The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-02-12
BRITISH POLITICS.
The Novel Breadth of View of the Lib
eral Federation.

The Novel Breadth of View of the Lib
eral 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. It 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 eight 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. It has become merged into
the larger subject of home rule for
the three kingdoms, and this, in its
turn, has somewhat lost it's internal
individuality in consideration of the
| score and a 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 a
due measure of self-government
D apart from the imperial Government
In fact, the conference accepted home
rule as conceded article of it's faitt
= and purpose from the beginning, anC
t did not think it worth while to devote
! any time to it specifically, beyon6
, the eloquent sentences which Mr.
Gladstone gave to it in his address
9 OF the twenty-eight distinct sub
It iects embraced in the Liberal plat
r, form twelve only have a politica
q bearing. The rest are social in thei
intention. Among the latter ar
70 land reforms, with complete securit,
it for tenants, compensation of land
n lords, abolition of the restrictions O.
the free sale and transfer of land
equitable taxation of land value:
- and taxation of mining royaltie!
ot These are added to the planks a
is ready known. So strong is the pla
,e form thus presented that Balfou
o could find nothing better to say
p criticism of it, or nothing worse
~ than the remark, accompanied b
'e his usual sheer at noble and goo
oe things, that "the federation woul
a. not propose the reduction Of the n;
:, tional debt"
Il The Radical workingmen's club
throughout the United Kingdo1
hail the programme with delight.
puts in the form of permanent an
solid policy the battle cries of I'll
workingmen, and they intend
Ii fight the fight for all these reform
w on the safe and judicious lines
Mt liberalism until every point is gail
it ed. Against this sweeping an
splendid battle array Lord Sail
- bury obviously means to play b
u offers of liberal grants to tenants
OF Ireland, by which they are to be e
is abled to acquire farms, and of fr
a education. His sole reliance is {
~ this defensive sort of maneuverin
- as he can offer the people nothir
"a worth talking about that is not {
on ready embraced IN the Liberal pr
as gramme.