Yesterday week (November 29th) the Eighty and Russell Clubs held
a joint meeting at Oxford, at which Sir Frank Lockwood presided, while Mr. Haldane was the guest of the evening. Mr. Haldane said that, to use a commercial metaphor, Liberal stock was rather low, but they were prepared to hold their shares till better times came. Mr. Haldane was sure that in 1886 Mr. Gladstone's calculation was perfectly right, and that it was only Mr. Parnell's fall in 1890 that prevented Mr. Gladstone from getting a majority of at least 100 in 1892. That may possibly be so, or may not be so; but that is only saying that, even if it were true, the English Gladstoniana would have been more prosperous a Mr. Parnell's artificial command of the Irish party had not been destroyed. But for our own parts, we believe that before 1890 Mr. Parnell's ascendency bed been utterly under- mined for all the constituencies of Great Britain, and the anti-British charaete.r of his designs exposed. Sir Frank .eeltweol, in his epee,* en/y indicated the growing &ter,- mination of the Gladstonians to make their first fight on the subject of the voluntary schools ;—Delenda eat Carthago is to be translated into Gladstonese as "Down with the voluntary schools !" a war-cry which would have received extremely little sympathy from Mr. Gladstone himself. With their new war-cry Mr. Gladstone's retirement must seem to the Gladstonians quite a Godsend.
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