On Monday there appeared in the Times a letter from
the Duke of Bedford, expressing the hope that his " fidelity to party" was not about to be submitted to so severe a test as any attempt by Mr. Gladstone " to use his power in Parliament to hand over the loyal in Ireland to the dominion of the disloyal." The Duke of Bedford was for a long time a thoroughly loyal supporter of Mr. Gladstone's; and though during the last year or two it has been generally understood that he was somewhat estranged from his leader, he has at least continued to rank as an influential Liberal. Still, we think it would have been in much better taste if he had simply expressed his own views, instead of writing a letter which implies a. sort of threat—a letter which renders it possible to say, that if Mr. Gladstone does not do what the Duke fears, he is merely deterred by the disloyalty of his followers ; while if Mr. Gladstone acts in the way deprecated, after full warning of the result, Mr. Gladstone has elected to break up the Liberal Party. In Wednesday's Times, Earl Fortescue and the Earl of Essex followed the example of the Duke of Bedford. But though Earl Fortescue calla himself nominally a Liberal, it is long since his public ex- pressions have had any but a Conservative bias ; and the Earl of Essex, who is very little known, is described by "Dod " as " a Liberal-Conservative."
Previous page
