The Hawaiian gazette., 1890-02-18
BRITISH POLITICS.

The Novel Breadth of View of the Lib
era1 Federation.
A cable special to the N. Y. Mail
and Express from London says: The
political developments of the week, as
they are seen in the platform which
has been formulated by 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 federation
embraces in its programme more
than the narrow but rather sweeping
programme of the London Radicals,
and exhibits breadth and generos-
ity of view which is something new
in British politics. 1t adopted al
most wholesale everything that had
the imprimatur of any accredited
branch of the federation, thereby
permitting no local or merely sec
tional or fractional differences to
stand in the way of a 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 en-
braces twenty-eig measures of first
rate Importance, exclusive of home
rule. So absorbed, indeed, have the
English people become in the better
ment of their own condition that
even at this Liberal conference the
question of Irish home rule was ne
elected. 1t has become merged into
the larger subject of home rule for
the three kingdoms, and this, in its
turn, has somewhat lost its internal
individuality in consideration of the
score and half prominent matters
that go to make it up and which peo-
pie have now learned to discuss sep
arately and intelligently. The result
is that home rule for Ireland has be-
come more certain than ever, and is
now part and parcel of the great
hunger of the English people for
due measure of self-government
apart from the imperial Government
In fact, the conference accepted home
rule as conceded article of its faith
and purpose from the beginning, and
did not think it worth while to devote
any time to it specifically, beyond
the eloquent sentences which Mr..
Gladstone gave to it in his address
Of the twenty-eight distinct sub
jects embraced in the Liberal plat
form twelve only have political
bearing. The rest are social in their
intention. Among the latter are
land reforms, with complete security
for tenants, compensation of land
lords, abolition of the restrictions on
the free sale and transfer of land,
equitable taxation of land values,
and taxation of mining royalties.
These are added to the planks al
ready 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 "the federation would
not propose the reduction of the ma
tional debt"
The Radical workingmen's clubs
throughout the United Kingdom
hail the programme with delight. 1t
puts in the form of a permanent and
solid policy the battle cries of the
workingmen, and they intend to
fight the fight for all these reforms
on the safe and judicious lines of |
liberalism until every point is gain |
ed. Against this sweeping and
splendid battle array Lord Sails
bury obviously means to play his
offers of liberal grants to tenants in
ireland, by which they are to be en-
abled to acquire farms, and of free
education. His sole reliance is on
this defensive sort of maneuvering,
as he can offer the people nothing |
worth talking about that is not al
ready embraced IN the Liberal pro-
gramme.