New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-08-13
LORD SALISBURY'S DOWNFALL.


The resignation of the Salisbury Government
has brought brilliant administration to
an inglorous end For six years the foreign
affairs of Great Britain have been directed
with great firmness and consummate tact and
the Prime Minister has yindicated his right TO
be ranked with the most eminent masters OF
| English diplomacy. At no other period OF the
| Victorian reign have the tendencies OF foreign
| policy been more pacific, yet the prestige OF the
United Kingdom has never been greater IN
Europe than it is to-day. In domestic affairs
| there has been mwOnted legislative activity,
| and the administration outside OF Irish ques-
tions has been both laborious and useful While
| its Irish policy has excluded Home Rule, and
consequently is to be condemned from the Lib
| eral and Nationalist point of view, it has been
| at least strong, consistent and courageous
| Lord Salisbury and Mr.. Bafour have made the
| best possible use of the opportunity Of
| showing what could be done in the island under
English rule. Their policy may not have been
| the best one but after the disastrous defeat
of the Home Rule allies by the people in 1886,
it was the only one which could be carried out
by Unionist Government For six years the
Ministry persevered in the attempt to govern
the island with irmness and to introduce re-
forms in the land system and local government.
Neither capacity nor courage, nor infexibe
purpose was lacking in domestic and foreign
affairs So brilliant an administration deserved
less ignominious ending.
Lord Salisbury's blunder in deferring his
resignation until he and his associates were
fairly kicked out of power vNas very gross
one. Lord Beaconsfeld would never have been
caught in so sorry plight. He would have re-
signed Office as soon as the Judgment OF the
constituencies was known. If the Queen had
sought to dissuade him and to urge him to meet
a hostile Parliament, he would have reminded
her courteously that in England the sovereign
may reign, but the people govern. Lord Sails
bury failed to take advantage of the oppOr-
tunity of resigning office with dignity and
grace. He confronted Parliament which had
received instructions from the English people
to recognize no Prime Minister except Mr..
Gladstone He disregarded precedents and
constitutional usage, and placed himself in an
attitude of hostility to the electors who had
declared their will. From so untenable posi-
ton there was no escape. Retreat was i'm
practicable compromise was impossible.
surrender has followed, and it is an inglorious
close of what has been remarkably well-con-
Quoted and eventful administration.
The Unionist reverse has been rendered even
more ignominious by the simplicity of the
tactics by which Mr.. Gladstone has outmanoeu-
vred his political foes The elections disclosed
majority of 40 against the Government. The
Unionists raised a clamor against that majority
as inadequate as faction-rent, as downright
Irish and essentially un-English and during
the debate on the address they challenged the
leader of the Opposition to define his policy,
and twitted him with being the servant, even
the slave, of his Irish masters. Mr.. Gadstone's
procedure was direct and uncompromsing. The
Government had not recognized the verdict of
the constituencies. 1t was acting in defiance
of established principles of the constitutional
system. The Ministers of the day were in mi
nority, and must give place to representatives
of the majority. They were not entitled to the
confidence of the new Parliament elected by
the people. 1t was the plain duty, even the
constitutional obligation of the majority to en-
force the will of the democracy. So when the
Unionist TRADES were ended the majority of 40
obtained in July was produced, and the Sails
bury Government was summarily elected from
power.
their laundering tactics is to strengthen Mr..
GladstOnes prestige, and to draw the factions
of the Opposition into closer and more harmoni-
GUS relations. They have not succeeded in
embarrassing him in any way, nor in entrapping
him into any premature pledges and explana-
tons of his future policy. They have enabled
him to produce the precise majority which
represented the will of the Nation, and at the
same time to conciliate all the factions under
his leadership. If they had abandoned the field
at the outset and compelled him to write the
Queens speech and to announce the Home-Ru
policy they would have deprived him of the
chance of marshalling in full force the anti
Unionist majority The Unionist dcmonstra
ton, which has ended in collapse, has been as
bad bit of politics as has been witnessed in
England for generation and Mr.. Chamber
lain usually one of the brightest and most lucid
of politicians, has cut perhaps the worst figure
In it.