The question as to Mr. Parnell's leadership of the Irish
Home-rulers has assumed a new importance during the week.
On Wednesday there appeared a letter from Mr. Gladstone to Mr. John Morley, in which he recalls Mr. Parnell's offer in 1882 to retire from public life, if Mr. Gladstone should think it advisable, after the Phcenix Park murders. Mr. Gladstone then declined the offer, but intimates to Mr. Morley his great disappointment that it had not been renewed as the consequence of the recent divorce suit. (May not the explanation be that Mr. Parnell felt sure that the offer of 1882 would be declined by Mr. Gladstone, and even more sure that, if repeated now, it would have been accepted ?) Mr. Gladstone added that if Mr. Parnell kept to his decision to retain the leadership, "it would not only place many hearty and effective friends of Ire- land in a position of great embarrassment, but would render my retention of the leadership of the Liberal Party, based as it has been mainly upon the prosecution of the Irish cause, almost a nullity." Mr. Justin McCarthy had been made acquainted with Mr. Gladstone's view, but entreated to keep it a secret if he found that Mr. Parnell contemplated resigning the leadership without any pressure from without. But Mr. McCarthy was to communicate Mr. Gladstone's view to the Irish Home-rulers if no such resignation should appear to be contemplated.
