The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-11-22
ENGLISH POLITICS.

at once to a sincere feeling of patriotism.
He speaks in very bitter tones, so much so
that he seems to have lost his temper and
his judgment at the same time, for he &C
cuses the Gladstonians of having bribed
voters, which sounds very silly at this dis
lance, even though coming from 'milord'
and backed by so conspicuous and able an
Anglo maniac as the Republican writer.
The home rulers are presumably on the
nigh tide Of prosperity, as it is admitted
that the opposition to the cause is hopeless.
The coalition which CHAMBERLAIN and
HARRINGTON formed with the Tories has
now been in power about three years, and
singularly enough, out of sixty by-electiol S
which have occurred within that time, only
one Liberal Unionist has been elected, this
being in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England,
early in 1887. This, it must be admitted
all around, is a rather poor showing for
combination which was established with
the expectation and for the purpose of
holding sway in her majestys dominions
for one generation at least. There never
was palmer case of reckoning without
the host, and it is therefore hardly to be
wondered at that the British statesman is
willing to forsake pursuit which at least
yields him so little hope and consolation.
The article then goes largely into Stats
tics, showing that in 1887 the Liberals
captured four government seats, in 1855
three, and thus far this year five. Upon
but one victory in a Liberal district. In
ten other contests the Liberals have in
creased their majorities, while in six cases
their majorities were scaled down. There
were no important results in the first
eleven by-elections after SALISBURY was
returned to power IN 1883, but il February,
1857, the Liberals carried Burnley, which
had been represented by Liberal Union
list. Then, strung along through the two
years and more since, came the Liberal vic
tories in Spaulding, Coventry, Norwich,
Edinburg, southampton, Ayr Burghs,
Govan, Remington, Rochester, Peterboro
and North Bucks. The Liberal gains also
in the aggregate vote are notable, showing
that tide is running in old England to-
ward settlement of Irish affairs along
the lines proposed by Mr.. GLADSTONE.
But the Gladstonian position is even
stronger when we compare the present
situation with the election of 1885 While
the year 1856 was disastrous to the Liberals,
they won thirty-four seats which had been
occupied by Tories or Liberals in the Par
lament of 1885, and seven have since been
added by special elections. That is to say,
the Gladstonians now hold forty-one seats
which the Unionists held in 1885. This is
an immense showing in behalf of the popu-
lar party of Great Britain, showing as it
does that the rehabilitation of the Liberal
cause has proceeded by gradual, steady and
persistent growth, and is therefore des-
tined in a short time to return to power
and to remain there. 1t is also stated that
thousands of the voters of that party
stayed away from the polls in 1886, and
their subsequent gains show that one by
one they are returning to their places,
being satisfied that the policy of coerc o.
adopted and maintained by such men as the
Infamous BALFoUR will not do and can
never gain anything like popularity in the
nation The article proceeds to show that
it is not certain that the retirement of Mr.
CHAMBERLAIN would hasten the downfall of
Lord SALISBURY in any appreciabie degree.
While he has been a fiery member and
fertile in partisan eXpedients, he really
could not count upon a beggarly half dozen
members of parliament ready to obey his
summons. 1t was the Wing liberals led by
Lord HARRINGTON that gave the coalition
its vitality. The merciless friction of par
ties has reduced Mr.. CHAMBERLAIN to the
smallest political Importance. Such is the
fate of pronounced Radical who gained
reputation and Office by parading a full line
of extreme measures, and then vert over
to the support of Tory government be-
cause he was offended at GLADsToSE's
method of treating the Irish question. If
CHAMBERLAIN had not admitted the priD-
ciple OF home-rule butlhad held first and
last to a conservative distrust of demo-
cratic experiments as HARRINGTON has
done. there would be some degree OF pity
for his predicament.
THE HERALD has always entertained feel
ings of the greatest respect for the grand
old man. and entertained the belief that his
Irish policy, like that of tariff reform in
the United States, would surely prevail
when the people came to understand it.
Judging from the steady and constant &C !
cessions to the Liberal ranks across the |
water and the recent elections in this |
country, the awakening cannot be far off |
now.