TOPICS OF,11THE DAY.
policy in any General Election that should take place under the influence of the prevailing discouragement. It is certain Again, Mr. Gladstone will doubtless dwell with satis- that he cannot just now be longing for the great crisis to arrive, and it is certain that for a statesman of eighty- hat there is really a good deal more of personal loyalty to one to be compelled to welcome delay, is something that himself amongst the Irish Home-rulers than he had before approaches painfully near to welcoming disappointment. suspected ; and this will cheer him on to believe more than We feel perfectly sure that Mr. Gladstone has set his heart ever in the " Union of Hearts." Doubtless he hopes that on fulfilling what he fully believes to be a political mission Mr. Justin McCarthy's revolt from Mr. Parnell, he sees confided directly to him by Providence, and therefore we feel something like a real pledge of the growth of an Irish equally sure that amidst the congratulations which rained in upon him on Monday there must have mingled many bitter thoughts which had not disturbed the confidence Ireland. And he will get over the obvious objection and exhilaration of the eightieth anniversary of his birth. that Mr. Justin McCarthy and his party were compelled to Still, as we have already said, we o not in the smallest repudiate any notion of taking less than Mr. Parnell would , d degree credit the rumour that Mr. Gladstone is con- templating abandoning his purpose, and handing it down . as a mere legacy to the Liberals of the future. In the first himself that, after all, the proof of the pudding is in the place, he is far too tenacious of his purposes, and far too eating, and that, as Mr. McCarthy and his colleagues have sanguine of their fulfilment to give up hope easily ; and, actually severed themselves from Mr. Parnell simply in the next place, he is quite certain to have discerned special elements of encouragement in the recent crisis, and Mr. Gladstone to undermine Irish independence, it must this alone would prevent any such design. be assumed that the seceders are more eager for a cordial No doubt, Mr. Gladstone congratulates himself, as alliance with England, and less jealous of Irish in- • Mr. Da.vitt is reported to do, on the collapse of the One- dependence, than the Parnellites. We believe that Mr. man power in Ireland. The congratulation is probably Gladstone and those who may think with him on this premature, and might much better have been indulged in matter are resting their hopes on the most uncertain - by his predecessors on O'Connell's death, when, however, conjectures ; but doubtless they will take encourage of the Gladstonian it certainly was not succeeded by the growth of distinct ment from the attitude as well Irish parties of different tendencies and aims, such as those Irish as of the Roman Catholic priesthood. They will of which the sanguine hopes of English Home-rulers appeal, though probably with more eagerness than confi- discern signs in recent events. Mr. Gladstone is, indeed, dence, to the English electors to reward the moderation of the new Irish Party by reciprocating with even greater too much of a statesman not to feel a certain amount of hesitation in accepting this disappearance of the One-man cordiality than before the pledges they are giving of reason- power as a purely hopeful augury. He has no doubt been able and pacific intentions. They will exhort the English accustomed to congratulate himself up to a very recent Home-rulers to take little account of Irish words and period on the advantages which the Irish loyalty to a much of Irish deeds, and to interpret the boastful words leader gave Irishmen for united and prudent action, and it in the sense of the pacific deeds, rather than the pacific must be a rather new thought to him, and not wholly a deeds in the sense of the boastful words. To us, this is congenial one, that there is also very serious disadvantage not statesmanship. The Irish Party have admitted that in that sort of unanimity. Still, the possible advan- they were willing to take what they could get only as the tages of a certain disunion amongst the Irish Party must best way of getting more ; and the last persons whose have been forced upon him by the discovery of Mr. moderation a sagacious statesman should trust, are those Parnell's real character, and Mr. Gladstone is not one to who inaugurated. the "Plan of Campaign" against even reject peremptorily any consideration which tends to reeon- Mr. Parnell's judgment, and who have pronounced the cue him to a delay in the fruition of his hopes. He must most dithyrambic panegyrics on the policy of boycotting see that it is not a pure advantage for any party to be within the last two months. Yet these plusquam Parnellite completely, governed by such a man as Mr. Parnell,—an Home-rulers are those whom Mr. Gladstone, if he clings untrustworthy and unscrupulous statesman, a selfish and to his policy, as he will cling to it, must ask us to trust reckless man, and one who only simulated the prudence for their moderation and their hearty desire to inaugurate a. and reserve by which the World was deceived. Mr. Glad- "Union of Hearts." No union of hearts with them is stone has been compelled to surrender the Parnell legend by possible except on the condition that Englishmen shall which he had so long been hoodwinked, and. as that sur- give up all their own ideas of what is just and moderate, render has been forced on him, he has probably welcomed and shall adopt, and adopt with enthusiasm, the reckless the thought that seems to give so much shallow comfort to Irish ideas on that subject. his allies in the Press, that a divided Ireland will cause Finally, Mr. Gladstone will probably soothe himself with less alarm in England than an Ireland which " moveth the more solid consideration that, after all, to give up Irish altogether if it move at all." For our own parts, we cannot Home-rule now, would only bring a deeper disgrace on the feel even that satisfaction until we know that the divided party which he leads, quite apart from the question of his leaders have really different public aims in view, and own retirement. There we fully agree with him. Not only are this is just what we do not know. The leaders quarref .,, amongst