ENGLISH POLITICAL NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 242, 12 October 1893, Page 8

ENGLISH POLITICAL NOTES.

{Feom Oor Special Correspondent. )

London, August 25. To-night, at eleven o'clock, tbe long and weary debates on the Homo Rule Bill wil 1 be wound up by tho ' closuring ' of the report stage. In moving the resolution fixing the date for this finale last Monday afternoon. Mr Gladstone spoke v;ith un. accustomed brevity and moderation. The case, he implied, laid in. a nutshell, and every member with a head on hiß shoulders must understand it. The Government ha Ito choose between allowing their Bill to be talked to doath and applying tho ' closure.' Naturally they choso the ' closure.' Mr Chamberlain vehemently doclared thero was no desire on the part of the Opposition to kill tho Bill by time, and was angrily disconcerted by the laughter from both sidos of the House which greeted this statement. He drew himself up, and rather foolishly made it a matter of personal honour. This did not mend tho situation at all, for though ho might answer for his own motives, he couldn't possibly know what was in obher people's minds, tmd besides, tho right honourable gentleman is not quite Leader of the Opposition—yet. Certain it was, as Mr Whitbread pointod out later, thab if the Opposition had intended to make the carrying of the Bill within the year impracticable, they could not have adjusted their means more nicoly to thoir ends. In public as in private life men are presumed to intend bhe natural consequences, of their acts. What, then, tho Government had to face was tho choice between dropping tho Bill and curtailing the debate. If they hud allowed tho minority to prevail, tho wholo world would have jeorod at their feebleness and indecision. The Homo Rule Bill has occupied tbe House 74 days, or nearly twice as long as any othor Bid ever introduced into Parliament. Of these 74 days, 18 have beon spent in Committee, and 10 on reporb. Of tho 58 days tbus composed, 40 ab least were appropriated by the Opposition, leaving barely 18 to Ministers and Ministerialists. In these circumstances it had become, as the Grand Old Man says, ' a public duty' to give the House an opportunity of arriving aba decision. It waa nob because slow progress was being made the Governmenb acted. That might have been an insufficient reason. But no progress was being ..made at all. Nay, there was absolute re--(was. ft

brogression. Every day the House Bab tbe number of amendments increased, and the goal wbb further off.

Joe's Case Against Me Chamberlain.

Mr Chamberlain's usual good luck has deserted him on several occasions lately. Ib vras certainly mosb exasperating thab just when ho was fulminating thunderbolts against the ' closure,' an honourable member should have recollected an article in the 'Nineteenth Century' for 1890, in which Joe took took a very different tone. This 'admirable essay' (a/ tho 'Daily News' calls it), is a masterly performance, and almost every word of it applies to the presenb situation. Mr Chamberlain thore argues that bbc only remedy tor obstruction is a limit of time, thab the majority are responsible for the use they mako of the time allotted to them, and tbab if they choose to waste ib in irrelevances or in personalities, such as comparing the Prime Minister to Herod, that ia their own lookout. This is just the case of the Government. ' There is, however,' remarks tho Radical organ, ' one advantage in tha Prime Minister's method over Mr Chamberlain's." Mr Chamberlain, assuming thab a minoriby must misconduct iteelf, would assign a period at tho outset. The Prime Minister has twice patiently waited until it became perfectly clear that the resistance to the Bill was not being conducted in good faibh. Mr Whitbread followed Mr Chamberlain on Monday evening. He seldom speaks, but whon he does his words carry greab weight. To use the 'Times' savage definition: 'Mr Whitbrerid is the embodied respectability of the Gladstonian parby, and every precaution is taken to prevent familiaribv from reducing the value of his pompous benedictions. Ib is only upon greab occasions bhat he is produced ; but on those occasions when the cracks and flaws and general squalor of the Gladstonian policy ar<* particularly conspicuous, Mr Whitbread appears with putty and varnish to vamp ib up into a temporarily passable appearance.' Translated into plain English, this signifies bhab even Printing House had to admit tho effectiveness of Mr Whitbread's short speech. Tho old gentleman said that for various reasons ho didn'b liko the closure. It was nob congenial to Liberal principles and should only be resorted to in extreme cases. But bhe extremity had now beon reached, eincti it was absolutely vital for the existence of constitutional Government that the majority should have their way. Mr Jesse Collings had threatened to go through tho villages and tell the electors by what means tho Home Rule Bill had been passed through the Houso. Mr Whitbread (with magisterial severity) did not doubt he would tell the truth, bub he hoped ho would tell the whole truth. It would not do to say a large portion ot the Bill had been senb up to the other Houso undiscussed withoub adding that the House had given twico ab much time to tho consideration of the Bill as had boen bestowed upon the most important measure over submitted. Brillianb speeches from Mr Balfour and Sir W. Harcourt wound up the ovening, the, latter scarifying Mr Chamborlain severely by quoting his old self against his new. ' I know the right honorable gentleman too well,' said Sir William, *to attempt to convince him by any authority less than his own.' He also thanked Joo courteously for his virulent exaggeration and personal rancourtowardsMr Gladstone, the effect of which the party gratefully recognised. Everytime Mr Chamberlain lashed his old chief with foul epithets meant addibional vobes to bhe Liberal party.

Abortive Accusations,

Somehow or another the now ' Pall Mall Gazotte ' can't rouso public opinion liko the old ' Pall Mall Gazetto ' could in Stead's day. All three of its recent big sensational attacks have missed firo. The

•Arnold Morley and Bribery and Corruption ' scandal was an absolute fiasco. The' Pall Mall Gazette' says Mr Morley lay low and said nothing because he was guilty. Really, of course, ho suid nothing aftor explaining matters publicly, because his friends considered it unnecessary and ovon undesirable for him to enter on a newspaper ' barney ' with tho ' Pall Mall Gazette.' That, thoy opined, would be playing tbe latter's game. The London Hospital expose also aroused littlo interest. Even from the ' Pall Mall Gazette's' own columns it at last became apparent their ' special commissioner ' had exaggerated considerably. And now we come to the Cordite scandal and Sir F. Abel. A grosser charge against a public official could hardly be tabled. In effect, the " Pall Mall Gazette " accuses Sir Frederick of utilising his position to steal another man's invention. Furthermore it alieges that having annexed Cordite and patented tho now explosive, he, wibhout the consent of the War Office, assigned it for uso abroad. Strange to say, instead of these allegations, metaphorically speaking,' raising Hades,' nobody seems to caro a dump about them. A fow questions are put in the House and answered enigmatically, and the subject ' fizzles ' out. Ono can scarcely marvel at the ' Pall Mall Gazette's' surprise and irritation. ' We chastened tho Postmastor-Goneral and he loy low, and tho harder and more reiterate the chastening tho fluttor and more obdurate the low lying,' erica tho editor angrily. ' We criticised the London Hospital and thoy denied our charges by counter assertion, and the larger our evidence tho more their insistence and the less their argument. Wo attack Sir Frodk. Abel as representing tho worst possiblo abuser of the worst possible abuso. And hero, too, we are mot by the non possumns of guilt. We can only weep editorially, and if the public insist on being fooled, admire bheir simplicity and deplore their want of wit. To us it matters little savo for moral sentiment and a vulgar dislike of wrong doing—to tho public a good deal.' What a melancholy confession is this of presonb weakness and lack of influence to como from a journal with the record of the ■Pall Mall Gazette.'