The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-06-18 00:00:00

TWO VIEWS OF THE LIBERAL
SITUATION.

The Earl of Rosebery presided on Tuesday night at
a "house dinner," held at the London City Liberal
Club.

The toast of "The Houses of Parliament" having
been reached, _ _ _ _

The Chairman, in replying for the Upper House,
said that if he were to vindicate the Assembly to
which he belonged by its legislative achievements for
the present year, he should find himself in a difficulty
from which the most sophistical rhetorician, however
"inebriated with the exuberance of his own ver-
bosity," could hardly extricate himself. They had
been for the last two months very laboriously at-
tempting to hatch an addled egg, because he did not
suppose that any partisan of the present Government,
however hardened he might be, would describe the
Irish Land Bill of the present Government as any-
thing but an egg in that nnpleasant position. Look-
ing to the House of Commons, they found in his
opinion, one of the most deplorable spectacles that
. could meet the eye of a patriot. They saw a Govern-
ment which they would wish should be strong,
for all wished a British Government to be strong,
leaning for its existence—to use a metaphor which was
not his own, nor was it a Liberal metaphor—on a
crutch which might at any moment be removed, and
therefore was not in that position of stability in
which they should wish to see the Government of this
country. He deplored it, especially on the ground
that whether they called themselves Liberals,
Radicals, or Whigs, Unionists or Separatists, or by
any other name which political jargon or political
cant had invented to separate and divide those who
ought never to be separated, all wished the Govern-
ment to be a strong one. He regretted that there
should be a Government, resting not on a majority
of the House of Commons, but on a temporary and
insecure connection with a section of the House of
Commorrs. The Liberal party was divided into
broad Bees in regard to the policy relating
to Ireland, but a line not so broad, in his
opinion, as was generally supposed. He could
not help being somewhat inspired by the
recollection of a name under the auspices of which
they were assembled. The name of the City Liberal
Club made him think with some regret of the division
which the Liberal party was undergoing at the pre-
sent moment. They must not mistake him. He was
not one of those who said that we had arrived at
the "parting of the ways." He did not believe
it, and be did not think that they were the
friends of the Liberal party who told that party
that they were bound to be separated for ever. His
lordship then referred to what he understood
were the opinions of an old City Liberal—who
was an ardent supporter of the great Reform Bill and
other measures. But they were told that the City
Liberal, and men like him in position and tendency
held aloof now from that particular section of the
party to which he (the speaker) belonged, and which
he ventured to call the Liberal party. (Cheers.) He
could not help regretting the estrangement of the
City Liberal. He regretted it for the City Liberal
himself, because it must be difficult for him not to
find himself in an extremely false position. He
(Lord Rosebery) had always taken a great pride in
the rich variety of the Liberal party. He had never
wished to see it either a class or a mass. He had
always thought it derived its strength from the fact
that it had two wings—one the extreme wing which,
generally speaking, found the ideas of the party, and
the other the less extreme wing, which, from its high
character, great ability, and great administrative ex-
perience, was an invaluable portion of that party. If
that less extreme wing was to hold aloof so long that
its reunion became impossible, that wing would lose
much, and the Liberal party would lose much also.
He did not believe any such division would take place.
He had already said elsewhere that in his opinion this
was not a favourable moment to reunite the several sec-
tions of the Liberal party. He did not think that this
year was destined to be the jubilee of the Liberal party
—(laughter)—but he was certain that the Liberal
party would be re-united. (Cheers.) He was cer-
tain that it would re-unite it for this reason alone--
that the nation would not allow it to be disunited.
It would not to:orate the disunion of the party to
which it had always looked for all human progress.
He did not say they would have the pleasure of re-
ceiving back all those who had left them, but he
firmly believed that the great mass of the party would
bo re-united in some way or other. They must re-
member that they were only divided by the question
of the policy pursued towards Ireland. He did not
know what was the real remedy for the wrongs of
Ireland, and be did not know the right way of
governing Ireland; but he had a conviction that we
never had applied the right way. That might be a
negative belief, but it was a belief, in which the whole
Liberal party was united. If they really wished for
re-union they could cherish the idea of union, and re-
frain from any unnecessary language which might
endanger that re-union. (Cheers.)
Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, on rising to respond
to the toast of his health at a dinner given in his
honour by the Liberal Union in London on Tuesday
night, thanked the company for the cordial reception
accorded him, which he regarded more in the nature
of a compliment to their cause than as a compliment
to himself. They were there as opposed to the Sepa-
ratist faction which usurped the right to speak in the
name of the nation. They did not believe in a policy
of surrender, which would imperil the best interest of
the country. By their action they had secured time
for discussion and reflection, and that delay had done
much to open the eyes of the people to the true
objects and methods of the conspirators—(cheers)—
who sought to unmake England, and to extract from
the fears of statesmen concessions that ihey never
could have obtained through hn appeal to their reason.
(Hear, hear.) He rejoiced that the signs of the times
