The morning call., 1893-09-08
MR.. GLADSTONE.

Lords will throw out the home-rule bill
Such a course will be in keeping with the
reputation for obstinate folly which the
British aristocracy have established.
Every one knows that sooner or later the
Lords will have to pass the bill, if Mr..
GiTdst0ne has to create peers enough to
command majority in the upper house !;
and every one also knows that the peers
will not wait to be swamped. but will fol-
low the example set by the Duke of We'll
lington in 1882 and by the Tories in 1868,
and will absent themselves in such num-
bers that the supporters of the dill will
control. But the Tory papers are clear
that the peers will be true 20 their recor d,
and will embrace the opportunity of DEM
onstrating to the world that, like the
BourbOns, they can learn nothing and for
get nothing.
The passage of the home-rule bill by the
Commons marks an epoch in English his
tory. Nominally. it is measure for the
Inauguration of self-goyernment in Ire
land. But in fact. Ireland only cuts an in
cdental figure in the political revolution
OF which the home-rule bill is the har-
binger. 1t chances that the march of
democratic progress which is meant by the
words home rule is to be tried in Ireland
before it is put in force in England, Scot
land and Wales; but Ireland really has no
more interest in the innovation than the
other component parts of the empire.
Home rule means decentralization. Its
object is 10 confer upon each section of
the empire the power to control its local
affairs, and 10 free the imperial Parlia-
ment from the duty Of regulating matters
on which it cannot be we'll Informed and
to which 1t has not time to attend. In this
sense 1t is democratic measure; a step
toward the complete evolution of free gov
ernment. And its purpos. applies equally
to all parts of the kingdom.
Americans are reconciled to the dema-
gogy of some of their own public men
when they observe the knavish disin-
genuity of the assailants of home rule in
England. 1t is not to be supposed that the
followers of Lord Salisbury are so coarsey
ignorant that they believe their own OBJ
jections to Glsdstone's course, or that they
really think he proposes to dismemher the
empire. They know perfectly that the con-
cession of power in local affairs to the
various divisions of the empire would re-
move one of the most annoying causes of
A''SNbB ohN COuIbUb VIC
Union than shake it. But there is a law
that moribund parties herald their coming
decease by carrying their follies to an
aggravated extreme. in order, seemingly,
to prepare the world for their approaching
eclipse. The British Tories. like their
forerunners in France, are bent on making
sure that they will not be regretted when
they die.
The history of England contains few men
who will compare hereafter with Mr.. Glad
stone. One involuntariy couples his name
with that OF William Pitt, and in many re-
spects the two men were alike. Pitt, how
ever.was handicapped by drawbacks which
have not hampered Mr.. Glad stone; he mad
to serve a King who in his soul was a
believer in absolutism, end he never shook
off the Tory education which the son Of
Lord Chatham had imbbed from his
youth. Mr.. Gladstone also began life as a.
Tory, and his whole youth was devoted TO
the defense of caste and class and
privilege. But be was gifted with the
power of discovering his own errors his
mind was always growing and widening
and his wisdom expanding with his years
He kept learning all the time and
casting aside old conclusions as he
discovered their unsoundness. 1t is by
such men that the world is led. If any
qualities are more conspicuous than others
in Mr.. Gladstone they are his courage and
his honesty. He has never in his whole
career truckled to the English for the sake
OF place or power; he has never been
afraid of saying the truth that was in him
because it was distasteful to his hearers or
likely to prove detrimental to his own for
tunes. This is why his people have loved
and trusted him. When the tickle multi
tude embraced error he stepped 10 one
side. read Greek. wrote poetry, chopped
down trees, and left others to conduct pub
lie affairs until returning commOn-sense
among the public restored him to power.
He is too old now to fulfill the noble
task he has set before him. II providence
should permit him to live a few years
longer he will probably establish home
rule all over Great Britain, remodel or
abolish the House of Lords, and carry to
completions other reforms which are
necessary to complete the modernization
Of the English Government. But one
hardly dares hope that he will live long
enough for that.