The Portland daily press., 1892-07-15
GLADSTONE and THE KIRK.
The Grand Old Mans Narrow Escape
in Midlothian.
HE WAS OPPOSED BY THE FOES OF
DISESTABLISHMENT.

MI. Gladstone's Utterances Respecting the
Observation-Disclosures of the Scottish Church
Remembered Against Him" Heckled''
at Meetings and Cut in the Voting
The Question Has Little Bearing on
the Result of the General Elections.
LONDON, July 14.-The great falling
off in Mr.. Gladstone's majority in Midlo-
THAN implies no reflection upon the 10y
atty of his constituents to his person or
principles, so far as ordinary political
tenets are concerned. The revolution
was wholly on account of a local issue
local, at any rate, to Scotland. The I'M
certain attitude of Mr.. Gladstone in re-
gard to the question of disestablishing
the Kirk of Scotland has alarmed the
adherents of that institution, and being
unable to obtain from the Liberal leader
any satisfactory assurance that he was
not in favor of disestablishment, they re-
solved to elect the Unionist candidate, if
possible. for the sake of teaching Mr..
Gladstone lesson, which would be like
ly to determine his action In the future.
OF course, the defeat of Gladstone in
Midlothian would not have been of any
particular significance as affecting the
result of tie general elections Mr..
Gladstone would simply have secured
election in some other district-and any
Liberal district would lave been proud
of the honor of having him us its repre-
sentative. But not to be reelected by
his old-time constituency of Midlothian
would naturally have been a matter of
regret for the aged statesman
The trouble about the Scotch disestab
lishment question began at the time
when MI. Gladstone brought about the
Disestablishment of the Irish Church.
The argument was raised then, by the
opponents of disestablsliment, that sim
liar measures would ere long be pressed
for England, Wales and Scotland. To
this Mr.. Gladstone replied that it was
absurd to speak Of the possibility of En-
glish disestabllslIment, as there was no
demand in England for such a change.
A few years ago Mr.. Gladstone, finding
that large majority of the people of
Wales demanded disestablishment of the
church in that part of the country, adj
mitted that the question was ripe for
settlement so far as Wales was concerned
Shortly thereafter the Scotch radicals
pressed Mr.. Gladstone for a similar dec
laration in regard to Scotland, and final
~ Mr. Gladstone came out with
the statement that If
majority required it the Scottish
church must be disestablished. This
was considered equivalent to a promise
l.. .4<s4 ~. s+xr
of the Scotch members of Parliament are
in favor of disestablishing the Kirk Ear
" in the present campaign in Midlothian,
the Liberal party managers learned that
there was likely to be serious split in
the ranks over this question, and in the
hope of allaying the excitement in this
respect,
Mr.. Gladstone Delivered a Speech
designed to prove that he was not
pledged to disestabhshment. In this
speech he pointed out that Lord Hart
ington, the Unionist leader, had last year
made statement almost precisely like
his own in regard to Scotch disestablish-
ment, SO that the Liberals and Unionists
were in the same boat, which
ever way the boat might be drifting, and
there was no reason to vote against the
Liberals on account of any supposed lean
ing toward disestablishment. This did
not satisfy the adherents Of the Kirk,
however, and at nearly every meeting
they ''heckled'' Mr.. Gladstone by ques-
tions, to which his replies were always
vague and non-comnittal. Being unable
to make Mr.. Gladstone declare himself,
the friends of the Kirk determined to do
all they could to prove that they were
too numerous to be trifled with, and they
did their best to elect Colonel Wauchope.
The Tories knew what was going on, and
this is what made them so confident of
winning in MI Gladstone's chosen divis
ion. The defeat of Wauchope, even by
slight majority. in fact, is rs much a
source of disappointment and chagrin to
the Tories as Mr. Gladstone's narrow es-
cape from defeat can possibly be to the
Liberals.
Gladstone Six Ahead.
LONDON, July 15.-Returns to midnight
show that the Conservatives have PAS
members, the Liberals 232, Mccarthy
ties 81, Liberal Unionists 80, Parnellites
7, Laborists 3, a ministerial total Of 2S7,
Gladstonian total 1913.
The Man for Railroad ConnjssiOuer