The Irish standard., 1892-04-02
A DISMAL FAILURE
Such Was Lord Hartington's At
tempt to Form an Admins
tration in 1880.
VINDICATION OF GLADSTONE;
The Fine italian Hand of Disraeli
Shown in His Advice to
the Queen.


the Queen.
The statement made last week regard
ing the action Of Lord Harrington after
the resignation of Lord Beaconsfeld in
1880 has naturally attracted good deal
of notice and has provoked certain cor
rections and contradictions in the press,
sa, s the London Spectator. These ct
tempts to refuse the very precise asser-
ton made in these pages week ago
have one feature in common. They are
in no case made by responsible persons,
and they have not the slightest claim to
be regarded as authoritative. It is, in
deed, an easy matter to trace them to
their original source. They are all, in
Guiding even the professedly authorized
paragraph in the Standard, founded
upon statement which appeared in the
Manchester Guardian of Monday last
from the pen of it's London correspon-
dent. There is no need to say that Man
chester Guardian is journal which all
Liberals and most Tories respect. Its
London correspondent, too, is an enter
tanning and able person, whose only
weakness 10 a foible for omniscience
which occasionally leads him astray.
1t did SO last Monday, when it led him
to announce that ..very little credence'
was given to our statement in the Speak
or of the previous Saturday regarding
Lord Hartington's attempt to form an
administration in 1850. OF course, we
cannot say what amount Of eredence was
given by this particular London CORES
pondent to our statement, nor 10 wa
blame him because he found himself M
able to accept a piece 0f !, ,information
which was undoubtedly new and start
ling. But when he went on to attempt
TO prove that there could be no founda-
tion for the stocy, and when he further
pledged himself to the statement that
those "behind the scenes" in 1880 never
doubted the loyalty of Lord Harrington
to MIR. Gladstone, he went little too far.
tt 1s perfectly true that those who were
not behind the scenes, among whom we
may fairly include tho London CORES
pondent OF the Manchester Guardian,
did believe that Lord Harrington had
shown both his loyalty and his god
sense by refusing to attempt to form an
administration when the Queen invited
him to undertake the task in 1880. But
there were certain people who were really
"behind the scenes" at that time, and
they at least knew better Who were
they? Lord Granville, Lord Harrington
himself, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Forster and
Mr.. Bright. Lord Granville, Mr.. Bright
and MIR. Forster are dead, but Lord
Harrington and Mr.. Gladstone remain.
Did the London correspondent of the
Manchester Guardian consult either uf
these statesmen before : he took upon
himself to contradict our statement? We
can safely affirm that he did nothing of
the kind. Our statement was true in
every particular, and we made it upon
evidence which we believe to be abso-
lutely conclusive. That the fact was un-
known to the majority of political writer's
and speakers until we revealed it does
not make it the less true. Here is the
story once more in brief.
When Lord Beaconsfeld resigned he
advised the Queen to send-not for Mr..
Gladstone, whom he knew to be the one
great force in the Liberal party and it's
sole possible leader; not even for Lord
Granville, who was then the titular
leader of the party as q whole, but for
Lord Harrington, whose leadership was.
confined to the house Of Commons, pre-
cisely as Mr.. Chamberlain's leadership
Of the Liberal Unionists is limited to
taat assembly to-day. Lord Beacons-
field had become furiously anti Glad
stonian, and was absolutely unable to
forgive the member for Midlothian for
having thwarted his imperial jingoism
and wrecked his administration. In
those circumstances he sought for some
means of inficting sa5 small personal
slight upon his hated rival and destined
successor. He knew that at that time
there were certain so called Liberals who
detested Mr. Gladstone almost as bitterly
as the Liberal Unionists Of to-day do.
.Hewas reader OF and q believer in the
u 4 II -