Lord Hartington pointed out that the revolt against Mr. Parnell
had not been of Irish growth, and that the priestly party had not initiated it, till they saw that without the help of an English party they could do nothing effective. If once Home- rule were given, there was no guarantee at all that the priests would not use all their power to thwart England in the future as they had done in the past. And then he passed on to dis- cuss the personal influence of Mr. Gladstone, which he admitted to be enormous, while he denied that Mr. Gladstone ought to be treated as the real leader on any other subject than Ireland. He had never really interested himself in the other measures pressed by the Gladstonian Party, and not only had never interested himself in them, but could not by any possibility carry them, unless he postponed indefinitely his own Irish policy, which he was never tired of describing as taking the front place in the list of measures, and which both he and Mr. Morley are pledged to keep in the front. Now, as both Irish Peers and Irish Members of the Commons would be disestab- lished by the success of any Home-rule Bill, Parliament must be dissolved at once on the passing of any such Bill; so that the next Parliament could certainly not enter on the long revolutionary programme to which the Newcastle Conference pledged Mr. Gladstone and his party.
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