LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1841, 16 January 1880, Page 3

LONDON LETTER.

fFBOM THE PBEBS OOBBESPONDEKT.] LONDON, December 4.

Mr Gladstone has stormed Midlothian, but it remains to be seen with what effect, for the result appears to us at this distance to be wonderfully small for so gigantic an effort. Ho did not rely on himself alone. Knowing the enormous help of a little female influence on a constituency, he sot off from his home in Cheshire with his wife and daughter on a visit to the Earl and Countess of Rosebery, at their beautiful home at Dalmeny, about half a dozen miles from the Scottish capital. Their noble hostess has done her best for Mr Gladstone’s success, for on the only day last week when he allowed himself a brief respite from public speaking, she arranged a morning reception at her house, and gave an evening party in order that the right hon. gentleman and his family might make the more personal acquaintance of soma of the leading electors. Outside the gates of Dalmeny Mr Gladstone has poured forth an avalanche of oratory. It had been arranged for him that his attack on the Beaconsfield administration should be divided into three parts, and that one part should be addressed to the electors at Edinburgh, another at Dalkeith, where his opponent lives, and the third in another direction at West Oalder. But who shall measure Mr Gladstone’s powers of talking ? Ho made speeches at every stopping station on his long journey to Scotland; he spoke the third of his arranged speeches a week ago, and ho is still in Scotland and still speaking. The people of Edinburgh were not satisfied with one speechThey heard him make one address, a report of which would more than fill an entire page of the Fbbss ; they read two others, delivered on successive afternoons and equally voluminous. The papers reported smaller speeches almost without number, yet still the enthusiasm of the Scotch for the man who talked to them in their own words, but in a tone that seemed better fitted for Italian, was not sated, and they obtained from him two more speeches last Saturday. The first of these was of the usual enormous length; the second was obliged to be much shorter, or there is no knowing what would have become of the tremendous crowd that stood up in Waverley Market hours before Mr Gladstone arrived.

But after all these words, which may bo reckoned by ter a of thousands, and which must now remain unanswered by any Minister of importance for at least a fortnight to come, what is the probable effect on the coming contest in Midlothian ? I think very little. Mr Q-ladstone.has attacked everything, from faggot votes to finance, and ho makes out all to be alike disastrous to the country. Not a little amusement has been caused by the "Edinburgh Courant” having discovered and published the fact that Mr Gladstone was himself, though many years ago, a claimant for a faggot vote, but an unsuccessful one, though he tarried the matter to a Court of Appeal, Hence perhaps his dislike to this kind of franchise. In Edinburgh, too, where his success was naturally greater, from an oratorical point of view, his audience comprised but very few whose names are on the register of voters for Midlothian. Perhaps his weakest point is the constant denunciation of that foreign policy which is not the work of Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury alone, but received the support of largo and frequent majorities in the House of Commons, and has throughout secured the hearty approval of all the beat and moat disinterested politicians

abroad. On domestic topics, Mr Gladstone is, perhaps, able to make out a better case, and he can make a peculiarly strong appeal to people who have to pay a very heavy income tax ; but neither of these subjects is likely to exercise much influence on the result of an election’ in a Scotch county, and Lord Dalkeith’s friends still feel confident that he and not Mr Gladstone will represent them in the next House of Commons.

Somehow a suspicion has got abroad in England that all this vehemence is not intended for Midlothian alone, but is intended more to rouse up a feeling in the English constituencies with a view to replace Mr Gladstone at the head of the Liberal party whenever circumstances may cause its return to power. It may bo so, but it would bo about the meanest thing that a statesman of Mr Gladstone’s position could contrive. Ho is not the first Prime Minister who has suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the constituencies, nor will he he the last. tho change comes tho Queen is constitutionally bound to send for Lord Hartington, and then we shall probably see a remarkable struggle for place and power. At present all that seems very far off, yet none can tell now near it may be. Were the dissolution to come now it is hard to say that any distinct issue of domestic interest could be raised, or if it could be whether it would be listened to. We had a remarkable instance last week of the apathy of the public in purely social struggles. Quite recently many provincial School Board elections had taken place, and from all the towns there came the same report of very much fewer people voting than on any former occasion, though then but ’a mere fraction of the ratepayers took the trouble to go to tho poll. In London there was Ihe same result, only in a very much more striking degree. The London School Board consists of fifty members, of whom forty-six had to be elected last week, the other four being returned without opposition in one outlying division. Ever since tho issue of the Order in Council, now about ten weeks before, fixing the date of the election, nearly one hundred candidates had been in the field, and for a good portion of the time had held meetings almost every night in the week. Great expenses were incurred by some of the candidates, and, in one instance I am told, nearly as much money has been spent as would have sufficed to pay the cost of a contested Parliamentary election. Yet, although they have had to pay very heavily for this School Board education, and have seen their money extravagantly spent, scarcely a fourth of the ratepayers took the trouble to vote. The result of the election is, however, in two respects remarkable : the policy of tho old Board has been approved in tho main, and there seems an increasing desire to let women have a share in directing the educational work of London. There were four ladies on the old Board ; there are nine in the new one.

