The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-15 00:00:00

THE CONGREGATIONAL UNION AND

THE NEW PARLIAMENT.
At the meeting of the Congregational Union on Tuesday
the following resolution was unanimously adopted :

- -
That the Assemby; having felt constrained once
and again to condemn the foreign policy of the late
Government as dishonourable and unrighteous, and to
censure its reactionary tendencies in domestic pglitics,
specially in regard to questions connected with edu-
cation and religion, rejoices in the results of the recent
general election. The Assembly regards the verdict
of the constituencies as conclusive evidence that the
country not only disapproves, but resents the
use which has lately been made of English
power in European diplomacy, and in the aggressive
wars waged in India and South Africa, and gratefully
recognizes the complete harmony of that verdict with
the repeated and uniform testimony borne by the
i
Congregational Union n common with other Non-
conformist bodies. The assembly records its satisfac-
tion that there are in the new Parliament BO many
members, including a considerable number of Con-
gregationalists, who are intelligent and consistent ad-
vocates of religious equality; and, while heartily ap-
proving of the reserve maintained by Nonconformists
at the late elections in regard to their peculiar ques-
tions, it expresses the hope that the new Parliament
will promptly grant the redress of the grievances of
i
which Nonconformists have hitherto n vain complained,
and that substantial progress will be made towards
just and sound legislation on all questions affecting
religion and the churehes. The Assembly further hails
with inexpressible satisfaction the recall of Mr. Glad-
stone to the office of Prime Minister. The over•
whelming majority of Liberal members returned to
the House of Commons was, under God, whose hand
the Assembly desires devoutly to acknowledge, the
of the nation to pi C704110'5 flopto:04)
1114 tome; and thy Anaetn y kin

to power as a guarantee of a new legislative and ad-
ministrative era, in which, alike at home and abroad,
the authority and influence of the English Govern-
ment will be found on the side of liberty, righteous-
nese, and peace.

THE OXFORD ELECTION-THE
VERDICT REVERSED.
Amid great excitement, the result of the polling at
Oxford was declared on Saturday evening, the num-
bers being as follows :
Mr. A. W. Hall •.• ... 2,735
Sir William Harcourt ••• •.. ... 2,681

In noticing the above result, The Times in a leader
remarks :—'The unanimity with which the constitu-
encies at what may be called the supplementary elec-
tions have given their approval to the choice of
Ministers by the Crown has been broken at Oxford.
The electors of that academic city have changed their
minds within less than five weeks, and have taken
advantage of the vacancy created by Sir William
Harcourt's acceptance of • office to send Mr. Hall
back to the House of Qommons in his rival's
place. At the beginning of last month Sir William
Harcourt was returned at the head of the poll for
Oxford with 2,771 votes; Mr. Chitty, Q.C., the second
Liberal candidate, obtained 2,669 votes; and Mr. Hall,
who had represented the Conservative part of the con-
stituency since Lore Cardwell's elevation to the
peerage in 1874, was left out in the cold with 2,659
votes. In the interval there has been no change in the
relations of political parties or in the conditions of the
most important problems in politics. The Ministry
which Mr. Gladstone has formed, and in which Sir
William Harcourt holds a prominent place, does not
differ in any of its visible qualities from that which, it
must be supposed, the majority of the electors of
Oxford desired to place in power when they voted a few
weeks ago for the Liberal candidates. Sir William
Harcourt by his energetic and effective champion-
ship of the Liberal cause during reoent years was
marked out for office, and it might have been said that
the electors of Oxford has just cause for complaint if,
upon a change of Ministry, their senior member had
not been brought into the Cabinet. Nevertheless,
when Mr. Gladstome selects Sir William Harcourt for
one of the most important of the Cabinet offices, and
when, in compliance with the Act of Queen Anne,
the newly-appointed Minister seek re-election, his
constituents deliberately reverse their former verdict.
On Saturday the electors of Oxford gave Mr. Hall
2,735 votes and Sir William Harcourt only 2,681.
The Conservative candidate had thus 76 votes more
*than he polled last month, and the Liberal 90 votes
less. This unexpected shifting of public opinion will
tend to confirm the theories of those who have de-
clared the movements of large democratic consti-
tuencies to be incalculable" . . .

