The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-15 00:00:00

OPINIONS ON THE DEFEAT OF THE

GOVERNMENT.

The Timed of Wednesday rays that the Irish University hill
tool course lost, though techui,ally, as Mr. Gladstone said, it
Is still to the heads ol the House. The second reading has not
been put off for six mouths; it was only remised for yesterday.
list its policy is distincUy negatived. Mr. Cat dwell's lemons
speech of Monday night came Leo late. His professions of
readiness to look upon all the provisions of the bill as
details which might be amended at the discretion of
Parliament definitely alienated the Roman Catholic vote,
and did not bring back to the Liberal told any sufficient
balance of diatruatful Liberals. The Government, in fact,
Mode their choice, or, rather, prod dined it too late. Tuey
saw ou Saturday that between Ultratuotitaiiism and Liberalism
there could be no rec,ncillatlon, and they resolved to longer
to attempt the impossible. Had they said so at the outset
of Monday's sitting, they might hove won last night by a
satisfactory if not by a glorious majoilty. As It was, they
have experienced a paint id defeat. the Government will
probably The Times adds, consider thetuselvea bound
to tender their resignation, though we cannot but hold
that retirement is in itself impossible, and the sugges-
tions which have been bruited snout of modifications
of the Ministry are so idle that they cannot be admitted
aa matter for public discussion. Politicians in holes
and cohere moy dream of a political play of hamlet" with
the character of Hamlet omitted, but no one of healthy
Judgment can gravely think of it as practicable.
The Ministry will, we trust, remain in office in its In-
tegrity, preparing during the rest of a pesalbly shortened
116aaion for that appeal to the constituencies which must be
accelerated by the event of last Dight, and gelling ride.
soon as poasible of the dream which has misled them. The
moral of the debate which ended last night is clearly this—
that Mr. Gladstone, Is his generous ambition, had attempted
to reconcile what wall irreconcilable,
- •

--.—
The Daily Netea says that the concessions proffered by
Mr. Cardwell and afterwards emphatically affirmed by Mr.
Gladstone, satiatled the Liberals, but off nded the U itramon-
tans party aid the division shows that the hitter with
their Conservative allies, have been the more powerful. The
alterations which enabled reformers to vote for the hill drove
the Irish members into opposition to it. In the meantime
,the News adds, the speeches of Mr. Cardwell arid Mr. Glad-
stone have amply justified our critleistvs on the tlli
as it stood ; aud it is not our taut if Ministers
have beeu wise too late, have imprudently embarked
their existence and honour in a vessel not capable
of bearing such a freight, and have raised a third-
rate question into one of confidence. the measure in its
original form time I at reconciling the irreconcLable. One
by (jne. each of its original proviet sic had to be surrendered.
the affiliation of the unnetined colleges; te Council of the
extended University : the absorption of the Queen's Univer-
sity : the abolition of Galway College; the various clauses
for ti e checking and taming down of edmatiou—all these
had to be declared not essential to the measure. In other
words, the Government surrendered on conditions; but it
was too late to retrieve their error, and the bill was lost
through a Tory and Ultraniontaue coalition, which we de-
pOre, but which It is impossible to blame.
The Leeds Mercury (Liberal and liiiisterinl) says :—We
are compelled to ask whether the tide of enthusiasm on
which Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues were borne into
office he completely expended itself—whether the time is at
hand when they ought t 3 retire to make way for another
Administration directly opposed to them on all great ques-
tions of public policy 1 It la by the country that the ques-
tion mmt be answered, and no satisfactory answer can, of
course, be obtained except by means of a general election.
Yet when we hear the sort of talk which is so common
among some classes of Liberals, both in and out of Parlia-
ment, we cannot but recognise the fact that there is some
danger that the cause of the Liberal G .vcruinent rosy be
given up by Us own ostensible supporters. Nothing has
been more common lately than fur some Liberals to talk
with pleasure of the pr, ,ptct of a return of the Conserva-
tives to power. The persons who talk in this way are not
le,s thoroughly llberal than they fnrineriy were ; hut they
have been bitten by the tempting notion that more can be
got out of a Conservative Government, holding office with a
minority in the house of Commons, than out of a Liberal
Goventment backed up by a hetervgeueous and In some
respects disunited majority. We may well remind those who
regard such a policy with favour that the Conservative
leaders are not likely to do anything for Lffieralism which
they can avoid doing, and nothing which would not be much
better done by the Liberals themselves.
The Birmingham Morning News ~Radical) says :—An ad.
verse majority of three against the second reading, although
small should be enough to ring the death-kmil of the G ad-
s one Administration if they were presumably honest In
their professions that they would stand or fall by the pet
project of their over cli.fident chief. When and where he
will next find himself and Ifs official brethren on the "crest
of the wave" is a quediou which must be determined by
greater experts in casuistry mad divination than we can pre-
teidl to be.
•-• • ••

The Bristol Poet (Liberal) says i—lt will be seen that the
defeat was brought about by the defection of the Irish
Liberal members, who denounced the bill because it was itit
acceptable to the R man Catholic clergy The bill really
gave the Irish Roman Catholics as close& positim of equality
with l•rotestanta as it was p"ssible for them to take. The
Roman Ca,holic bishops may be assured that they will never
agate have such chance of righting their grievances as this
bill afforded them.