3 FEBRUARY 1894, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

MR. GLADSTONE'S INDECISION.

WE are not surprised at the political dismay which the indecision expressed in Mr. Gladstone's com- munication from Biarritz, through Sir Algernon West, has spread far and wide since the Pall Mall's premature announcement of Wednesday afternoon. And yet every one must have known perfectly well that even in that high-mettled mind there must necessarily be indecision as to the precise moment at which a statesman of the age of eighty-four, however gallant, whose eyes and ears have both begun to fail in their power of conveying messages between the external world and his own brain, must lay the burden down, and leave to younger menthe command of so arduous and incessant a campaign as that in which he is engaged. But the difference between the impressiveness of the most confident expectation, and of the least decisive verification of an impending event, was never more curiously shown than by the excitement which Mr. Gladstone's frank admission of the struggle which is going on in his mind has caused. Before we were told that Mr. Gladstone's resig- nation had long been under consideration, the public had been rather disposed to acquiesce in his tenacity of pur- pose as a standing miracle, which they expected to go on, as tte medieval doctrine went, "because it was impossible." Their calculat ions were so utterly bewildered by the facts of so unexampled and resolute a defiance of the despotism of time, that they had begun to think they had better speculate on that aspect of the case no more, but rather recognise that here they were bound to be defeated by the astoundingly exceptional character of this remarkable man's organisation. But the moment they received definite assurances from Mr. Gladstone's own mouth, that he felt himself to be fighting against tremendous odds, and that at any moment he might be driven to take the decision which they had so long been expecting him to take, the whole aspect of the case changed. They then felt assured that they were not living in a world of paradoxes, and that they had only antedated a moment which was nevertheless admitted to be close at hand. The announcement of Mr. Gladstone's "permanent" inde- cision was welcome to neither party in the State. The Tories have no wish to see Mr. Gladstone retiring before the Budget has been dealt with, as no one knows whether his retirement may not bring about a change of Government, since the prerogative of the Throne must then revive ; and it will be for the Queen to say whose advice she will then take in the political crisis, and Lord Salisbury is not anxious to grapple with such a problem as a two-million deficit without even knowing how his great antagonist would have proposed to solve it. And, of course, the Gladstonians are perfectly aware that with Mr. Gladstone's resignation all will be chaos amongst them, and that neither Lord Rosebery nor Sir William Harcourt commands the authority to hold together the Irish contingent and the "Commission agents for the Newcastle programme," as Sir William Harcourt delights to call himself and his colleagues. Thus it happens that the glimpse into Mr. Gladstone's uncertainty, which Sir Algernon West's authorised message gave us, was something of a shock to both parties,—to the Gladstonians because the only binding force which kept together their rope of sand appeared to be vanishing ; to the Conservatives because, if their return to power came too soon, they would have had to find resources for a financial crisis of a serious kind, without either any leaning to the favourite device of the Radicals, a graduated Property and Income tax, or any liking for the policy of fastening the whole burden on the backs of the present payers of Income-tax. The Gladstonians know that Glad stonianism without Mr. Gladstone is worse than the play of Hamlet without the character. And Lord Salisbury knows that to be called upon to face, not the issue of Home-rule for Ireland, or no Home-rule, but an issue for which he is unprepared, or how to meet a formidable deficit, provides anything but a favourable opportunity for pushing the claims of Con- servative statesmanship.

The only immediate outcome of the situation is that, for the present, we are to have a suspense Premier, a final authority whom it is unreasonable to regard as 7hkely to ref a'a his authority for many months, and who may not retain it for many weeks or days. A Premiership with a transformation-scene in pre- paration which may come off at any moment, is not a. Premiership to which either party can look with satis- faction. Nothing is more trying than certain uncer- tainty,—the absolute knowledge that the resolve taken on any day not only may be cancelled on the next day, but is as likely as not to be so cancelled. How is it possible to act with decision when no one knows that the mine will not explode before the natural conse- quences of the decision can be garnered in ? If a great commander knew that in case of his falling on the field, the second in command would change the whole strategy of the battle, he would be greatly puzzled how to act ; yet that is Mr. Gladstone's situation, with this aggra- vating circumstance,—that he knows how more than probable it is that he may fall on the field at any moment, and how great an effort it takes to retain his place unflinchingly from moment to moment. Under these circumstances, how is he to act ? Is he to make believe very much that if he falls, his lieutenant will stand in his place and give just the orders which he would have given ? or is he to assume that after him will come the deluge, and an immediate reversal of all he has done ?' No situation could be more trying and unnerving to a statesman already shaken by many perplexities, than this complete uncertainty as to what will follow his impending resignation.

Nor could anything be much more trying to a party than the same certain uncertainty. What is the good of pressing on strenuously with a policy which may be on the very eve of an abrupt catastrophe ? We suspect that the real effect of this suspensive Premiership will be, so long as it lasts, a paralysis of all practical effort, together with a very great increase in the susceptibilities of political feeling. Every one knows how much the nerves are strained in private life by a long suspense where there is no opening for fruitful energy of a practical kind. The only effect is extreme irritability and sensitiveness. And that in just what we expect in the present instance. The Glad- stonian papers are very anxious to show that Mr. Glad- stone's deep sense of the uncertainties of the situation will keep him true to his post up to the last possible moment. He will not endure, they say, to give a prema- ture triumph to his foes in the House of Lords. Possibly not. We cannot answer for what Mr. Gladstone's atti- tude of mind towards the House of Peers may be. But we question greatly whether it is really as much for the advantage of the Gladstonians that the crisis should le postponed, as his followers in the Press appear to think. We should, in their place, rather desire that the crash should come than that it should be postponed, that the crash should come early rather than late, that it should appear soon whether Mr. Gladstone is to be succeeded by one of his colleagues or by one of his opponents, and that the difficulty of the financial situation should be taken ap by some one, whether on the side of the Government or on that of the Opposition, who may at least have some little security cf tenure, and not be liable to a sudden catastrophe. If the uncertainty is prolonged and intensified, what -we should look for with some confidence would be a relaxa- tion of Ministerial energy, and an increase of Ministerial susceptibility,—which would result in scenes very un- favourable to the prospects of the present Administra- tion, and very far from conducive to their dignity and self-respect.