themselves, no doubt ; but they profess to be THE EFFECT OF THE IRISH REVOLT ON MR. absolutely united on the question of Irish claims, and that is precisely the question on which—if we are to GI-LADSTONE'S MIND. have Home-rule—we should desire to see more difference EVEN to his sanguine temperament, the eighty-first of judgment and more substantial variety of demand. birthday of Mr. Gladstone can hardly have been as unclouded in its perspective as the eightieth. We do not, While they continue to close up their ranks the momentany question arises between Ireland and Great Britain, indeed, credit in the least the rumour that he has spent it we not only see no advantage in the quarrels, but some in considering the arguments for an immediate retirement, ground for fresh anxiety lest, if they were to gain their and the relinquishment for the present of a political pur- end, the separate Irish Legislature and Administra- pose which he finds either premature or mistaken. Men tioa should turn out to be too weak to secure either social of Mr. Gladstone's ardour, and, let us also cordially admit, order or the punctual execution of the engagements taken to elevation of purpose, do not suffer themselves to be beaten the Legislature and Administration of the United King- out of it by a few untoward events, and it is to us very dom. A united Ireland anxious to thwart Great Britain much more likely that Mr. Gladstone deems what has re- cently happened likely to conduce before long to his more possessed of the same wish, would be much more dangerous complete success, than that he deems it fatal to his purpose. and much worse,—at least until it came to ' open war.. Still, Mr. Gladstone is no doubt perfectly sensible that he Still, we do not doubt that Mr. Gladstone has found some has received a check, that there are a great many of his (cold) comfort in the thought that his own followers will followers in Parliament, and. a very large number in the be less jealous of an Ireland broken up into parties, than constituencies, who are no longer in love with Irish they would be of an Ireland unanimously supporting Mr.. Home-rule, and would be delighted to find any ex- Parnell, and especially that, Mr. Parnell's authority being cuse for giving it up, and Mr. Gladstone, as an " old broken, he himself will wield a much greater authority Parliamentary hand," knows only too well what that over the Irish party than he ever could have wielded while means, and how severely it would operate against his Mr. Parnell's chieftainship was undisputed.
the influence of the prevailing discouragement. It is certain Again, Mr. Gladstone will doubtless dwell with satis- that he cannot just now be longing for the great crisis faction on the evidence which the break-up has produced, t hat there is really a good deal more of personal loyalty to one to be compelled to welcome delay, is something that himself amongst the Irish Home-rulers than he had before approaches painfully near to welcoming disappointment. suspected ; and this will cheer him on to believe more than We feel perfectly sure that Mr. Gladstone has set his heart ever in the " Union of Hearts." Doubtless he hopes that in on fulfilling what he fully believes to be a political mission Mr. Justin McCarthy's revolt from Mr. Parnell, he sees confided directly to him by Providence, and therefore we feel something like a real pledge of the growth of an Irish equally sure that amidst the congratulations which rained Foarty that welcomes the co-operation with England, so' ng as England is led by men just and generous to. bitter thoughts which had not disturbed the confidence Ireland. And he will get over the obvious objection and exhilaration of the eightieth anniversary of his birth. that Mr. Justin McCarthy and his party were compelled to Still, as we have already said, we o not in the smallest repudiate any notion of taking less than Mr. Parnell would , d take, by the difficulty of any sort of apparent surrender templating abandoning his purpose, and handing it down . of Irish claims at such a crisis as this. He will think to, h as a mere legacy to the Liberals of the future. In the first himself that, after all, the proof of the pudding is in the place, he is far too tenacious of his purposes, and far too eating, and that, as Mr. McCarthy and his colleagues have sanguine of their fulfilment to give up hope easily ; and, actually severed themselves from Mr. Parnell simply because Mr. Parnell denounced the supposed desire of the leaders deeply pledged, but the lieutenants and the non- commissioned officers of the party are deeply committed to the policy, and they cannot decently retreat without a pitched battle and a critical defeat. It is therefore only fitting that that pitched battle should be fought under the leader who is really responsible for the policy, and we do not for a moment doubt that Mr. Gladstone will be right in refusing to retire till that battle has been fought. But he must feel, and will feel, considerable anxiety about the result, however sanguine he may be that his brave Scotch and Welsh contingents will yet secure him the victory. So far as the present omens go, be will be bitterly disappointed. But, of course, in the nine or ten months which must elapse before the Dissolu- tion, the chapter of accidents may turn in his favour. It will, however, in all probability be the fault of the Unionists if we allow it to turn in his favour. For the present, at least, everything promises us victory,—the revelation of Mr. Parnell's character ; the deep pledges given by the Anti-Parnellites to support evicted tenants, and the surrender of all the guarantees regarded by Mr. Glad- stone as necessary only a year ago ; the increasing force of the evidence as to the meaning and deadliness of the boycotting policy ; and the strange lights thrown upon political strategy in Ireland by the mock fights and mock reconciliations of the Parnellites and their foes. No people in their senses not deeply committed to a dangerous course would trust the new Irish leaders a bit more than the old. But Mr. Gladstone does not see it, and he will doubtless fight a gallant and a hopeful battle for a policy which is, we trust, doomed to complete and final failure.
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