The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-07
The English Reform Bill and MIR. Glad
stone.


From the Times.
The latest dispatches show as yet no action
by the House of Commons on Mr.. Gladstone's
great measure, the Reform BILL scheme of
legislation so radical as this and so vitally i'm
portant ought to require time In its discussion.
II adopted, it forms revolution in English
politics, and England makes revolutions slowly.
Many of our readers are NO doubt puzzled as to
what the purpose and motive may be which
made Mr.. Gladstone to propose SO sweeping a
measure-whe ther he is demagogue, seeing
the future drift of affairs, and wishing to guide
it, or whether he truly desires to raise up the
working class and give it share In the Govern
ment of the kingdom.
To those who have watched English politics
and studied the character of the leaders in the
House of Commons, it need not be said that Mr..
Gladstone is genuine Liberal and a statesman,
with nothing OF the demagogue of his compost
ton. He has been gradually advancing in his
political theories to the most liberal standpoint,
moved no doubt by the currents of the age, as
every thoughtful mind must be, seeing their
drift, but sympathiZing each year more and
more with the great popular and democratic i'm
pulses OF the times. His generous and hearty
utterances two years since in regard to the heroic
bearing OF the workmen Of Lancashire during
the cotton famine speaking of the moral power,
the selt-restraint and subordination and iptelli-
gent understanding of the difficulties of the
British Government, they had shown ms surely
the pest 'Quallncat1OnS" 1Or the Suffrage; showed
a change OF sentiment which he and thousands
OF others were no doubt then feeling in regard
to the true quality of the British workingclass.
The quiet endurance and obedience to law and
the prlnclpled adherence to convictions, shown
by the cotton operatives during the crisis of our
war, not improbably convinced great numbers
in the kingdom, that such men were worthy OF
a share in the Government.
Mr.. Gladstone has studied for many years the
material and moral condition OF the British
working classes. No measures OF charity and
aid were ever devieed in the history of the king
| dom so well calculated to prevent pauperism
| and cultivate economy and prudence and thrift
| among the poor as his celebrated schemes of
| Government Assurance and Post-office Savings
| Banks. Mir. Gladstone knows better than any
public man what vast seething, explosive
| mass of poverty and ignorance is working be-
| meath the surface of English society. He breads
| the too long pressure on these pent-up evils.
| He may not improbably have brought before his
| imagination some great public crisis when the
life OF the nation should be IN danger; and this
| dangerous class at the bottom have the chance
-as the similar but much smaller class once had
| in New York-to clutch at the vast wealth which
was always glttering before their eyes, and to
| wIeak their malice and envy on the classes so
| far above them.
He has seen that England, with Jfoe-si1ths of
her population only possess O7lete1lh of the Gov
| ernment, was always in danger of revolution
| With the upper portion of the working class
| holding the suffrage, the lower or vagabond
part would be as easily restrained as in America,
| the monarchy or more properly British society
| from any fear of revolutionary outbreaks. He
| wishes also 10 do justice, to class which, like
| our Southern negroes, have shown the moral )if
| not the intellectually qualifications for suffrage.
| The course of events has seemed almost proVi-
| dentially to place Mr.. Gladstone at the head Of
| the Liberal party, and to force him, though the
representative Of the most conservative constitu-
| ency in Great Britain, to guide the great demo
| cratic reform of this century.
| His rejection by Oxford has undoubtedly
1 helped to emancipate him, and the death of
| Lord Palmerston has naturally left freer neld
| tor him as chiettain of the Liberal Reform
| Party,
| He has shown at once his wisdom and his
| boldness by the character of his bill which is
| even more liberal than the Relormers hoped for.
| Whatever objections will lie against this would
hold almost equally against more meagre act;
| the prejudices which the Tory party will feel
| and excite against this, they could against any
1 other; the opposition will be as strong to any
Isbill, while the discomfort will be worse and
| more bitter with narrower reform. With this
| successful, the Liberal party hold the Govern
ment in all probability, for the next generation.
Ifit be defeated they have only to begin agita-
| ton again.
The American war showed universal suffrage
| on trial All nations see that the North never
| could have put forth its gigantic efforts II the
working class had been DISTINGUISHED The
weakness of the South was in the fact that their
| working class was disahRected and revolutionary,