LORD BEACONSFIELD MANIFESTO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 372, 4 June 1880, Page 19

LORD BEACONSFIELD MANIFESTO.

The most important electioneering manifesto which has been issued is that of the Prime Minister addressed in the form of a letter to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Beneath its pompous phrases the artful purpose is transparent of appealing to whatever of anti-Irish prejudice may exist in English constituencies for support on the ground that the present Government alone is able to prevent Ireland from severing " the constitutional tie which unites it to Great Britain in that bond which has favoured the power and prosperity of both." Lord Beaconsfield hopes that " all men of light aud leading will resist this destructive doctrine." The men of light and leading appealed to, we suppose, are the English electors, who, it is hoped, thus flattered by the Prime Minister, may return an overwhelming majority of staunch and bigoted Tories, able to set the demands of the Irish party on all Irish or Catholic parties at defiance. Lord Beaconsfield, in his manifesto, then has a fling at the Liberals and their leaders, who, notoriously, in view of the coming elections, are nervously afraid of being supposed to favour the inquiry into the Home Rule question demanded, as a test of confidence, by Irish electors. Having proclaimed it as a first duty of an English Minister to maintain the unity and uphold the imperial character of this realm, Lord Beaconsfield exclaims : —

" And yet there are some who challenge the expediency of the imperial character of this realm. Having attempted, and failed, to enfeeble our colonies by their policy of decomposition, they may, perhaps, now recognise in the disintegration of the United Kingdom a mode which will not only accomplish, but precipitate their purpose. The immediate dissolution of Parliament will afford an opportunity to the nation to decide .upon a course which will materially influence its future fortunes and shape its destiny. Rarely in this century haa there been an occasion more critical. The power of England and the peace of Europe will largely depend on the verdict of the country." Lord Beaconsfield afterwards declares that Her Majesty's ministers have succeeded in maintaining peace, and asserts that peace cannot be obtained by the passive principle of non-intervention, and the Prime Minister ends with the characteristic piece of bombast that " Peace reßts on the presence, not to say the ascendancy, of England in the Councils of Europe." A fudge for this bombastic manifesto I — Universe.