The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-03-13
The Cabinet Crisis I'm ngiand-Mr
Gladst0no's Resignation.

| -~~ AsosA aAosAOAs
Mr.. Gladstone's bill, looking to the inn
provement of the educational system Of Ire
land and to the establishment of an Irish
University worthy of tho name, has come to
grief. After protracted debate in the House
Of Commons, during which all parties had
fair opportunity to express their views, vote
was called for, and in full House, there
being present five hundred and seventy-one
members, the bill was thrown out by q
majority of three. 1t is not at all to be won-
dered at, in the circumstances, that the Prime
Minister should have regarded the vote as
defeat and should forthwith have sought
the Queen and rendered his resignation.
cable despatch, special to the HERALD, states
that nothing will be decided until to-day.
There ara two courses open to Mr.. Gladstone
with the Queens consent-he may resign or
he may demand dissolution of Parliament
1t is doubted whether Mr.. Disraeli would at
tempt to form ministry. The liberal party
is so strong and so united that but small
hopes are entertained that with the present
House of Commons, Mr.. Disraei and his
friends could govern the country The gen.
eral feeling is in favor Of dissolution of Par
lament Mr.. Disraeli hesitates, and in con-
sequence Of the absence of Lord Cairns, who
! is at Rome, and of the Marquis of Salisbury,
| who is at Nice, he refuses to come to any de-
| cided conclusions. Mr.. Gladstone, on the
other hand, has taken most decided ground.
He is 80 Disguised with the vote that
he not only persists in his resigna-
ton, but threatens to retire altogether from
public life. The excitement in London and
throughout the country is said to be great
and rumors are afoat to the effect that Lord
Granville may be called upon to organize
temporary government, although it is not
thought that he will obey the call.
| It is now some ten days since we called
attention in these columns to Mr.. Gladstone's
Irish University bill, regarding it as radical
measure which was likely to bring out the
sentiment of the three Kingdoms more emphat-
ically than any of the great reforms which
will be inseparably associated with his name.
| In this we have not been disappointed.
! Somehow the bill has not taken. It is not
radical enough for the radicals and it is too
| radical for the conservatives. 1t does not
please the Irish Roman Catholics, and
it irritates and provokes the Church
party in England. Cardinal Cullen OPP
poses it, and so does the Corpora
ton of the city of Dublin. The great
papers, one and all, have found in the bill
something to which to object The Times at
first was approving, but the Times has latterly
been cautious and somewhat stinted in its
praise The Daily Naos thinks that the scheme
is not as large as the foundation laid for it. The
Irish Roman Catholic prelates have right to
complain that the government has fully adj
mitted the grievance they assert without
giving them the remedy they ask. The
Standard pronounces the bill unsatisfactory.
The Saturday Reuie,o, the Spectator and the
Examiner have each pointed out what they
consider radical defects. Yet almost all the
journals admit that in point Of comprehen-
siveness it is worthy to take rank with the
Irish Church act and the Irish Land act 1t is
perfectly manifest that Mr.. Gladstone counted
on its success. Only few days ago, at a
public meeting, he stated that, while the Min
istry were willing to accept amendments and TO
modify the bill. they were prepared to make
it vital question and to stake their official
existence upon it. Sooner, perhaps, than he
expected, Mr.. Gladstone has been called upon
to make good his word. On its second read
ing his pet measure has been defeated; and,
true to his purpose, he has rendered his resig-
nation. II is noteworthy that while the Irish
Catholics in the House to man opposed the
bill, the Scotch and Welsh members gave it
their hearty support. It was not unnatural
that the vote should be so, and not otherwise;
and any one who knows anything of Scotland,
Wales and Ireland needs but little help to get
out of the difficulty.
Why has this bill failed and why has Mr..
Gladstone, because Of its defeat, thought fit to
resign? These are questions which many
are anxiously asking. The leading features
of Mr.. Gladstones bill have already in these
columns been stated somewhat infinitely. To
repeat them in detail is, therefore, the less
necessary. 1t is desirable, however, that our
readers should have q clear comprehension of
the situation. 1t has long been complaint
that Trinity College, Dublin, the principal
educational institution in Ireland, was prac-
tically closed against the great majority Of the
Irish people. Its religious tests excluded
alike the Presbyterians of Ulster and the
entire Roman Catholic youth of the country.
1t was this exclusion which in times
gone by sent the Presbyterians to Glasgow
and the Roman Catholics to Douay, in France,
and to the universities of Spain and Italy.
To meet this difficulty Sir Robert Peel estab-
lished the non-sectarian Queens colleges and
the Queens University. The Queens colleges
have, no doubt, done good, but they have not
satisfied the Irish people or made an end of