THE "LIBERAL ASSOCIATION" OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—There is a good deal in the complaint of your corre- spondent, Mr. Alfred W. Bennett, that an old Home-ruler can sympathise with. No doubt the reason of the existence of "the body calling itself the 'University of London Liberal Association ' " is the paramount importance in English politics of the Irish Home-rule Question ; and I am afraid I must add, that in all probability the motive-power actuating some of the members is nothing deeper than "hearty sym- pathy with Mr. Gladstone in his efforts to secure a wise and just settlement ;" but please allow me to deny altogether Mr. Bennett's conclusion, that those who consider the terms of settlement proposed by Mr. Gladstone in 1886 neither wise nor just, cannot be members of the Association. The warmest sympathy with a man who seems to us to be aiming at a good end does not imply that we think all his means good (or even that we are sure of his remaining in the same virtuous frame of mind). I should suppose that the private opinion of the majority of the six hundred or so who signed the protest presented to Sir J. Lubbock would be that Mr. Gladstone's Home-rule Bill was about as bad a Bill—all round—as it would be possible for an old and experienced statesman to propose. The disciples of Mr. Gladstone, indeed, find themselves in a position which contrasts very curiously with the mental attitude of the men who followed Grey and Russell in '31, '32, and clamoured for "the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill !" It is some- thing very much like the exact opposite of that, that the Glad- stanians seem to want ; but they are at a loss for a formula by which they can express their desire. I have used the name " Gladstcmian," because I find that there really are a great many men and women who are not displeased at being so described. I do not know whether those who allow themselves to be labelled in this manner mean that they intend to accept any proposal which Mr. Gladstone brings forward, if only it pro- vides for the setting-up of an Irish Parliament more or less independent, or that they are confident that he will bring in some measure which will commend itself to them (though they cannot at present say what provisions would and what would not satisfy them—leaving that for the time when they will know who has proposed what),* but of this Jam quite sure,—" Gladstonianism" means more than "sympathy with efforts to secure a wise and just settlement." Many who feel that sympathy very strongly, many who are unspeakably grateful for the extraordinary turn which events took in the autumn of 1885, and recognise that it is to Mr. Gladstone that is due the fact in English politics to- day which gives us hope that Ireland may be free in the immediate, instead of in the far distant future (and that fact is, of course, the coming into being of the new Home-rule Party), have not forgotten (though history, especially "ancient history," is made quickly nowadays) that this is the same Mr. Gladstone who has used his immense powers and immense influence during almost half-a-century of statesmanship to crush the life out of the Irish national movement. How many members of the London Association feel absolute and utter distrust of Mr. Gladstone in relation to his Irish policy, I do not know. I can, at any rate, answer for one. I hope I am properly grateful to Mr. Gladstone for his magic gift of the deliberately formed opinion (!) of thousands of electors, but Timeo Danaos, et dona ferentes.
May I call your particular attention to the fact that it was mainly owing to the Association that a stalwart Home-rule candidate stood at the last election of a Parliamentary repre- sentative? Mr. Frederic Harrison had not adopted the new theories at the bidding of the old dictator ; he had worked for Home-rule in Ireland long before Mr. Parnell was in Parlia- ment, and long, long before the ordinary " Liberal " had the glimmering of an idea that he would ever find that scheme a, " plank " of his " platform."—I am, Sir, &c., WILLIAM THOMPSON, Member of the Executive Committee of "the body calling itself the University of London Liberal Association.' " Prestvylfa, near Cardiff, April 30th.
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