Mr. Bryce is not disheartened by the result of the
elections. He says that the Home-rulers had special difficulties at the elections, owing to the want of adequate local organisation. That is true enough, we dare say ; but is it not much truer for those who resisted the policy of the great popular chief than for those who advocated it ? Did not Mr. Gladstone's great name do wonders for all who went to the electors to plead for his measure ? And was not the uphill work chiefly on the other side ? For our part, we are astonished at the success of the Unionists in resisting Mr. Gladstone, and hold that time will work far more powerfully against his Irish policy than it will work in favour of it. Mr. Bryce said, in East Islington on Tuesday, that "the Liberal Party never did a better work than when they held out their hand in friendship to the Irish people, and said to them,—' You are a poor and struggling democracy ; we are a rich and powerful democracy ; we will join hands and help you.' " Is that exactly bow we ought to put it ? Would not this be nearer the mark?—' Your democracy in Ireland has organised a tyrannical league which has abolished individual freedom. We will relieve you of the necessity for secret and illegal dictation by giving you the right to organise your tyranny openly ; and whatever you do, we will not interfere.'
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