The morning call., 1894-03-04
GLADsTONE's RETIREMENT.

The retirement of Gladstone in the
crisis of the battle which he had begun
will weaken the party of progress in
England, but ii will not arrest the march
of reform. NO man is so necessary in this
world that he cannot be replaced. How
much of a statesman Lord Rosebery may
turn out TO be remains to be seen, but f
he proves unfit for the task which is now
laid upon his shoulders be will be pushed
aside and more competent leader set in
his place.
1t was the fortune Of Gladstone that
after public life Of sixty years. signal
lied by gradual liberalization of his
opinions. his career came to an end just as
he had undertaken the two great reforms
OF the age-the establishment of local
self-government in the United Kingdom.
and the extirpation of hereditary privi-
lege from the British constitution. Most
OF the other reforms of the past half cen
tury he had at first opposed, and had
finally advocated when be found that time
and public sentiment were ripe for them.
He fades from view in the noble attitude Of
leading his people forward in the work of
lettering their institutions. 1t will be
remembered of him that his last labors
were so to mend the constitution that 1t
might have a chance Of enduring and Of
enlarging the measure of happiness of the
British people.
1t is not for a moment to be believed
that the retirement of Mr.. Gladstone will
still the impatience of the British people
under a centralized Government ana an
hereditary House of Peers. No Lord
I ohnrx 7 ff.l,
them to clumsy system of government
under which a Parliament of $50 members
sitting at Westminster is called upon to
pass upon the question of building a
bridge in Scotland. Nor will any Con-
sentative Government retain public conf
dence if ii insists on the maintenance of
institutions which date from the Tudors,
and are as gross anachronisms today as
Cog and Magog. Whoever assumes the
seals of Office will have to swim with the
stream or 60 down TO the depths. The re-
forms with which Gladstone's name will
be connected are forced conclusion. His
successor will only have the option of
granting the public demands gracefully,
or of yielding to them when they can no
longer be withstood. The time has passed
when Parliamentary reform can be stayed
by charges of cavalry.
There is room in England for great
man. Gladstone so overtopped his Par
liamentary colleagues that no one rose to
greatness by his side. He was like one of
the giants of the forest whose boughs
spread so wide and so thick that no
other trees can thrive in its shade.
Salisbury, Disrael. Palmerston, Aberdeen
and Russell were not so much taller than
their colleagues that they overshadowed
them. People felt that their loss would
not be irreDarable. There were men in
Parliament abundantly aSle to take their
places. But for long time there has been
M one in England On whose fearlessness
and honesty aud intelligence people felt
that they could rely as they did on Glad
stones. Yet it Is not to be supposed that
he is the only intrepid and honest and in
telligent man in the kingdom. There must
be others on whose shoulders his mantle
may fifty fall. The world is eagerly wait
ing to see one of them appear.
The circumstances are calculated to de-
velop statesmen of the first order. No
graveT questions ever vexed Parliament
than those which must be solved 10 the
next few years. A new generation of Brit
ish subjects have got to be educated in
political science so as to understand that
national liberty is inseparable from local
self-goyernment. and that race prejudice
must yield TO the paramount necessity of
separating national from local concerns.
The House of Lords is so deeply rooted in
the whole fabric of the British system
that it is hard to say what institutions
would survive after the roots were torn
up. Yet it is plain that both the omni-
p0tence of Parliament and the hereditary
peerage must go down before the march of
progress. To effect the transition without
civil war, or at all events a turmoil which
would be fatal to industry and commerce,
will tax the powers of the ablest statesman
that England can produce.