New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-08-05
MR. GLADSTONE AND TIE LORDS.

Mr.. Gladstone's delay in disposing of the
amendments to the Arrears bill will give the
Lords few days for sober thought. HIS
anxiety to avoid precpitate action before
arriving at what he plainly says may be
momentous decision has induced him to defer
until Tuesday an explicit statement of the
course which he has marked out for himself
His words have an ominOus sound, and the
Lords Will do well to profit by the brief inter-
val which is allowed them for reflection. This
is the fourth time that they have deliberately
deficd the Commons since the elections OF
1850. The COMPENSATION for Disturbance bill
they rejected outright; the Land bill they
sought to paralyze with amendments, but were
forced to yield to the judgment OF the Com
mons; having failed to defeat the act, they
undertook to render it imperative by mis-
chevous investigation, and were met with
direct vote of ccnsure from the lower House ;
and finally, they have amended the life out
of the Arrears bill. The last step has been
taken without regard for the wishes OF the
landhoding class in Ireland, which, as a rule, is
anxious to have settlements made under the
Arrears bill. 1t is an act for which English
patricians are exclusively responsible. There
is a social revolution i'll Ireland and there is
campaign opening in the East, yet this privi-
legged class seizes the opportunity of eXasperat-
ing the Premier whom it detests. Indifferent
alike to the interests of Irish landlords and to
the fate of the island, it follows the blind in
stncts of caste prejudice and malevolent
partisanship and faunts its defiance in the face
of the Commons.
What will Mr.. Gladstone dO7 London is
ehattering with cOnjectures, while the Lords,
not to be frightened by vague mcnaces, are
holding private consultations and announcing
that they will never surrender. Yet it is plain
that the Premier cannot be responsible
for the government of Ireland if the amend
ments to the Arrears bill are allowed to stand,
and to enter upon formidable campaign in
the East with a. social revolution rapidly gath
ing increased momentum i'll Ireland would be
the height of recklessness. Mr.. Gladstone will
lack not only courage, but common prudence,
if he gives way or accepts an artificial COM
promise. His duty Is imperative. The bill
must be stripped Of the amendments, which
will excite the resentment of the tenaDtry and
prolong the sway of anarchy and lawessness.
Ii the Lords will not recede from their posi-
ton, they in their turn must be defed, and
the responsibility for the consequences must
fall where it belongs.
How the crisis will end we do not presume
to anticipates but it requires very little dis
cernment to conclude that Lord Salisbury can
not hold his ground without Offering to con-
duct the Administration and appealing to the
country, and that whatever might be the
issue of general election the Home Rule
party would be so heavily reinforced that no
Government Conservative or Liberal, could
stand without Its support. To say the least,
the difficulties of the Irish question would be
rendered insuperable even if the Conserva-
tives should carry the elections. But even a
light hearted reactOnary like Lord Salisbury
must face the alternative of defeat. Have not
the arstocratc sheets, which are constantly
raving about the impending horrors of repub
licanism and socialism, complained that the
American fashion of conducting agitatons has
already been introduced into England by pO-
htica workers as well as temperance organ
izers? Is there not strong probability that
the Radicals can succeed IN rousing against
the patrician class an irresistible mass of pub
lie OpiniOn2