22 DECEMBER 1888, Page 3

Lord Hartington also made some very weighty remarks on the

new forcing to the front of Radical cries,—such as "One man, one vote," Disestablishment in Scotland and Wales, the enfranchisement of leaseholds, free education, &cc. He entirely acquitted Mr. Gladstone of having thus entirely revolutionised the "authorised programme" of 1885 merely to gain office. But he pointed out that in 1885 Mr. Gladstone vat forth his "authorised programme" at a time when he wished to secure the support of the Moderate Liberals ; and that now, having completely alienated the Moderate Liberals by his Irish policy, he is compelled to bid for the support of the ultra-Radicals, and that this new pro- gramme is the natural and necessary result. That is a very just and true explanation of the new policy. Mr. Gladstone has now repudiated his own "authorised programme" of 1885, and embraced a programme more sensational than even the "unauthorised programme" of that year, in obedience to that stern law of political necessity which compels a leader in urgent need of followers, to pay all the followers he can attract in the sort of coin they themselves dictate.