The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-05
CttAAanERIAINI.os

Gladstone a short time before his death is reported to have passed judgment upon Joseph Cnamperlain, the man who more than any other had thwarted the plans of the great Liberal for wiser, a more tolerant. a more human government of Ireland. Mrs. Chamberlain. who 1t must be supposed had an American woman's curiosity to see Gladstone in his own home. had contrived in spite of the strained rela- tions between the two men, to bring about a visit that was paid by her and her husband to Hawarden. When the visitors left a friend entered Clad stones library and found him in a mood of profound reflection and speak, ing at once as Gladstone did, half to himself. half to the newcomer: "A wonderful man, an extraordinary man. Probably the most extraordinary among living Englishmen; yet there Is a dangerous quality in him"
 It is an old story now. of how the member for Birmingham. resigned his POct dS oCCECtdty TUT tnC SoiOhtcS oiio has thrown himself fin spite of his three score and ten years. with strik- ing and abounding ardor into the effort to carry England back to a system of protective duties. He has had the audacity to propose even a tax on growers of the British Islands. One by-election after another has been held during the past year and wher- ever a chance to unseat a tory protec- tionist was offered, the constituency has in every instance availed them selves of the opportunity and turned him out. It would contradict every indication in the past of English poli- tics, if with the by-electfons as guides, the next general election does not show an overwhelming Liberal ma jority. And a general election cannot by law be long deferred. Balfour is holding on with desperation to give his late colleague time to educate the voters and so far the voters have prov ed themselves only too we'll educated to revert to an ignorant and barbaric system that brought the country to the very verge of revolution, sixty years ago.
 It Is one of the oddities of the poli- vatives are beginning to flirt in a most animated way with the Irish members and staid and proud Tory journals are confessing Ireland has not been treated with the consideration she deserves; that at heart the Protectionists have always been in favor of Home Rule across the channeI: with much more of this sort of taffy for Redmond. Healy and Dillon. The Irish are for the Irish and stand ready to acquiesce in any old policy. credited or discredited. if they are to gain thereby the larger measure of independence they have for so many years longed and striven for. They would gladly shackle British commerce with new restrictions, new taxes, if the consideration is to be a parliament of some kind in Dublin.
 In the United States, there Is some
  tionists at the prospect of England's recanting her free-trade doctrines, There seems small prospect at present; at least that there will ever be any occasion for more than this present chuckle. It Chamberlain, should win, however. and a tax should be clapped on American wheat and corn imported into Great Britain, our purblind tariff race in the United States would get a jolt from the farmer vote. of the West, that would teach them once and for all time that our greatest and wealthi- est customer abroad could no longer be treated as an enemy to be fiouted with | conscienceless duties on their manu- | factures. It would be foolish for Eng land to return to protection. but If she | did it would be an eye-opener to the whole world as to the economic waste
 of the system.
 In the reported resolutions of the