TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE LIBERALS AND THE LEADERSHIP.
chosen He has declared over and over again, with only such reserve as every sensible man must make when he speaks of the future and its exigencies, that he does not look forward to any official future." Of course he has. That is precisely the reason why those who think that the difference to the strength and the enthusiasm of Liberals, between his remaining where he is and coming forward once more,—for a short time at least—as the acknowledged Leader, will be some- thing enormous, desire to impress upon those who are our leaders the vast importance of getting him to reconsider his determination. If the cause gains greatly by it, as the Daily News does not deny, and seems implicitly even to admit when it calls him not only the popular, but almost the national leader of the reaction against the policy of Lord Beaconsfield, it does not seem to be matter of doubt that it would be a good and patriotic course in our present leaders to do all that in them lies to persuade Mr. Gladstone that the exigency has, in fact, arisen to which his very proper reserve in speaking of his intention not to take the leadership again, must obviously apply. The Daily News grounds its objection to this view on the rather unintelligible suggestion that it tends to excite a division in the Liberal camp, to divide the Liberals into Gladstonites and Granville-cum- Hartingtonites. Why, the very motive of the proposal is that the people of England and Scotland have shown, in a hundred different ways, that while they have sufficient con- fidence in Lord Granville and Lord Hartington, they feel that confidence in them because, and so far as, they have followed in the recent crisis the lead of Mr. Gladstone, In default of a better leader, we are all anxious to sup- port the leaders we have. But none the less we must point to the fact that Mr. Gladstone's name elicits from the Liberal party all over the island a response of a kind -which is not given in the same degree even to Lord Hartington, and which, we may add, is not given to him in the same degree for very sufficient reasons, Firstly, he is not nearly so well known, though he is profoundly respected so far as he is known, Next, he was slow to adopt Mr. Gladstone's policy in relation to foreign affairs, and only has adopted it very gradually, and only in proportion as the response which it elicited from the nation became more and more evident. The people recollect, and cannot help recollecting, that when Mr. Gladstone brought forward his Resolutions in the spring of 1877, Lord Hartington refused all support to those of the resolutions which insisted on the principle of concerted European action, and even intimated that he would not support the earlier resolutions in relation to Turkey, unless the later ones, which suggested concert with all the Powers, Russia included, were virtually withdrawn. No doubt, since the crisis of 1877, all the tepid Liberals of that era have come round to Mr. Gladstone's view. We hear now on all sides,—from those who did their best to obstruct Mr. Gladstone's foreign policy then, no less than from those who supported it,—that the true principle in relation to the Eastern Question would have been concerted action, and that the great initial blunder of the Government was the re- jection of that concert, in the curt refusal of the Berlin Memoranda.
But who has brought round our present leaders to this view, except Mr. Gladstone, and the influence which he has exerted on the country ? If the Liberals obtain a majority in the next Parliament, it will be Mr. Gladstone who will have found them that majority. If the Liberal policy is universally ap.
proved, it will be Mr. Gladstone who has gained that approval... In short, if we have the Liberals in power without Mr. Gladstone, we shall have this most uncomfortable and unconstitutional position,—that a leader outside the Cabinet will have more real power with the country than the Cabinet, itself. Now, such a situation as this would be, we say, a really dangerous one. Power and responsibility should always go together. Nothing could be more uncomfortable, more embarrassing, for a Liberal Government than to feel that they will hold office just because Mr. Gladstone conferred it upon them, and indeed, they may almost say, ea long only as Mr.. Gladstone approves their retaining it, We should call such a situation mortifying to the Cabinet, and most unsatisfactory to the party. The Liberal leaders have a right to go to Mr. Glad- stone and say to him, " It is you who have converted the country to our common views. So far as we ever differed from you, the country went with you, and not with us ; and it is you who really command the confidence which it expresses in us only because we agree with you, Circumstances have forced your hand. Lord Beaconsfield's policy rendered it impossible for you to keep silence, and so soon as you spoke our voices were hardly heard, It is only right that you should square the ostensible situation with the admitted facts of the case, by taking up once more, for however limited a period, the responsibility you cannot really avoid. It is. only fair to us that you should do so. And it is still more essential to the success of the Liberal cause that you should do so. It is you who really embody that cause. Heartily as we now go with you, it is to you not to us,. that the country turns ; and if you will not lead us, popular. power and responsibility will not really be concentrated in the same hands. Therefore, we entreat you to look the facts of the case fully in the face, and resume, at least for a. time, the position into which events, unexpected and unde- sired, at once by you and by us, have involuntarily forced you." That seems to us the line which our leaders ought to take with Mr. Gladstone, at once for their own sake, and for the sake of the cause which he represents. If they do not succeed in their representations, well and good. We shall all support them heartily, and all the more heartily that they have done their best, both for their own dignity and for their great cause. But if they do not honestly take this course,. though we sincerely trust that all Liberals will still exert themselves to the utmost to win a victory, who can reasonably expect as much enthusiasm and vigour as might be expected, if they had done all that in them lies to put the true leader foremost ? In that case—even if they fail in their endeavour—anybody who has beers convinced by Mr. Gladstone, anybody who desires to express, his confidence in him by his vote, will know that he can express it no better than by voting for the Liberal party under. its present leaders. But will he feel the same if this course is not taken, and taken with that kind of energy most calcu- lated to ensure success ? We fear not. Many Liberals will then feel that one great security for victory has been need- lessly thrown away, and that there is either a self-interest- or a languor at head-quarters which is of bad omen for the prospects of the cause. The Daily News asserts that "Lord Granville and Lord Hartington have for many years had the labour of conducting the Liberal party, through a period of Opposition more diffieult and more trying than any that it has known since the Reform Ad of 1832." That is quite true, and we owe them much for what they have done. But it is by no means true that it is their views or their speeches which have really determined the present policy and the present strength of the Liberal party. Without Mr, Gladstone, the policy of the Liberal party would not be what it is ; indeed, Lord Hartington and his colleagues were at one time, as we have already indicated, in direct conflict with him,. and it is his policy, not theirs, which has triumphed, and which they, no less than he, now support. Moreover, without Mr. Gladstone, the strength of the Liberal party would still less be what it is ; we do not, indeed, feel absolutely sure that without him it could now boast of a dominant strength at all. How, then, can our present leaders,—whose shrewd' and strong characters we all appreciate,—better earn for themselves the gratitude of the country, than by urging on Mr. Gladstone the obvious teaching of "the logic of facts,".— namely, that he ought to be accepted once more as the confessed leader of those who have been convinced by his speeches, attracted by his personal character, and kindled into enthusiasm by his political ardour ?
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