The New York herald., 1872-04-24
l Defeat OF tho Gladstone Ministry
AntIcipated-A Dissoluti0n Expected.

A Defeat or tho Gladstone Ministry
AntIoipated-A Dissolution Expected.
According to the London Daily Nesos, usu-
ally well informed paper on Cabinet ques-
tons, there is a probability that before the
close of next week the Gladstone Cabinet will
be dissolved and succeeded by a conservative
Ministry, and that general election for men,
bers of Parliament will take place during the
latter part of the summer. 'It is certain +"
adds the Necs, ''that the government will be
defeated in the House Of Commons when a
division occurs on Mr.. Fawcett's bill relative
to the University of Dublin, which the govern
ment has made Cabinet question"
In spite of the Daily Nesos we must be al
lowed to say that this piece of intelligence
comes to us in rather questionable shape. II
the Gladstone Cabinet, in consequence of some
fresh and damaging defeat, gives place to one
composed of its conservative rivals, dissolu-
ton of Parliament and general election will
be equally unnecessary. 1t has not hitherto
been the custom in England to dis
solve Parliament when Ministers, recognizing
defeat, have resigned to the Crown
their seals Of Office and yielded up their places
to their opponents. In the event of the Glad
stone Ministry being defeated it is not at all
impossible that the Prime Minister may feel
himself in honor bound to regard the defeat
as proof that he has lost the confidence of
the House of Commons. In such case there
will be two courses open to him. He may re-
sign, thus giving place to Mr.. Disrael or Lord
Derby or whomsoever Her Majesty may think.
fit to call to her aid. In such case there
will be no dissolution of Parliament-at least
not Immediately. Or he may advise Her Ma
jesty to dissolve Parliament and thus give him
an opportunity to ascertain whether the House
of Commons as at present composed fairly
represents the sentiments of the people of the
three kingdoms. Should the newly elected
members fail to give him clear working ma
jority in the House, Mr.. Gladstone, following
established custom, would have no choice but
and resign. Such hitherto has been the prac-
tice; and nothing has occurred in recent years
to warrant the opinion that the ancient consti-
tutional custom is about to be departed from.
If it is meant that Mr.. Gladstone is about to
retire in order to give the tories the oppor-
tunity or to place upon them the necessity of
appealing to the country, we can hardly admit
that the statement Of the case is much i'm
proved.
AT the same time it must be admitted that
this report, taken in connection with we'll
known facts, encourages us in the belief that
L
itical parties in England. Mr. Gladstone and
his friends have now been in place and power
for three and half years During that time
they have done some good work. 1t is not
often that on administration can boast Of car
rying two such measures as the disestablish-
ment Of the Church in Ireland and the radical
alteration of the Irish system Of land tenure.
No such radical measures have been under
taken and carried through since Earl
Grey and his friends, in opposition to
the wishes Of the tory gentry Of Great
Britain and Ireland, passed into law the first
Reform bill. Mr.. Gladstone, who began life
: under the auspices Of the late Sir Robert Peel
and whom the late Lord Macaulay when re-
viewing his work on ''The State in Its Rela-
tions with the Church." described as 'tht
rising hope Of those unbending tories who fol
low reluctantly and mutinously leader whose
experience and eloquence are indispensable to
them, but whose cautious temper and mode
rate opinions they abhor," has, in spite of his
early love and his early labors, proved himself
one Of the most radical reformers Of England.
No statesman in many centuries has SO dis
turbed the relations of Church and State or SO
frightened the hereditary landholders of the
three kingdoms. His ambition when he &C.
cepted Office as Prime Minister was to remove,
as far as was possible, oil causes Of Irish dis
affection to English rule, to make Ireland
really and truly ON integral and .contented por.
ton Of the British dominions; and if differ.
which has attended his labors, even those who
like him least must admit that he aimed well
and that he has accomplished much
Mr.. Gladstones success, if the truth must
be told, is, in fact one of the principal
causes Of an apparent, and perhaps
real, decline in his popularity. His re-
form measures have been so radical and
he has received for the last three years
SO much hearty support from the radical re-
formers, that his enemies have found it con.
venient to pronounce him revolutionist
Circumstances within the last six or eight
months particularly have favored his oppo-
nents and tended to diminish his power. The
education question has brought him trouble in
England, in Scotland and in Ireland. The
non-conformists of England have in their ex-
cessive zeal for denominational education,
asked more than he can give-at least more
than he thinks is compatible with any system
Of education entitled to be called national. In
the great populous centres Of England the
non-conformists are numerous, and, if they
have not openly joined the ranks of his oppo.
nents, their loyalty to him as their political