, 1874-03-07

huiG Inc IrlStl adheren S to Mr., Glad
stone endeavoured to persuade their COM
patriots that the Premier had no stronger
wish than to give to the national aspira-
ton the same satisfaction which he had
already accorded to the Roman Catholics.
There were in Mr.. GIadstone'S address Ger
tain passages in which he spoke of legis-
latiye decentralization under the control
Of Parliament. Evidently, cried the Irish
Liberals, this means that Nr. Gladstone's
notions arenoth hostile to the doctrine ofhome
rule. II this is so, said the Times. if the
minister means to encourage the separa-
tive tendencies of the Irish, he commits at
the same time a folly and a crime; while
the Tories declared that Mr.. Gladstone
was merely coquetting with his Irish ad-
herents and giving himself the loophole
for accepting or declining the home rule
doctrines, according to the pressure of the
circumstances.
The Conservatives tried, not without
success, to prove to the electors that the
losses caused by the sometimes vacilIaling,
sometimes rash, policy of the Foreign
Office, were not sufficiently compensated
by Mr.. GIadstone's financial successes. AT
the same time it must be allowed that in
one instance Mr.. Gladstone entirely re-
futed the assertion of Mr.. Disraeli, who
accused him of having compromised the
position Of England as much in the extreme
East as in Africa. In the circular which
lie addressed to the electors of Bucking-
hamshjre Mr.. Disraell strongly insisted on
the 'toily and the ignorance" which the
Foreign Office had shown in permitting
the Dutch to extend their dominion over
the island of Sumatra, and in contracting
on the West Coast of Africa 'equivocaI
and embarrassing engagements" which
had dragged England into a war with the
Ashantees. To this Mr.. Gladstone replied
that the policy so encrgetically blamed by
Mr.. DisraeIi had been ~inaugurated by o
conservative Cabinet, Lord Derby having
prepare the treaty which, according to
Mr. DisraoIi, had been the original cause
of the war against the Ashantees, and
Lord NaInosbury having approved, in
1865, OF the anneXatious of the Dutch in
the island ofSumatra. Any one, however,
says the Herald Correspondent, could
have perceived with half an eye that this
discussion on foreign policy was nothing
more than an electoral dodge Of very Sc
condary importance, for no one could be
blind to the essentially negative character
of Mr.. DisraeIi's programme. What real
ly dishcartencd the Liberals was the So
Tenn warning which Mr. Gladstone adj
dressed to his followers in his last speech.
He seemed to expect separations and de-
%fections which would completely change
the character Of the old Liberal Party,
and he forewarned his friends that these
OBJECTIONS would infaIIibly bring about its
fall. Il will not" he said, "bo the chief of
a fraction of the Liberal Party"-which
meant that Mr.. Gladstone was not abso-
luteIy sure OF the impression which his
programme would produce, and, having
nothing to add to the promises contained
in his address, he offered to liberalism his
personality as It's flag and watchword.
Notwithstanding the great value of that per-
S%onality it s-ened verydoubtful whether the
different shades of Liberalism would con-
sent to renounce their special aspirations
to keep Mr.. Gladstone at their head. The
enthusiastic yeneration Of which Mr.. Glad
stone was the object in 1868 is now but q
memory, and the workingmen's democracy,
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