The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-06-12 00:00:00

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1886.

THE DEFEIT OF MINISTERS.

THE sitting of the House of Commons which
commenced at the usual hour on Monday
and continued until an hour of Tuesday
morning had passed will be long remembered
as one on which the eyes of the nation were
eagerly turned. A year ago—to the day—
Mr. Gladstone's second Government had
met its death by an adverse vote of 'the
House on the Budget; again a Ministry,
marshalled under the lead of the veteran
statesman, stood at a crisis, dependent upon
the issue of a division. The long debate,
with which the Session has been well-nigh
exclusively exhausted, as to whether the
United Kingdom should concede to Ireland
the right to govern herself after her own
heart, was, it was known, to conclude
with the sitting of the 7th Jane, and
all the Whipping machinery of parties
had been strung to its utmost tension to
bring members together in force to decide
the question. Never was such a House before
The division was the heaviest on record.
Members came from the sick chamber and
from the house of mourning at their country's
call. Thirteen only who might have voted
did not. Three of these were ill, the re-
mainder kept out of the lobbies designedly.
There were none but deliberate absentees.
And the question had been an engrossingone.
Every member of prominence has said his
say concerning it. The debate has had to
the country an added interest because its
progress has disclosed a split in the camp of
a great political party. The Government
brought in a bill designed to deal liberally
with the great Irish problem which has so
' long been Great Britain's sorest puzzle. It's
measures were too bold for all the Whig
wing of Liberalism, and not satisfactory to
Radicals of the Chamberlain school. Need-
less to add that the whole bill was labelled
obnoxious by the members of the Conserva-
tive party. But Mr. Gladstone's most mil-
itant and heaviest opponents were men who
had hitherto ranged themselves beneath his
banner. Mr. Chamberlain and his folowing
did their utmost to secure a Government
defeat ; Mr. Trevelyaia, lately of Cabinet
rank, was with him. The eloquence of such
Liberals e high note as Sir Henry James,
Lord Hartington, and Mr. Gosche was em-
ployed not for but against Mr. Gladstone;
and the Conservative leaders were stregth-
ened correspondingly in their resolve to
throw out the bill. On Monday night Mr.
Goschen was at his best in refuting the
leader of the party with which he has been
identified. "You will tear up your letter of
love to Ireland ere the ink is dry," said the
eminent financier-statesman, in his heavy
onslaught upon Ministers. Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach, speaking for his party, de-
nounced the bill in consistent and powerful
language. Mr. Parnell pleaded forcefully
for justice to :Ireland, and the affirmation
of the measure before the House. Then, at
near midnight, Mr. Gladstone rose to con-
clude the debate by one of the ablest flights
of oratory of his long career of eloquence.
But all in vain ; the House refused to listen
this time tolthe voice which so often charmed
it, and would have none of the Government
Bill. Thirty members in excess of those
who went into the "Ayes" lobby recorded
their dissent, and so the Government of
Ireland Bill received its quietus amid a
scene of strange excitement. The result was
due, of course, entirely to the inability of the
Marquis of Hartington and Mr. Chamber-
lain and those of their thinking to see with
Gladstonian eyes. It is certain, however,
that the question of autonomy for Ireland
will be the most prominent one at St.
Stophen's—the defeat of this measure not.
withstanding—for months to come. The
Nationalist party, now so large iu num-
ber, will be able to make the Parliamentary
situation altogether untenable unless the
House heeds their voices, and he would be a
bold man who will surmise they will sit still
and allow Imperial business to progress it:
Ireland has not her full share of the atten-
tion of Parliament. Doubtless it was an
appreciation of the block which was immin-
ent which induced Mr. Gladstone to make
such a strenuous attempt to close his legis-
lative careee by settling the Irish question.
But the measure failed to win the approval
of Parliament. What is the result ? Mr.
Gladstone will appeal from Parliament to
the people and the nation will have to de-
cide on his proposals. It is lamentable that
this should be the case. Why could not this
Irish business, which has undergone no
change of appearance for many months,
have been submitted as a test question to
candidates in the autumn and .early winter
past ? The Board of Trade returns recently
issued point to no signs of reviving trade ;
and the prospect of ancther prolonged tur-
moil will cerlminly retard recovery from the
prevalent commercial depression. But the
matter must now be faced. Mr. Gladstone
has made his dutiful communication to her
Majesty, and dissolution is imminent. Voters
must ere long speak the country's mind on
the direct issue, and we trust the ballot will
be made use of in a thoroughly thoughtful
and patriotic wanner, The broad defining
line between Liberal and Conservative will
be lost sight of often in the contest and
the fight to be fought between Gladstomans
and anti-Gladstonians. May the result be in
the end for the wisest and best, and whether
the general election usher in a Whig, a
Constitutional, or a Coalition Cabinet, or
whether the Country so endorses Mr. Glad-
stone's actions as to cause his Administration
to continue in office, we trust the legislation
of the future will have the speedy effect of
securing the —on a permanent footing
peace, prosperity, and order in the sister isle
We want no more of those terrible moon-
light murders and awful agrarian outrages
111C11 have in the past occurred, neither do
eisii for a revival of the dynamite reign
of Lei ref.. Ltet right and peace prevail.