The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-07-27


of the Tories at the next general English
election. The present Parliament does not
expire by constitutional limitation until
1893, but it is quite possible; with the pres
ent strong drift of the popular feeling with
Gladstonians, that the Salisbury govern
ment may not die natural death. There are
$40 seats in the present Parliament. OF
these lib seats have been vacated and re-
filed since 1886. The net gain of the
Liberals since the last general election is
from Is TO 20 seats. or more than one
sixth of &c. The Gladstonians fairly ar
que that if they can gain Is to 20 seats in
lib, they can at the next general election
secure six times as many, or from no to
40. In July, 1886, there were returned
392 Unionists and 278 Home Rulers. A
change of only 100 seats from one side to
the other would give 292 Unionists and 37S
Home Rulers, or Home Rule majority
of S. The vacated seats have been dis
tributed all oyer Great Britain, and fairly
tell the public opinion of both country and
town. The Liberal victory of Friday last
was won in Tory stronghold that in 1885
gave Conservative majority of over 1000.
The Tory Unionists have not lost any
strength since 1886, but the last reform in
the franchise and the redistribution of seats
has been to the advantage of the Liberals,
the aggregate Gladstonian vote in the local
elections since 1886 being $4,000 against
10000 for the same constituencies in
1885. The agricultural laborer is voting
with the Liberals, as the mining and man
ufacturing classes did when enfranchised.
The Liberals can outbid the Tories with
the masses of British voters, not so much
because they care particularly about Home
Rule, as because they are grateful to
Gladstone for his suffrage enlargement of
1885 and are Liberal by instinct and preju-
dice, If not by conviction. II Salisbury
waits two years until the Gladstonian Lib
erals have educated the agricultural labor
ers to use the franchise in behalf of the
party that bestowed 1t, he is likely to lose
from sixty-ive to seventy county men,
bers, and large majority of the fifty-nine
seats assigned to the metropolitan districts
are sure to go to the Liberals, from whom
alone the workingmen can expect any sim
cere sympathy and aid.
Salisbury has also lost the support of
the brewers, distillers and publicans, who
have been estranged by the failure of the
Tories to bestow compensation for the
suppression of licenses. Salisbury's chance
was to order new election on the heels of
the Parnea rupture, but he has lost the
tn he
ranks of the Irish Nationalist party has
been bridged by the policy of Cancellation
and the effacement of Parnell as a poten-
tial political figure in Irish politics.
In Wales the Tories now hold but five
out OF thirty seats, with no hope of in
crease, as the tithes bill has made the
Welsh farmers more hostile than ever and
Wales is strongly anxious for the discs
adjustment of the church, as her people
are nearly ali non-conformists. In Scot
land the Tories hold but % out of " seats.
with no prospect of gains, for the Home
Rule movement for Scotland has taken Or
gained form, with headquarters at Edin-
burgh. whence it sends circulars to Scotch
men all over the world asking for money
ITO enable US to fight the battle for politi.
cal freedom" The Home Rulers demand
Tor Scotland the same measure of home
rule which the Gladstonians propose for
Ireland, and include in this demand Wales
as well. The association has great local
strength and is headed by Professor John
Stewart Blackie, provost of Edinburgh
university, who confidently expects
an ultimate victory when 1.-The domestic
affairs OF England will be managed accord
ing to English ideas, the domestic affairs
OF Scotland according to Scotch ideas"
and those of Wales and Ireland according
to WEIGH and Irish ideas. Earl Spencer.
formerly Lord Lieutenant of Ireland un.
der Gladstone, declares that the policy of
Liberals in favor of Home Rule for Ireland
Is as popular with the English constituent
cies now as before the Parnell rupture, and
that Home Rule would be the first pro-
posal introduced in the next Liberal par
lament If the Tory strength continues
10 crumble at the present rate Salisbury
may be forced to order new election be-
fore August, 1893, for If he waits till the
present parliament then legally expires he
can hardly hope TO escape defeat, for, in
the Judgment of the most conservative
Liberal leaders, he would be beaten if he
went before the people tomorrow, or at
least escape defeat by majority too small
TO be any assurance of . permanent min
istry.
Lord Salisbury evidently considers him.
self beaten before the people at present.
for in his last public speech he proposed
plan for gerrymandering Great Britain in
the interests of his party, amending the
distribution of seats by reducing WEIGH
and Irish representation and giving a
large advantage to English representation.
This scheme he could hardly carry, as
many of his supporters are former liberals
of Wing antecedents, who, while opposed
10 Home Rule, would hardly support plan
for re-districting the country 10 increase
the number of sure Conservative seats
His plan to secure the continuation of
the present parliament to its full statutory
term in 1898 is likely TO fail in execution,