New-York tribune., 1870-05-24
BLIND-MAN',S BUFF.

Our English cousins have suffered grievOus
disappointment in Mr.. GladstOnc's Cabinet.
With Indian budgets or Emigration schemes,
or even that maddening sum in Fractions
which Ireland has set for her owners since the
DAYS of Brien BOroO, these half-dOzen respect
able middle-aged gentlemen have proved them
selves well able to grapple. These established
difficulties are vital and cherished part of
the national system. They have that most
precious ancient and mildewed smell which
marks them as the hereditary belongings of
the sea-girt isle. John Bull as we all know,
clings devOutly to every rag or relic that iden-
tifies Linn with himself. He bedecks himself
now in his grave solid old age with the same
absurd gewgaws of mace and beef-eaters and
gold-sticks in waiting with which he was
tlicked out in his barbarous youth, before his
schooling had well begun and in like manner
palters with and doctors his starving paupers
and turbulent Irish with grim cOmpacency,
as old NOl the warts on his nose, or valetu-
dinarian his pet diseases, as signs by which
he may be known of all men. Mr.. GladstOne's
colleagues, with all other Englishmon, were
educated from their cradles to comprehend
these matters.
day, brought before them a bill of dozen little
words which suggested difficulty heretofore
unknown to Englsbmen, and by which the sun
and moon were shaken in their places and
Nature itself was upset. The Ministry stood
aghast, and through Mr.. Secretary Bruce cried
out breathlessly for time until they should
abe prepared to understand the matter and to
"express an opinion" The bill was for Suffrage
for Women. But Mr.. Bright cOntrived to make it
mysterious and melOdramatic as any stage
trick. The pill, as he administered it, was not
only nauseOus, but too large for any masculine
throat to swallow. " In acts relating to quail
fcaton and voting of Parliamentary electors,
"masculine gender to include females" There
it is. That is all. But what an all No
wonder that the Ministry paused before the
Oracuar utterance, their hands upon their brows,
and driveled idiotically for time" according to
the impatient reformes. What did it meant
1t was not so hard to repeat this Abracadabra
after Mr.. Bright; but what sort of an unclean
spirit was to be raised by it Not man, and
assuredly not woman. For female voters Stu
art Mill had prepared their minds long ago !;
with women lecturers they were familiar even
the American wild woman was known to them
as a no longer fabulous creature i'm far-Off bar
barous regions But this bill vaguely threat
ems annihilation, or swift inexOrable transmit
grafton to all womankiDd the Gladstone Cab
met are surely not TO be blamed, if each man,
wildly graphing his own wife and daughters
at home, cried out for breathing space before
the potent spell was put to work. "What all
"my pretty chickens and their dam At one
"fcll swOOpp
We feel, of course, that proper enlightened
contempt for these dull old gentlemen beitting
our advanced position in the progress of the
age. And yet we cannot deny them our SYM
pathy in their pathetic bewilderment, as to
what their wives and daughters were eventu-
ally to become. We, too, in our glOOmier
moods, perchance have felt the same. Our
last mails represent the Ministry, headed by
Mr.. Secretary Bruce, still blndly cropping for
the escaping Woman who is to be found in
none of the old familiar places. II there were
any such thing 10 spiritual guano " quicken