The Paris Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says:—
" The Parlemsnt considers Sir William Harcourt's defeat at
Oxford as a severe check to the Lliberal Ministry. It points
out that whereas the Conservative majority under Lord
Beaconsfield only lost four seats at the bye elections in six
years, the Gladstone Cabinet has lost a seat before even
being definitely constituted. The Parlement, in a thoroughly
French spirit, asks whether the system of re-electing
Ministers does not belong to the category of historical tradi-
tions which ought to be relinquished; and, proceeding in
the same strain a political doctrine, says, 'it is manifestly
unfair for one constituency to have the power of inflicting a
defeat on a policy which enjoys the confidence of the
country, and of impeding the formation of a new Cabinet.'"

MR. GLADSTONE AND THE AUSTRIAN
GOVERNMENT.
The following despatch has been addressed to Sir Henry
Elliot, Her Majesty's Ambassador at Vienna, enclosing copy
of a letter from the Right Hot. W. E. Gladstone to Count
:-
"Earl Granville to Sir H. Elliot.
"Foreign Office, May 6, 1880.
" forward to your Excellency, by Mr. Glad-
stone's request, a copy of a letter written in conse-
quence of previous oral and written communications
with Count KArolyi.—l am, &c., GRANVILLE."

(Enclosure.)
Mr. Gladstone to Count Kirolyi.
"London, May 4, 1880.
"Dear Count Kirolyi,—l thank your Excellency
for your letter, which, uniting frankness with kind-
ness, renders my task an easy one.
"Without discussing the accuracy of certain ex-
pressions in the report you have forwarded, I proceed
at once to the subjct. At the moment when I
accepted from the Queen the duty of forming an
Administration I forthwith resolved that I would
not, as a Minister, either repeat or even defend in
argument polemical language in regard to more than
one foreign Power which I had used individually
when in a position of greater freedom and less respon-
sibility.

"Two points have been raised by your Excellency.
I will dispose of the first by expressing my regret
that I should even -hAve seemed to impute to his
Imperial Majesty language which he did not use.
"Your Excellency says that his Imperial Majesty
expressed, in conversation with Sir H. Elliot, his
deep regret at my hostile disposition towards Austria.'
Permit me to say I have no such dispositions towards
any country whatever, and that I at all times have
particularly and heartily wished well to Austria in
the performance of the arduous task of consolidating
the Empire. I feel a cordial respect for the efforts of
the Emperor, and I trust that their complete success
may honourably and nobly mark his reign.
"With respect to ray animadverrlione on the foreing
policy of Austria at times when it was active beyond the
borders, I will not conceal from your Excellency that
grave apprehensions had been excited in my mind lest
Austria should play a part in the Balkan Peninsula
hostile to the freedom of the emancipated populations,
and to the reasonable and warranted hopes of the
subjects of the Sultan. • _These apprehensions were
founded, it is true, upon secondary evidence, but it
was not the evidence of hostile witnesses, and it was
the best at my command.
"Your Excellency is now good enough to assure me
that your Government has no desire whatever to ex-
tend or add to the rights it has acquired under the
Treaty of Berlin, and that any such extension wild
be actually prejudicial to Austria-Hungary.
"Permit me at once to state to your Excellency
that, had I been in possession of such an assurance as
I have now been able to receive I never would have
uttered any one of the words which your Excellency
justly describes as of a painful and wounding cha-
racter. Whetter it was my misfortune or my fault
that I was not so supplied I will not now attempt to
determine, but will at once express my serious concern
that I should, in default of it, have been led to refer
to transactions of an earlier period, or to use terms of
censure which I can now wholly banish frpm my mind.

"I think that the explanation I now tender should
be made not less public than the speech which has
supplied the occasion for it, and as to the form of such
publicity I desire to accede to whatever may be ynnr
Excellency's wish. I have only to thank your
Excellency alike for the matter and the manner both
of your oral and of your writteß communications.—
With &c., W. E. GLADSTOrdt."

In a leader commenting upon Mr. Gladstone's
letter, The Times remarks :

