Mr. Gladstone was entertained at dinner last Saturday, at the
National Liberal Club, by the Scottish Liberal Members. In replying to the toast of his health, he declared that he would have nothing to do with any solution of the Irish Question which would not be accepted by Ireland, and also nothing to do with any solution of it which would, in his view, " threaten to impair, or does not conduce or tend to consolidate, the unity of the Empire." But the two conditions imposed are of a very different order. The one depends on Mr. Parnell's will, the other on Mr. Gladstone's own sanguine temperament; and we tan hardly doubt that in the future, as in the past, Mr. Gladstone will have no difficulty in persuading himself that whatever he can induce Mr. Parnell to assent to, will " conduce and tend to consolidate the unity of the Empire." Unfortunately, what Mr. Gladstone thinks likely " to conduce or tend to consolidate the unity of the Empire," most of us think absolutely certain to break it up.
