THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1886.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7567, 20 February 1886, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1886.

At length Mr. Gladstone appears to have announced his plan of action in the House. His intimation is to the effect that he would accept the Address-in-Reply to the Speech from the Throne prepared by the Salisbury Government, with the addition of Mr. Jesse Colling's amendment, calling attention to the desirableness of the land being subdivided into small allotments for the benefit of the people. This is nothing more than was to be looked for, as professedly the Ad dress-in-Reply was found fault with, not on account of what it contained, but of what it had omitted, and because Mr. Gladstone had supported the above amendment on which the Conservative Government had been outvoted. In stating, however, that he would accept of no further amendments, Mr. Gladstone signified to the House that if any additional amendment were moved and carried he would consider that as a vote of no confidence, and would either resign or ask for a dissolution. This may be regarded as a hint to the wavering Liberals to make up their minds either to accord his Ministry their support or to make up their minds for the consequences which might flow from their defection. It is also intended to be an intimation to Mr. Parnell and his followers that unless they place implicit confidence in him respecting the special character of his proposals for the pacification of Ireland which he means to submit, and give him their support unquestioningly at the initial stage of his new administration, the questions they are concerned about may be allowed to go to the wall. The tacit stipulation thus made is that he shall not at present be interrogated as to the precise nature of his proposals for dealing with Irish affairs; and the promise is given that these will be submitted immediately after the 22nd of March, at which date the Budget is to be unfolded. In other words a bribe, in the form of a threat, to remain quiescent is offered them. In fact, his statement assumes the aspect of a threat all round. It amounts to this, that if the Moderate Liberals and Parnellites will not consent to allow him, first of all, to fortify his position by the enunciation of his financial policy, and favour an attempt to imperil this position by insisting thus early on knowing the main features of his Irish policy, he will abandon the task of shaping, under present conditions, the legislation of the country. There cannot be any mistake about that being the fair interpretation of the announcements Mr. Gladstone has made, and it remains to be seen how they will be received by the House.

It is impossible to avoid having the impression that the course thus chosen by the Premier betrays the consciousness of great weakness. Apart altogether from the impolicy of resorting to covert threats, which, as a rule, only hasten the misfortune deprecated, it must be admitted that this course of action is not calculated to gain the confidence it is meant to bespeak. Coml ing as it does so swiftly on the heels of his declared wish to postpone indefinitely the enunciation of his Irish policy, it is calculated to awaken, not only distrust, but also keen opposition. In fact, the intimation of, his desire to defer formulating his proposals for meeting the Irish demands had, as the cables told us, already created suspicions of his good faith, and to this the shortening of the delay now announced is sure to be attributed. The consequence is likely to be that the limitation of the postponement will intensify the suspicion instead of allaying it. Mr. Parnell and his followers, not to speak of others, will ascribe the change to fear, not to generosity. They will naturally infer that, if Mr. Gladstone had not anticipated that 1 the consequence of his failing to announce his Irish policy at once, as his action when in Opposition had led them to would lead to a combination for the overthrow of his Government, he would not so soon have altered his purpose. They will, moreover, feel inclined to maintain that the shortening of the period of uncertainty has not improved the situation; that his aim still is to gain time for so strengthening his position as to render him independent of the Parnellite vote, and enable him then to adapt his Irish policy as circumstances may render it expedient. That this is the way in which the Parnellite party will reason need not be questioned, and that their reasoning thus would be sound is also undeniable. They are as capable of detecting a device as Mr. Gladstone and his coadjutors are in making one; and, in view of the announcement that nothing is to be said at present about the Irish proposals of the Government, they will intuitively put a specific meaning on the concurrent statements of the Premier, that the Address-in-Reply of the Conservative Government and their policy in regard to the Eastern question would be substantially adhered to. These statements they will regard as a bid for. the Conservative vote to enable, the Liberal Government to propound and carry measures for the pacification of Ireland, such as the Home Rule party could not be satisfied with. In a word, the construction that will be put upon Mr. Gladstone's modified action is that it is the intention of the Ministry to play the Parnellites false, • and to submit such proposals respecting the Irish question as will both avert a rupture in their own party and secure from the Conservative party that support which their declared aversion to Home Rule might dispose the majority of its members to give. All this the Parnellites are shrewd enough to detect, and perceiving that

their only opportunity of pinning the Gladstone Ministry to a definite course regarding Ireland, is to require its divulgence now, they are morally certain to resort to such tactics as will command this result, The probabilities therefore are that they will Boon give notice of a motion which will have the effect of compelling the Gladstone Ministry to declare themselves on the question of Home Rule without further loss of time. ' In this event Mr. Gladstone would only be practicing a deception upon himself if he were to rely on the Conservative vote. He has no claim on the forbearance of his opponents, since he extended none to them. And he is, moreover, mistaken if he expects them to allow themselves to be placed in the dilemma of either having to support him or to stultify themselves by voting for Home Rule. If a motion were proposed affirming the principle of Home Rule, the Conservatives as a body would probably leave the House, and present to the Government the alternatives of either declaring in favour of it or of forfeiting the allegiance of the Parnellite party. But Mr. Parnell is tactician enough to avoid making such a mistake as is here supposed. Any motion submitted by him will have as its object to force the hand of the Government, and compel them to declare their Irish policy forthwith. In this course he might rely with certainty on the support of the whole Conservative party, and a considerable number of the Moderate Liberals besides. The days of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry would again be numbered in that case ; unless, indeed, although this is very unlikely, a dissolution and an appeal to the country were allowed him.