For that at least all Liberals will give Lord Hartington
credit ; nor would his acceptance of the office of Prime Minister at least,—had that been possible,—have been misunderstood by any instructed Liberal. That it might have been mis- understood by uninstructed Liberals, we will not deny. But the exigency of the moment seems to us so serious, that we would have risked much misunderstanding to secure a govern- ment of Ireland in which the people of Great Britain would have had confidence. As it is, we fear that we shall be driven back upon the old set of either cut-and-dried Conservatives or in- triguing Tories, of whom we fear the last much the most. Lord
Salisbury is hampered by his own too recent indiscretions in relation to Ireland; but that difficulty, of coarse, he cannot avoid. We trust that if he should be compelled to form a Government devoid entirely of any Liberal elements, he will at least gravely consider the danger of including within it any- thing like specially repulsive Tory elements. Lord Randolph Churchill is, we hear, on his way back from Copenhagen, and, of course, he will have great claims on Lord Salisbury. But if the Moderate Liberals are to have any confidence in the new Government, it would certainly not be wise to include in it the author of the offensive address to the electors of South Paddington. Superfluity of Tory naughtiness is not the sort of quality to attract Liberal support, whether Unionist or Radical. Yet that precisely describes Lord Randolph's chief source of
power. - -
