Nothing comes out more distinctly from the results of the
General Election, than the need of having some better machinery than that of a General Election for discriminating the special points on which it really turned. There are Gladstonians who now go about saying that it did not turn practically on the question of Home-rule at all, though the Unionists did all in their power to make that the very pivot of the Election, and the Gladstonians themselves accepted that as the main issue, and an issue which had been the uppermost between the two parties for ten complete years. We ought undoubtedly to have the means of referring separately all the greater questions to the arbitration of the people, and then we should know what the people do care about and what they do not care about. We would allow the answer "Don't care," or something equivalent to it, as one of the replies to any question referred to the people. It would be very in- structive to note how many " don't cares " were given in answer to the various popular issues on which we consulted the people, and we should expect to find a good many on most constitutional questions, but not on their approval or disap- proval of the Home-rule Bill of 1893.
