The Northwestern standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1885-1886, 1886-01-23
Something About the Grand Old Man's'
Ideas on Irish Home
Rnle.
la He Fighting Now For The Survival
Of the Fame that Once Belonged
4 to Him. q

/ that he was. The only question tha
! will bear discussion is: Has he beer
4 terrorized out Of his plans by the ignor
ant outcry of the Cockney press, ani
| by the ebulitions of malice or mulish
ness among his own folloWersy To be
/ lieye SO would be to believe the great.
est force in contemp porary English poll
tics to be an ancient baby. England
and Scotland have given him a majority
Of eighty-six votes over the Tory mni-
istry; q majority which the Irish party
fcould reduce to impotence, but which
they could also have it in their power
to swell to majority Of 172. What is
he to do with that omnipotent power,
ready to his hand? Doze away his last
years on an opposition bench in con-
fessed failure, and see his Liberal bat
talions humbly yoked to his rivals
chariot wheels and dragged through all
manner Of tinsel Disraelian adventures
at the heels of minority? Those who
know Mr.. Gladstone, know that sooner
than play dingy role he would use his
axe to chop off his own arm instead of
the HaWarden oaks. But there is alb
solutely nothing else for him to do with
his majority except to set to work man
ufacturing an Irish Parliament. He
could not otherwise bulge an inch to-
wards office in the present Parliament,
and were the present Parliament dis
solved he would go to the country with
the ignominious reputation of having
planned an Irish Parliament and aban-
doned it because the Times mewed and
Mr.. Chamberlain was in the sulks. He
is, therefore, on pain Of closing his
life in abject impudence, bound to go
on. Is there anything in the reception
of his reputed scheme in Great Britain
that need daunt him? No influential
politician cares two straws for the Cab
BILE Of the Cockney press. Lord Ran
dolph Churchill a few weeks ago argued
brightly for his 0WR chances from the
mere fact that the Tiness was virulent-
,ssaiuYU him; and, OF course, mis-
chances grew brighter, and, Of course,
with their brightness came the grovel-
ing homage Of the Times. The Daily
News was few weeks ago poisonously
anti-P -Parnellite; it is now penetrated
with the urgency OF an Irish Parlia-
ment, since the word was passed to the
man at the wheel. The truth is that
with two or three splendid exceptions,
the London newspapers are simply rich
news shops, and, while the most pomp-
ously pretentious press in the world,
are in reality the feeblest in initiative,
and the most seryile echo of the Opin-
ions of cliqnes and party wirepullers.
In Irish affairs, the dull malignity of
their writings has done more to an
ger and estrange the two countries
than the sword of Cromwell or the lash
of fifty crimes acts Their leading ar
ticles, when read out to an Irish
audience, have more effect in exciting
detestation Of the English name than
O'Don0yan Rossa's most lurid haran-
gues. Their objections to Mr.. Glad
stones home rule projects are not IT,
tie as venomous as were once their
screams against disestablishing the
Irish Church or clipping the seignorial
privileges of the Irish landlords.
Everybody knows that if a bill for crea-
ting an Irish Parliament were running
through the House of Commons with
majorities Of ITO, the Liberal London
journals would industriously join in
the claqne in its favor, and, even if they
did not, nobody would be particularly
the worse OF it. Their cautious hos
tility may, therefore, be dismissed as Of
no account; the moro especially as the
provincial Liberal papers, such as the
Scotsman, which represents more votes
than a whole clubful OF Cockney jour
mails, have accepted Mr.. Gladstone's
policy as the only one which can give
peace to the empire and save the Liber-
al party from nothingness. Butwe are
told that Mr.. Gladstone's own followers
are mutinous at the thought Of an Irish
Parliament. AS if it were something
new to Mr.. Gladstone to find Mr. Cos
chen and his couple Of brother sore
heads going into a corner aud gnashing
their teeth, or as if anything ever cams
Of their suIks and cantripsi Lord Har-
tington, too, forsooth, has not all at
once gushed over with Irish National
list sympatbies. He has written let
ter which appears to have given pro-
digious relief to the Tories, but which
simply means that he has not committed
himself to home rule and does not like
the look Of it. That was precisely his
attitude with respect to every bold pro-
posal Of Liberal reform Of recent
years. He has constitutional 0bjec-
tson to everything ct first sight, but =
still stronger constitutional objection
to drifting into al obscure Tory sub
lieutenant by separating himself and
his class from their last hold upon the
English democracy. The attitute ofI
the Radical leaders, who last summer
proposed to come over to Ireland TO hew
out = home rnle project amidst che
plaudets Of The Wild Irish, Is conaid idera-
bly more dlscledit abls. s3ir Chaxies|