6 DECEMBER 1890, Page 18

We have no doubt at all that Mr. Gladstone will

decline to give any pledge of the kind desired. If he were to give it, he would lose a great proportion of his English following. And if he refuses it, he will lose for a time the whole of his Irish following. Yet there is no third alternative open. Mr. Parnell is determined that he shall say either Yes' or No,' or that, if he does not, the answer shall be taken as equivalent to No.' And on that point Mr. Parnell's influence in Ireland will be supreme. We have ourselves little doubt that the answer will be No.' And in that case, there seems no reason to think that Mr. Parnell will be deposed. But if not deposed, he will make the Irish Party as hostile to Mr. Gladstone in 1891 as it was in 1881.