Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-09
The Opposing Parties in England have
Clearly Defined Policies.


NEW YORK, December Sth.-A cable special to
the MdH aud Express from London says: The
political developments of the week, as they are
seen in the platform which has been formulated
bv the National Liberal Federation and in the
speeches of Gladstone and Balfour, have had
the effect of defining very clearly the relative
positions of the two great parties. The feder
alton embraces in its programme more than the
narrow but sweeping programme of the London
Radicals and exhibits breadth and generosity
of view which is something new in British
politics.
had the imprimatur of any accredited branch
of the federation, thereby permitting no local
or merely sectional or fractional differences to
stand in the way OF grand general policy OF
benefits to the working people and the removal
of abuses which now mar the laws of Great
Britain.
The result of this method is a large and broad
policy, which embraces twenty-eight measures
of first-rate importance, exclusive of home rule.
So absorbed, indeed, have the English people
become in the betterment of their own condi-
ton that even at this Liberal conference the
question of irish home rule was neglected.
1t has become merged in the larger subject of
home rule for the three Kingdoms, and this, in
its turn, has somewhat Lost its internal indi-
viduality in consideration of the score and
half prominent matters that go to make it up
and which people have now learned to discuss
separately and inteligently.
The result is that home rule for Ireland has
become more certain than ever, and is now part
anu pdICtl vi INC SICdt uunBSl VI Vic eng
people for a due measure OF selfgoyernment
apart from the Imperial Government. In fact,
the conference accepted home rule as a con-
coded article of its faith and purpose from the
beginning, and did not think 1t worth while to
devote any time to it specially, beyond the elo-
quent sentences which Mr.. Gladstone gave to it
in his address.
OF the twenty eight distinct subjects en-
braced in the Liberal platform, twelve only
have political bearing The rest are social in
their intention. Among the latter are land re-
forms, with ,mpete security for tenants, COM
pensaIion of landlords, abolition Of restrictions
on the free sale aod transfer of land, equitable
taxation of royalties. These are added to the
planks already known. So strong is the plat
form thus presented, that BalfOur could find
nothing better to say in criticism of it, or
nothing worse, than the remark, accompanied
by his usual sheer at noble and good things,
that 1.-The federation would not propose the Ie-
dnction OF the national debt"
The radical workingmen's clubs throughout
| the United Kingdom hail the programme with
| delight. 1t puts in the form of Il permanent and
s0lid policy the battle cries of the woIkingmen,
| and they intend to fight the fight for all these
reforms on the safe ana judiciOus lines of liber-
| alism until every point is gained Against this
| sweeping and splendid battle array Lord Sails
| bury evidently means TO play his offers of lib
| eral grants to tenants in Ireland, by which they
| are to be enabled to acquire farms, and of free
education. His sole reliance is on this defens-
| i've sort of maneuvering, as he can offer the
| people no hing worth talking about that is not
already embraced in the Liberal programme.