New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-05-21
HATRED OF GLADSTONE.

The stone flung at the window OF the COM
partment car in which Mr.. Gladstone was
travelling was a more formidable missile thah
the Kisses at the Imperial Institute, but the
same evil passion inspired both ASSAULTS IL
may have been nothing more than curious
coincidence that the stone was thrown on the
morning after the brutal and unmanneIly as
play of partisan hatred at the royal reception
Int the two outrageS were so closely associated
as to suggest the relation OF cause ana erect
Certainly 1t is natural inference that II
fashionable throng at the Institute set the
vicious example of publicly insulting the Prime
Minister, an equally ungovernabe and rancor-
ous partisan at a railway station might have
felt impellcd to follow it when he saE the
hated face behind the car window. Ihefe Is
a German proverb which runs: lie VINO
would sup with the devil must have long
spoon" When rank and fashion IN England
hiss and howl like madmen when pohticai
enemy confronts them, they appeal to the
worst passions Of human nature. Their own
frenzy of excitement becomes infectious. The
hiss at night is followed by the stone IN the
morning.
The hostile feeling against Mr.. Gladstone,
not only in circles of wealth and fashion, Du'
also among the Unonsts in general, has risen
TO dangerously high pitch. His enemies are
not able to speak of him desperately or even
nationally. Hatred of the Prime Minister has
become a species of political fanaticism We
doubt if there has ever been another English
statesman who has been 50 maliciously libelled
or pursued with more malevolent spite. The
acknowledging Unionist partisan abhors ana
cons ~
against the throne, secessionst aiming to
break up the Union, the arch-cneiny OF the
English Church, a red -handed rcvolutionist
against social order and an cyangel OF Radical
democracy and Socialism III the Jnionist
fanatic in his excitement had not passed be-
yond the reasoning stage he would perceive
that he was indicting the patriotism OF the
British nation as well as affronting Its IN
tellieence. For the Prime Minister, whom he
arraigns as the irrecOncilable enemy OF the
throne the Union, the Church and social order
represent, the people Of the United Kingdom.
They deliberately placed him i'll power as their
responsible agent. Then are the people OF the
realm utterly lacking in patriotism, nteli-
| gence. religion and conservatism? DO they
desire to break up the United Kingdom, smash
the British Constitution and undermine the
| foundations of social order?
What has Mr.. Gladstone done since he was
last intrusted by the electorate with political
power? He has fulfilled the main pledge
which he made to the country. lie has intro
duccd the Home Rule bill, precisely as every
voter last year in the Kingdom knew that he
would do if the majority in Parliament were
with him. He asked the constituencies for a
direct mandate for the establishment OF an
Irish Parliament, and he obtained it. lie is
carrying out policies which have been sane
toned in advance by the electorate. lie could
not do anything else without betraying the
trust received from the Queens subjects. In
keeping faith with the nation he remains loyal
| to his convictions and no statesman of the
century except Lincoln has been more honest
in accepting the moral obligations of political
power than Mr.. Gladstone. lie is hated by
his political enemies but so also is every leader
of real greatness whose voice the masses have
loved to hear. OF what account in the sum
total of career like his, spent in arduous
labor for the welfare of the English people and
the peace and progress of the United King
dom, are the sneers in drawing room or fash
ionable club, or the Kisses from ruilians in
velvet at a royal reception?