The correspondence which has passed between the Prime
Minister and the Austrian Ambassador in this country is
probably without a precedent in the annals of modern diplo-
macy. It is, indeed, far from desirable that the occasion
should frequenty arise for such apologetic explanations as Mr.
Gladstone offers to Count Kirolyi in the letter we publish
this morning. During his electoral campaign in Mid Lothian
Mr. Gladstone claimed for himself, and abundantly used, a
freedom of treatment in dealing with political questions,
both foreign and domestic, which has not been customary in
the case of statesmen likely to become reponsible in their
own persons for the conduct of public affairs. It has been
assumed too lightly that this controversial liberty and all
Its consequences may be consigned to oblivion now that the
strife is over and the Liberals have driven their rivals from
power. But this is not in all respects possible, as Mr.
Gladstone has practically recognised by his letter to
the Austrian Ambassador. The language which Mr.
Gladstone used before the Mid Lothian electors in re-
gard to Austria—and, indeed, as he says himself, "in
regard to more than one foreign Power "—was not under-
stood upon the Continent to belong to the irresponsible
polemics of electioneering. It was felt that if the Liberal
party were victorious, hardly any one but Mr. Gladstone
could be at the head of the new Government. Sovereigns
and statesmen asked themselves, not unreasonably, what
Mr Gladstone's denunciation of Austria signified. There had
been cordial good will and a close agreement as to the ends
and means between the English and Austrian Governments
for nearly two years, founded, as was universally believed,
upon a common determination to carry out and main-
tain, in the letter and the spirit, the provisions of the
Treaty of Berlin. When Mr. Gladstone declared that "Austria
had ever been the unflinching foe of freedom in every coun-
try," when he affirmed that there was not a spot upon the
whole map where one could lay one's finger and say "There
Austria has done good," when he contended that at the
Cciiigress Austrian influence had been opposed to the
extension of freedom, when he quoted against the Constitu-
tional Monarchy of the Emperor Francis Joseph the bygone
misdeeds of the autocratic empire of fifty years ago and its
.enmities to the young nationalities of Greece and Belgium, he
was dealing with Austrian policy as in substance the same as the
policy of Lord Beaconsfield. In fact, he called upon the
electors of Mid Lothian to give their votes for his opponent
"if they waited to have an Austrian foreign policy domi-
nant in the councils of this country." From these strong
statements the inference was drawn abroad that Mr. Glad-
stone was not only unfriendly to Austria, but iliat if he re-
turned to power he would use his authority to draw England
away from co operating as she had recently done with the
Austrian Government for the maintenance of the Berlin
settlement.

The defeat of the Conservative Government anll Mr.
Gladstone's recall to office were, therefore, regarded with
doubtful feelings by the Austrian Govcrnment. It was de-
sirable, since, as we now know, an inexact construction had
been placed upon Mr. -Gladstone's sharply accentuated and
highly-coloured language, that the ambiguity should be
cleared up. This was the more necessary because, we believe,
Count 10.rolyi, the Ambassador of Austria at the Court of St.
Jam,ees, had felt the difficulty of appearing either to ignore
or to take formal notice of Mr. Gladstone's words. The
language used in Mid Lcthian was, to say the least,
open to an interpretation which might be resented by a
sensitive guardian of the national honour of Austria, and, if
left without withdrawal or explanation, must have rendered
,jr. Gladstone's intercourse with Count Karolyi unpleasant
to both parties. At the same time it was clear that any inter-
ruption of the diplomatic relations between thetwo countries,
and any change
for
elivleon o b
thery repaesrsontalre deprecated.
o
London, Count
Austria n
ilyi
w
has held in his hands the threads of, most important and
complicated negotiations during a critical period, and his
retirement would have given the rein to disquieting and
baseless conjectures, attributing to the one State or the
other a sudden change of policy or an unwise display of
temPer• Fortunately, the difficulty has been ended by
the complete and gracefully worded amende which Mr.
Gladstone has made. Nevertheless, the form of the
prime
-me Minister's explanation shows how inexpedient it
is that there should ever have been any occasion for
Mr. Gladstone disclaims, in the most emphatic
mit.ane 1-, the "hostile dispositions "towards Austria at which
- od
ewell
ve o
manner,
heard that the Emperor Francis Joseph has ex-
regret;if
syhme
sympathized
ioznedtlwieithcohietr Constitutional
satlfwatyf always wished p
not
meat. But f he looks back upon what he said in Mid
Lothian,
Austriash-siaeasdnhe But
anean feel surprise that other people, and wipe-
ciaUythe AUStrIVIS themselves, have taken a different
We do not doubt, however, that Mr. Gladstone's dis-
avowal will be frankly accepted by the Emperor of
tr et
Austria, the 111Striall Ambassador, and the people of the
Austro_llungarian kingdom. We cannot praise too highly
the resolution of the Prime Minister not to be led into
"defending in argument " " terms of censure which," he
adds, " I can now wholly banish from my mind." It is well
that Mr. Gladstone ia able thus readily to dismiss the ra-
h,/ inaly
VeTbranO° of A"-g!rds BUT it it i-TitlZ
Creg
U of a painful and yro