St. Paul daily globe., 1888-03-04
The Power Welded by Mr..
Papnell as a Statesman
and Debater.
Gladstone's Unexpected Tao
tics Greatly Annoying to
the Government.
Germany's Crown Prince Un-
doubtedly Dying--General
Foreign Intelligence.
CopvrIght Gable to the Globe.


vailing in Liberal and Parnellte circles
that the government will come to grief
before many months have passed grows
stronger as the session of parliament
proceeds. This opinion is also pri-
vately held by number of Tories, al
though they dare not publicly express
it. Still in their conversations at the
clubs they do not disguise the fact that
they have little confidence in being able
to hold the coalition together when once
the government is fairly launched upon
the open sea of legislation for the coun-
try. Mr.. Gladstone is in great health
and spirits. He looks little
older than he did last session,
but his mental and physical activity
q unabated. and his interest in the po-
litical battle is as keen as ever. Mean
while his pacific attitude and tone in
debate continue to exercise the minds
of the Tories. Sir Richard Webster,
the attorney general, yesterday paid a
long visit to the government leader, Mr..
Smith, in Grosvenor place. and it is
understood that the subject of their de-
liberations was the danger which the
government instinctively feel but eau
not clearly see lurking in the uneX-
pected tactics of Mr.. Gladstone. The
truth is that the Liberal leader has at
last learned the lesson-which his in
variably Sanguine temperament rem
dered difficult-that the Liberal union
| list will go to all lengths with the Tory
government so long as the coercion of
Ireland is the business in hand. The
best, indeed the only, chance of
breaking up the alliance is to force the
ministry into constructive legislation.
1t is felt that in the county government
bill, Lord Salisbury's reactionary ten
denotes are bound to manifest them
selves i'll such direct terms that it will
| be impossible for any radical unionist
to follow them. With view of accel-
Grating this result Mr.. Gladstone de-
| preeates all obstruction and recon-
mends his followers to pursue no tactics
which the Tories can make an excuse
for delaying the production of their
promised measure. Inc speech OF Mr..
Parnell on Wednesday in which he en-
phatically repudiated obstructive tactics
and urged members to put away their
fads and accelerate the governments
the two great leaders of the opposition
have joined hands.
IT is CURIOUS TO REMEMBER
the broken and ridiculed utterances of
the young member for Meath in 1875,
and to contrast them with the elabor-
ate and weighty dlScOurseS of the MEM
Der from Cork, awaited with the deepest
interest by politicians of all sections,
and repeated verbatim by all the Lon
don newspapers. Mr.. Parnell's sue
success as parlamentarian owes
nothing to his physical gifts. His
bearing is stiff, and his voice, though
clear, is mOnOtOnous and harsh. His
manner of speaking IS characteristic
calIy un-Irish. He eschews rhetoric,
and abhors all talk. His SEN
tences are short and un-
adorned. His jokes, IL he ever
cOndescends to make them, are of re
spectacle antiquity and the cold smile
which follows them is like moOnbeam
on ice. He has in great perfection the
faculty of precise, and intelliglble state
ment, of satire and of restrained in
vective. But, of course, the main ele
ment of his immense success lies in the
fact that he embOdieS cause, and he
has brought to its furtherance shrewd
intelligence, an iron will and an almost
unique power of concentrating himself
on single end. Mr.. Parnell concluded
his speech by warning Irish members
not to embarraSS the government,
clearly indicating that he wished to
hurry the unhOIy alliance on to
their doom. At the same time
it is stated that the advanced
or rTory-Democratic section of the gov
ernment has prevailed to the extent of
securing very wide and liberal provi-
sions as to the nature Of the county
electorate and the arrangement OF areas.
Mr.. Ritchie and Walter Long, who, as
president and secretary respectively or
the local government beard, are Off
cially charged with the preparation of
the measure. are known TO favor what
Lord Randolph Churchill called the
''Frankly democratic" principle of
local government. The government
has made the very important
and excellent resolve that the
local government bill shall be
introduced before Easter. Their opin-
ion concurs with Mr.. Gladstone's that
this is absolutely necessary to secure its
passage this year, and it may be as
Sumed that the second reading will he
taken about the middle of April. The
boundary commissioners have not en-
couraged the ministers to believe that
their work can be complete by the 18th
inst, which would be necessary if the
framework of their report is to be
printed as one of the schedules of the
bill upon introduction. That it
must form such a schedule is
a matter of course, but there j.
no reason why this should not be added
IN the Easter holidays after the publica-
tiOn of the bill. There is strong reason to
believe that tie measure proposes the
election of about fourth OF the county
board by the elected member from
among tie magistrates, upon the basis
of analogy to the position of aldermen
in town councils. This will be likely to
form
ONE OF THE MOST CONTESTED POINTS.
There would obviously be less objec-
ton to the proposal if the analogy to
the town councils were strictly main
tanned and proportion of the elected
members were established with Sc
curity of tenure like that of aldermen.
Already some political controversial
lists are preparing their minds
by reference to the debates, more than
fifty years ago, upon the corporations
bill, when the present mode OF electing
aldermen was by no means accepted
with universal satisfaction. The es-
sence OF reform in local governments is
the functions of the new bodies and that
definition the cabinet have deter
mined to shirk by dealing with
licensing in separate bill. The sense
of importance which members Of parli-
ament appear TO attach 10 this declara-
ton can hardly be exaggerated. Such