The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-08-31
WILL dixie Be IBADBR(?!
The Liberals Are Still Without
Head, and Sir Charles Is
Strongly Spoken Of.
None of Those Who First Tried
Their Hands in the Past
Available Now.

Now That Is All Forgotten by
the Other, Sinners.
The Liberals are still q leaderless party
The appalling defeat at the general cleo
tions seems to have robbed the small re-
naming segment of the party of the pow
er to think. They still grope, looking for
the man strong enough to mold a policy
of opposition, writes the London CORE
spondent of the Chicago Times Herald
This much is certain, none OF the old lead
ers can be wholly satisfactory. Lord
Rosebery is thoroughly discredited.. Mr..
Morley. being out Of parliament, is also
| out of the question. Sir William Har-
court made more enemies than friends
| important measures in the house was
clumsy and MS last budget will be a long
reproach to his ability as minister OF
finance Neither Mr.. Asquith nor Nj.
Campbell-Bannerman, although popular,
seems to excite enthusiasm, and that ex-
hausts the lists Of available men from the
old cabinet To whom will the Liberals
then turn? One name is on the lips of all
the gossips, the name of the shrewdest
and ablest politician in all England today
Sir Charles Dixie.
For nine years Dixie has had on his
hands the hardest Rght a man could I'M
dertake. The opposition to him has been
an opposition CT conscience; not alone Of
the non-corformist conscience, which has
risy, but of the conscience that loathes
sexual impurity and unnlanliness and
coWardice. The evidence against him in
the celebrated Crawford divorce case,
while dan1ning in itself, was not more
shocking than his conduct during the
trial. Not only did he, a Thoroughbred
man of the world, inyeigle the inexperi-
|enced daughter of one friend and wife Of
another into degrading liason, but when
the unmasking came he left the woman
to the mercy Of her prosecutors, casting
her off like shotten herring.
His course was too much for even the
stomach of the British public, pretty we'll
accustomed to the nauseous morsels Of
scandal in high life. Tine press, without
exception, blasted him. The London
Chronicle, long his friend, denounced him
as a "cunz, ing cohsumnate. scoundrel,
who was an adept in the deadly sin which
was eventually to pour upon him the Walls
of wrath; to be unto him whip OF scor-
pions; TO strip away. the hypocritical garb
in which he mixed with his fellows and to
brand him as mean and heartless mis-
creant." .s.
Six years sufficed to empty the walls, to
extract the venom from the scorpions
tail and to rehabilitate Sir Charles Dixie,
in part at least At the close Of that peri
cd spent in travel with his wife, who had
been the wife of Mark Pattison, he re-
turned and ran for parliament for the
Forest of Dsan. He wfs elected by a tair
majority. Iii the last election he was re-
turned by the same division, his majority
being over 1900.
At The last session OF parliament Sir
Charles Dixie kept well in the back
ground He was still not exactly CRATE
full even to the advanced liberals. John
Morley, for enc, a man OF most puritan
ascetlcisnl in private life, would have
none OF him. They had been associates
for twenty years 1t was at Newcastle
on-Tyne that Dixie entered political life,
with his famous lecture on ''The Cost Of
the Crown"--an effort that won for him
the title Of She republican baronet." His
political sponsor, Joseph Cowen, was in
retirement. The other friend Of his youth,
Joseph Chamberlain, was in the opposi-
ton. Dixie had not returned to the house
without sacrifice to personal dignity. His
appeals to the foresters of Dean remain
anong the saddest exhibitions Of hypoc
risy tilat English political history reveals
He went before his audiences, pleaded
first innocence and then regeneration al
though the evidence OF his guilt was in
black and white in the records of the
court. 1t became him to remain a quiet
witness Of the proceedings in parliament.
AT times he ventured upon expression.
generally in relation to matters OF for
eisn policy. At such times he Invariably
received attention, for ne is recognized as
the profouadest student Of foreign affairs
il, England. He was under secretary CT
the foreign office with Mr.. Gladstone i'll
1880. and his works on Greater Britain
and Problems Of Greater Britain" are
standard. Others are informed as to spe--
cial features Of foreign affairs. MIR. Cur
zon 5issan authority on Asiatic affairs. But
no one in the house of commons IS so thor
oughly informed as Sir Charles Bike on
the whole range of foreign affairs
His return to the present parliament
was accomplished amid different. cir
cpnstances from those which attended
his election in 1892. He did not have to
plead with tears in his eyes for re-elec-
ton. He was returned triumphantly.
He carries the prestige of a: great ma jori-
ty. in year Of nearly general Liberal
Gefeat. He finds the party without a
leader, and before the session is we'll
under way he may be a last desperate re-
sort Of q party now afflicted With a
deaIth OF strong men. The one thing
that stands i q the y ay of his am bftion
an d the ambi tion OF his wife. a woman
sof extraor ainary force of Character, Isl
the British conscia1ce But the British
conscience, tough as it9 seems pmesi lasss
is last III M
sed lilounded i,y