponents as with conscientious Nationalists ; and that he may gain the blessed reward of the peacemaker by popular acclaim.-1 am,
Previous page
