The Duke of Devonshire spoke at Henley on Monday, and
treated the Linlithgowshire by-election as a clear sign of the turn of the tide in Scotland. He said that it was declared by their opponents to have been lost by the proposal to dis- establish the Scotch Church. Very likely it was. But then, what had obliged Mr. Gladstone to propose disestablishing. the Scotch Church P Only the wish to gain adherents for his Home-rule scheme, and now it was evident that this mau. ceuvre had failed. The Diseetabliahment bait had not proved attractive, but repulsive; yet the Liberals had felt no con- fidence in Home-rule without Disestablishment, and therefore it was that they tried the double lure which had turned out inadequate. The Duke insisted strenuously that the Union was an agreement between the three Kingdoms; and that if the terms of Union are to be revised, each of the three King- doms should have the opportunity of separately reconsidering its attitude in relation to new conditions of union. As the American Union was submitted for ratification to the several States which were to compose it, so the new terms of union between England, Scotland, and Ireland should be separately submitted to England, Scotland, and Ireland for their assent. The Duke said that it 'made him sick "to think of the Union being tampered with by such hands as those which are now drawing up the terms of a new agreement. There were evident signs that Mr. Gladstone's own party is disintegrating, and that the Liberals were feeling the utmost disgust at the pros- peat of wasting a whole Session on a Bill which every one knows can never be passed into law. While every one admired Mr. Gladstone's courage, every one knew that it was being wasted on an absolutely impossible enterprise. The Duke is right. Mr. Gladstone is a Don Quixote charging windmills instead of storming an ordinary barricade.
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