The prompt action of the Irish executive in arresting three leaders of the land and anti-rent agitation for the seditious language they used at the Gurteen meeting a few weeks ago, has had a most salutary effect. It has entirely put a stop to those Sunday afternoon demonstrations in Ireland, and although a a good deal of bluster has been caused in London, and in a few of the larger provincial towns where there are Hibernian colonies, yet they do not cause any appreciable harm. The three prisoners all stand committed to take their trial at the next Sligo assizes, and although it may be difficult to procure a conviction, yet the fact that the Government is determined to put down all Communist agitation, and the knowledge that at any moment coercive measures might be applied, will have a powerful effect. The Resident Magistrate at Sligo soon performed his duty. He eat one day to hear briefly the evidence against Mr John Daly, editor of the “ Connaught Telegraph,” and the next day disposed of the case against the ticket of leave Fenian, Michael Davitt. Both these he released on bail, and it is a significant fact that Davitt immediately returned to England, where, as long as he keeps within moderate bounds, he is safe. The third man, Mr J. D. Killen, the barrister, remains in custody, because a “patriotic” solicitor, the notorious John Rea, of Belfast, would not allow his client to offer bail. There was a widely spread rumor that Mr Parnell, the member for Limerick, the chief of the obstructionists in the House of Commons, and the loader of this anti-rent movement, was also to be arrested, but this did not prove to be true, yet Mr Parnell, with a discretion that he does not commonly exercise, thought it prudent to leave Ireland, and make himself scarce in England. Foreign affairs, and particularly the affairs of Turkey, still engage a largo share of public attention, though it must be confessed that all our recent exhibition of firmness towards the Porte has ended, as all previous efforts have done, in promises from the Sultan, and promises which were broken almost as soon as they were made. Admiral Hornby, you will recollect, lay at Malta with his squadron. It has been denied that he issued an order to the fleet to bo prepared to move eastward in a few days, but there can bo no doubt that he was himself under orders from the Admiralty to be prepared to move into Turkish waters on the receipt of a telegram from the First Lord. While Sir Henry Layard was giving personal explanations to the Sultan on this matter, Musurus Pasha was having daily interviews with Lord Salisbury in London, and making the most earnest protestations of the Sultan’s intention to reform the administration of the whole of his dominions. There is no reason to doubt that if the Sultan had his own way we should soon see something done, but there are his ministers, and they will do nothing. All the good intentions have so far come to nothing. Baker Pacha, the Englishman, was to be sent to Asia Minor to be the Sultan’s representative, and to prepare a plan of reforms. Then it was thought that his powers would be too extensive, and so they were curta ; led. Next the wording of the firman or warrant of appointment did not please somebody, and so that had to be modified. All this necessitated delay, so he has not yet departed on his journey, and Turkish reforms stand just where they did a month ago. France is witnessing the gradual rise of M. Gambetta to the post of Prime Minister. The French Parliament has returned to Paris, where it has not sat since the fall of the Empire, and this week has witnessed a most extraordinary amount of “ wire pulling,” all intended to effect, more or less rapidly, the downfall of the present Cabinet under M. Waddington. It is not do easy to say what the present Government in Franco has failed to do, for their foreign policy has been one of remarkable prudence, and their domestic affairs are well attended to, their finance in particular being in a much better position than ours in England. But then the Opposition are so much more Radical, and have so many ultra-Republican ideas, which they seem determined to use as so many levers wherewith to raise their favorite M. Gambetta to power. It has been evident, over since he became President of the Chamber of Deputies, that ho was the r al loader of the House, and not M. Waddington, He evidently feels this, and his unwillingness to be moved out of a comfortable post into an office of ceaseless trouble has hitherto had a great restraining power on his admirers. But things are evidently coming to a crisis. M. Waddington is thoroughly tired of being regarded as the loader of a Ministry on sufferance, and two ego boldly challenged the House to a debate on a question of want of confidence. His sudden display of firmness has astonished everybody, but it has not quieted his opponents, who met yesterday and resolved to do battle with him. sThe fight will probably take place early next week, and it is thought that M. Waddington will win a temporary victory. All London was perfectly astounded yesterday afternoon by the receipt of the startling news that another daring attempt had been made to take the life of the Czar, and more than usual commiseration was felt for him on account of the fact that while ho has been travelling northwards to Moscow, the Empress is lying at Cannes, in the south of France, so ill indeed that it is doubtful w) ether she will recover. But Alexander, the Emperor of all the Russians, was obliged to hasten homewards, for there is no peace for anyone in authority in that despotic Empire. His escape this time is nothing short of marvellous. A tremendous mine had been dug below the railway along which ho was to travel, and how astute the Nihilists are, and how secret their plans are kept, may be judged from the fact that this explosive pit, which must have taken weeks to prepare, was dug almost within sight of the Moscow terminus. It is common on all railways to send a pilot train in advance of the royal train, and the departure from that practice on this occasion saved the Emperor’s life. He travelled by the first train, and only his servants and baggage by the second, which was completely wrecked. “ There’s a divinity doth hedge a King,” oven though the King may not deserve it,