were favourable; and if be might venture to parody
an expression which had been used of late, the game
of lawlessness and disorder is up at last. (Hear,
bear, and laughter.) They saw on the part of the
public a daily inereasing intolerance of the men wham
Mr. Gladstone had accepted as his allies, and whom
he represented in all sincerity as converts to con-
stitutional and party methods. (Laughter.) But in
view of the lamentable failure of their agitation,
they had shown themselves in their true colours as
the irreconcilable foes of the British connection.
(Cheers.) They could not but recognise at last the
strained relations which were becoming apparent
between the Gladstonian Liberals and their Irish
auxiliaries in consequence of their present obstructive
tactics. He for his part thought the Government
exercised a very wise discretion in giving full scope
to the Opposition—(laughter)—and in allowing them
to carry to the utmost length a policy which unfortu-
nately had had the sanction of some of the Liberal
leaders. But at last the Opposition had filled up the
measure, and had aroused the slow but sure indigna-
tion of the democracy, indignant at the treason
which would bring into disrepute the great instru-
ment of democratic authority, and they had at last
brought their associates to appreciate the danger and
inexpediency of the course to which they had hastily
committed themselves. (Cheers.) Accordingly, in
the last few days the Government majorities had in-
creased in each successive division as one by. one
the leaders of the Gladstonian section and all that
was respectable of the party--(laughter)—had slipped
away behind the Speaker's chair—(laughter)—afraid
to sanction by their votes the policy to which they had
given the support of their speeches. (Cheers.) He
thought it was a matter for sincere congratulation
that there were lengths to which Gladstonian
Liberals would not be dragged, and that the more
moderate and more intelligent among them were
becoming tired of marching through Coventry at the
heels of Dr. Tanner and Mr. Labouchere. (Laughter
and cheers.) He would not say that the danger which
had recently confronted them had entirely disap-
peared, but at least it was less imminent than it was.
(Cheers.) All the reports which he received from the
constituencies confirmed the impression which he
derived from his visit to Scotland—(cheers)—and
even more, perhaps, from the result of the St.
Austell election—(cheers)--that the confidence which
two years ago was universally felt by the Liberal party
in the judgment and patriotism of Mr. Gladstone had
been rudely shaken, and now men were everywhere
examining his policy on its merits—(hear, hear)—and
in the light of that examination the issue which divi-
ded them were every day becoming more clear and
more definite. (Hear, hear.) They had only to
maintain their organisation and continue to assert
their principles, and victory complete and final,
awaited their efforts—(cheers)—while their oppo-
nents would have to find what compensation they
could, failing the support of the British constituencies,
in the sympathy of that portion of the civilised world
—(laughter)—which was controlled by the Irish vote,
and which anticipated with ill-disguised satisfaction
the ruin and the dishonour of England. (Cheers.)
Mr. Gladstone having, in his last speeches, alluded
to Lord Hartineton in the matter of negotiation,
might be retorted upon him (Mr. Chamberlain) if he
now said anything on the matter, that he was not con-
cerned in it. (Laughter,) He was glad that he was
to be relieved of any further responsibility for nego-
tiation. Lord Hartington had now been appealed to,
and he, (Mr. Chamberlain) had every confidence
in him. The Irish policy which two years ago '
Mr. Gladstone had declared was necessary
for Ireland had been abandoned. The Unionists
had knocked the bottom out of the proposal for a full
and final satisfactory settlement of the Irish question.
(Laughter and cheers.) The Land Bill was the first
to depart—" unwept, unlsonoured, and unsung ''—
(laughter)—and its principle had been repudiated.
He submitted at the Round Table conference an
alternative plan for abolishing the dual ownership of
land without involving the credit of the British
nation. Mr. Gladstone had since admitted that it was
tpho s
Si bt
al et
eto o
raebdoi lt s h
rrhdualat ownership rssohpmi
and something in the nature of a feather in the cap
e wwhi
at ht o
satisfactory
spflaeodtgoivnyg,
of the Liberal Unionists. The object of the Irish
Home Rulers was nothing less than the entire and
absolute independence of that country. It was not
on terms such as those that an honourable peace
(Mr. Chamberlain)
would prefer to keep his neck
icnovuoldl
vebde
tahrerivaeodoeantian If toof otbhtaainpa Larneiblleitras
ymoakjeo,rintye
free. He would object to accept an alliance which
that before long the bulk of the Gladstonian
teovetizodsnaywhwoashbaedcosomihnasgtmilyorse gooeapltleing dita.nd
Hinstotlreorastbelde
eeirmvaemstbeeffraorotfs
and
Liberals would return to thoene.forts.
(Laughter.)
I n
o positiono nol cs
ioounl h
eno t b
Liberal Union on the e
congratulated
success h aopf
tt yhh

on the prospects of the future. The Democracy had
only recently been installed in the seat of power, and
it had been subjected to a severe ordeal. Mr. Burke
once said that when the people had a feeling they were
commonly in the right, but that they sometimes mis-
took the physician. The instincts of the people
throughout this great discussion had been true and
just—(cheers)—and if some of them had mistaken
the physician they had been led away by feelings
which did th3m honour; by gratitude for past and
exemplary services, by sympathy with suffering, by
hatred of oppression. (Cheers.) Even these natural
and worthy sentiments had not caused the vast
majority to give any countenance to the policy which
would disregard the obligations of public morality and
national honour, and which would break up the
splendid fabric of national unity which was our great
and sound guarantee for the lives and liberties of all
the subjects of the Queen.