THE Marlborough Express Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, JULY,16, 1886. MR. GLADSTON'S DEFEAT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXII, Issue 166, 16 July 1886, Page 2

THE Marlborough Express Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, JULY,I6, 1886. MR. GLADSTON'S DEFEAT.

' ' •,: *.T .:;.:■: * i t. 7. A ' , iT.may be-tuken for granted, although! ' the elections are not all over, that the! Home Rule came has* received a crushing defeat m Great Britain,'^nd that Mr Gliid^ronU's' resignation's a matter: 61 "certainly. ' The most "; tlaring and J noble attempfever made' 'by an Eng- ; lish st.\tesn\an, toj.rendpr ? jiutica. to Ireland < Has* %ifed ? ?*for- ■ the present; : 'thdugli'jiistide cannot be long delayed oven if a'Tory Ministry has to concede, ifc. History is not unlikely to repeat 'itself-; and,' ■ jiutt as Sir'Rob^rtf^Peel •';dished the Wliigs" over thelCnrn Liws,'Lord Salisbury ' ari^'-Lnrd Ran- : "dolph Churchill may " dish the Radicals " x»Ver; Hprntf Rule'. ■ Our deepest sympathies: have ever been with the Irish .cause, and, though .>it is not so near to victory aa : a few months ago it | seemed to be,. Mr Parnell will be the 7 Premier, of an Irish mah Irish Parliament on College Green within the ' next few years. Every liber,ai-minded-Eug)iahtriarj will fondly . hope that to Mr Gladstone will, after all, be committed the diity oE^ doing this gteat act of justice.' • He has failed m the attempt this time, and it would; : indeed be the very irony of fate if thei Tories should do his work for him, by selling the Ulster Orangemen and purchasing a lease of power, throngh granting the Nationalists' demands. For the sake of England as well as of Ireland, 'we '{trust' .the day/ is not far distant when Mr, GladstpneV faraeeirig' and comprehensive schemes 1 will be, carried into effect. His defeat to-day is indeed a rout. From a powerful Minister with an obedient Cabinet and a willing majority , of :; Liberals, Radicals, and: Home Rulers at his luclc, he has become the head of a minority which, leaving out the Home Rulers, would be almost despicable. In England the voice of counties and boroughs, except m "the great labor centre's' of the north, 'has gone against him, though Scotland and Wales have been true to. the cause of progress m Che van of which they have placed themselves for the last lift.y years. Irishmen should remember that the opinion of Scotland and Wales to-day invariably becomes the realised legislation of to-morrow. The Homeß\ile phalanx has been sent ; back to the House of Commons as compact as ever, and the avowed policy of coercion, which is the sole : stock iin^trade of : the Tories, will have to meet eighty J?arlia- , mentary tacticians, rebels against their will, bitrerfoes of English bayonet rule, 1 and skilled m every form of obstruction, Tt is to ho hoped that tho

middle classes uf Euulaud which have been so alarmed; by the threat 3 of a rising m Ulster will not have to face aimed insurrections, nightly outrages, ruined trade,^starving peafahtSj^iiQ-' limifced boycotting, and no rent-paying m Munster and Oonnaught. Those who haveWrejected Mr Gladstone's message of'peac^ have made their bed, and Eliey "nliVsT lro"ih it: They have preferred .an Orange .incendiary like. Lord Randolph Churchill to the Nes--tor-ofSfcafcesnianahip, .and, they. liiuatjj take the consequences. Many causes have combined to defeat JMr 'Gladstone. , The Home Rule sfchehie c^rhe Uipoh the,, English people wjith too great [ suddennessl audit isj probable,; as fin ab.leJar^fele/in»thefLosi(loh Ecohomiat points out, that had Sir Gladstone "ex- ■, plained his scheme to the people at .the last. election the Tories would have been returned to power, and/ that if ? he' had explained it to 'his .colleagues m advance he would not have been able to for m his Cabinet . It is charged against Mr Gladstone that he did not take the country into his conGdeuce at all, '.and that he consulted his colleagues very little, before he launched his plan for the better Government of Ireland. The staunchest supporters of that' plan must admit that there is foundation for such a charge. The British system of Cabinet Government has broken down m the hands of a masterful statesman like Mr Gladstone. ".Tne Premier, on (Men t in hU intentions, secure m his genius, and perhaps a little elated by uubrokon success," saj'3 tho Economist, " lias treated the Cabinet not as a commit reo of colleagues, but as one. of. those IJ )ard:i so well known 'in our administrative system m which there is virtually only a president. Mr Gladstone, it ia now .officially admitted, formed his Cabinet without any explanation to his colleagues of his principal project, and, when it was formed, left them still m ignorance. Thpy knew vaguely that he had an idea on the subject of Home Riile, but Home Rule may mean anything from separation be-, tweeh England and^relaud to an extensive scheme ofloc.il county government^ and of its detail* thej knew absolutely nothing." Mr Chamberlain and MrTrevelyan withdrew from the .Cabinet when they discovered the extent to which their chief was disposed to go,, and became leaders m the war against him. Old colleagues, like the Marquis of Hartington and Mr Goschen, were not sufficiently m harmony with popular jiirdgress- to;go with- hifn ; and .even. Mr liright was led by his middle class sympathies and non-conformist ; narxQwness to become <a j jpronounoecL^opponent. ■ To John Bright's hostility, and to the fear of the English middle classes that Home Rule meant Rome) .Rule, Mr Gladstone's defeat may very largely be attributed. Too .. imperious and hasty he^ may have , been ia : staking his political life upon so vast a scheme of Irish self-government, and too forgetful of the BelGah and sectarian prejudices which it takes so little to arouse m the English masses. But having put his hand to the. plough Mr Gladstone cannot look back. ,The fight for justice, which he has entered upon, and the effort to exalt the English people ibove insular and religious prejudices, can finish, so far as he is concerned, only with his death. So many of his trusted followers have forsaken him and fled, that there is no one to step into his shoes. Mr Gladstone ia 77 years' of age— but statesmen are notoriously long-livers.