The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-02-05
FOREIGN GOSSIP.

FOREIGN GOSSIP.
Review Of the Situation in the En-
glish Political Field.
The Irish Question Pushing Everything
Else Aside--Lord Salisbury Likely to
Resign and Gladstone to bo
Again at the Helm.
LONDON, Jan. 24-Lord Salisbury Is
tired Of his attempt to govern the Brit
ish Empire with the Tory party, and
wishes to resign. 1t can be said on next
to the highest authority that the Premier
expects to relinquish Office within the
next tsree weeks. Your correspondents
informans says: salisbury would like to
settle the Irish question on a broad, lib
eral basis, but he can not do it with such
party as he has. His colleagues wish
him to crush the Irish. He can't bring
himself to do anything of the kind, and
for this reason he will bring about
the defeat of the Government in order to
obtain justification for retiring from
power"
The minister, who gave this startling
piece of intelligence, was asked IL be
knew what were the prime minister's
personal views on the Irish situation,
and he said: 'Lord Salisbury entertains
IS t.y-f b,
servatives, that, if Ireland had home rule,
he Irish would become practically hos
tile people. He admitted to me re-
Gently that he believed that the
only hostility ever entertained by
the people Of Ireland toward
England could be entirely accounted for
by the cOerciyc nature of the relations be-
tween the two countries. He went fur
Their, and said he was Of the opinion that
If Ireland were made free she would
voluntarily seek even closer relation
ship with England than the one now
maintained by force, and would become
most valuable and powerful ally, in
stead of being, as now, a dissatisfied,
troublesome, rebellious and continuous
IL expensive province. Lord Salisbury
maintains that the very situation of
Ireland would make her freedom inure
eventually to England's advantage. This
situation he points out, differs from that
of Belgium and Switzerland in this: That
whereas Belgium and Switzerland are
surrounded by powers all equally cOvet-
Gus of their territory, AMI therefore
equally interested in maintaining their in
dependence, Ireland's contiguity is con-
fined to great Britain, and the interna-
tiODal interests of the two countries
would be identical if they were neighbOrs
and not landlord and tenant"
''But," went on the minister. sit must
be admitted that British parties, as re-
fected in Parliament, represent the COM
mercial and land interests rather than
those of the peasantry, although the en-
larged franchise will undoubtedly change
this eventually. The land interest of
England thoroughly sympatbizes with
that of Ireland, partly from affinity and
also because the majority of the Irish
landlords are Englshmen, resident in
Great Britain. But the land interest of
Great Britain, the greatest after its COM
mcrcial interest, has nothing like cor
rect idea of how insignificant q minority
the landowners of Ireland are of its
whole population, nor of the really for
eign nature of their proprietary. They
have become convinced that Nationalism
in Ireland is identical with what COM
munism would be in England, and of
course they are easily aroused to fight it
down.
eThe Irish Tories understand how to
keep this English hostility alive, and they
manage to make nearly all the ordinary
violations OF the law in Ireland appear to
En@lishmen as crimes against property.
As it happens that, while the number OF
arrests in Ireland, where the police are
numerous and alert, averages much great
er than in England, where the officers of
the law are not so plentiful nor so enter
prising, it appears to the Englishman
that the Irish people spend most of their
time attacking the vested rights, and he
is thus kept perpetually disposed to rule
them with an iron hand"
When asked if there were no statesmen
in the Conservative party who knew bet
ter the minister replied: eyes, Lord
Salisbury is Just as we'll informed on this
whole business as Mr.. Gladstone is, and,
In my opinion, just as well disposed"
ssWell, then, why don't he settle it?"
ssBecause he can't. His party COM
prises the bulk of the British land inter-
est. In this case that means the bulk OF
the ignorance and prejudice which stand
against fair settlement Ut the question,
and as the ignorant and prejudiced con-
stitutc the majority of the English aris-
tOcracy, the most enlightened and liberal
aristOcracy in the world, and the potent
element Of the Conservatory party, Lord
Salisbury, in an attempt to pass a liberal
measure, would simply be left without a
party.
"Mr. Gladstone, however, does not
represent the aristocracv, but the BUSH
ness men and peasantry of the nation. II
he wishes to attempt a settlement of the
Irish question, in my opinion he can do
it, and will attempt it when the govern
ment abandons the work"
Every phase of the situation bears out
the prospect suggested by the above in
formant. Lord Salisbury wrote the
Queens speech. 1t did not oppose home
rule, but opposed separation. The Irish
har. not rs yet asked for the latter or
ever, intimaled that they ever would ask
for 1t. OF course, the majority OF the
Tories believe that home rule and separa-
ton are identical, hence that paragraph
was simply a political play upon their
prejudices. Mr.. Gladstone's address
during the evening of the Queens
speech was studiedly vague on
most things, but it was very
direct in reply to the Queens plea for the
maintenance of the integrity Of the En-
pire, and this integrity had been just as
great during the six hundred years which
preceded the legislative union as it has
been the eighty-fve years which have
elapsed since. The Parnellites quickly
saw the subtle meaning in the sentence.
They accepted it as a prOffer on the part
of the grand old man to espouse the
hou,o r,,lo couSa in rpfnrp fOr Irish sun.