The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-10 00:00:00

"Sincerely yours,
(Signed) "W. E. GLADSTONE.
"Right Ron. A. J. Balfour, M.P."

"My dear Mr. Gladstone,—l have shown your last
letter to Lord Salisbury.
"He desires me to express his great sense of the
courteous and conciliatory spirit in which it is written.
It suggests, however, a communication of the views of
the Government, which at this stage would be at
va,riance with usage. As Parliament will meet for
business before the usual time, he thinks it better to
avoid a departure from the ordinary practice which
might be misunderstood.—Your truly,
"ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR!'

(Most Private.)
" Hawarden Castle, Chester, Jan. 5,188 G.
"My dear Balfour,—l entirely agree with you and
Lord Salisbury on the subject of any communication
of the intention of Ministers respecting Ireland to
me. If my note appeared to convey any suggestion
to that effect. it was quite opposed to my intention.
"Believe me, sincerely yours,
(Signed) "W. E. GLADSTONIi."

Mr. Balfour has since addressed the following let-
ter to Mr. Gladstone :

"4, Carlton-gardens, London, July 1, 1886.
"My dear Mr. Gladstone,—A letter purporting to
be from you to me has just been brought to my
notice in the Times newspaper. Though I have not
as yet received the original I presume the copy is
correct, and hasten therefore to answer it.
"I do not know whether I am to interpret the first
sentence of your letter as taking exception to the
course I have pursued with regard to the correspon-
dence to which it refers. I should be deeply con-
cerned if this was the case. But I may state that I
kept its very existence a profound secret, except from
my colleagues, and the narrowest personal circle,
until you made public allusion to it in a speech de-
livered (I think) at Edinburgh. I readily accept,
however, your invitation to publish an account of
our short conversation at Eaton, together with the
series of letters to which it gave rise,' that no further
misconception may be possible.

"I do not know which of the statements you -refer
to as appearing in the Daily Telegraph of June 28th
! seems to you inaccurate. But I presume, from the
extract you send me from Lord Randolph Churchill's
speech of March 4th, that the observation to which
you take exception is the following, being the only one
with which Lord Randolph's remarks would appear
to have any relation:
" There was nothing in that letter' (meaning your
first letter to me) to indicate what scheme Mr. Glad-
stone was prepared to support, and the words used,
taken by themselves and without the commentary
supplied by Mr. Herbert Gladstone's indiscretions,
would have covered a policy of coercion as well as a
.policy of Home Rule.'
"The correspondence now published, I venture to
think, bears this out. If I assumed, without hesita-
tion, that your expression settlement of the whole
question of the future government of Ireland' re-
ferred to a policy of Home Rule, it was not so much
on account of its less ambiguous character as in
consequence of the elucidations furnished by the un-
authorised rumour which appeared in the Leeds
Mercury.
• " Trusting that the brief accounts I have given of
the conversation at Eaton may agree with your recol-
lections, I beg to remain, sincerely yours,
"ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.
." P.S.—Of course, in the circumstances, I send
this letter directly to the newspapers.
"The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone."

Mr. Gladstone, in reply to the Central News
Agency, has telegraphed as follows: "I am not able
to accept Mr. Balfour's account as by any means
accurate, if my memory can be trusted, but I do not
enter on details, as I am quite satisCed to rest on the
correspondence of December, except that the word
`our' in my first letter seems to be a misprint for
(my.'"