and Mr. Balfour. question. No sooner had he done so,
than he began to doubt the No one is better fitted than Mr. Gladstone to put this wisdom of the course he had taken. The London Trades obligation clearly before the deputation. No one has a wider Council resented hi 3 refusal to receive a deputation, and Mr. grasp of the consequences of legislation, or is more familiar Gladstone at once became conscious that an awkward corn- with the economical problems that any violent interference territories as wide as his predecessors', with his Treasury parison might be instituted between his attitude and Lord refilled. with his Army nearly doubled in number, and per- Salisbury's. The one statesman had proved that he thought h tps trebled in strength, and with the feeling among all working men worth arguing with ; the other had implied his subjects that he is their natural Referee and supreme that he did not think them worth listening to. But though, Protector ! Imagine, you who, like us, remember 1849, from a party point of view, Mr. Gladstone's error was Buda-Pesth ringing with "Eljens " in honour of Francis grave, it was not irrevocable. Lord Salisbury's laurels Joseph of Hapsburg ! We can recall no change like it in were not beyond appropriation ; all that was necessary history, and it never was more publicly marked than on was a decent excuse for appropriating them. This Monday ; for it was with Hungary that the contest was presented itself in the shape of a desire to receive in- most bitter, Hungary that of all the Hapsburg dominion formation as to the nature and objects of the movement had been most cruelly humiliated, and Hungary that was in favour of an Eight-Hours Bill. The Trades Council expected to be most unforgiving. Yet it is Hungary thought this desire exaggerated. Mr. Gladstone was, or which forgives most completely, for Bohemia is not yet might easily have put himself, in possession of all the pacified, and, as in provinces like Transylvania and information that was forthcoming on the subject. It was Croatia, there is still the doubt in Prague whether the rather his views than those of the Council that needed claims of nationality and the claims of the Hapsburg expounding, and to present him with a huge array of dynasty can ever be made completely to accord. The argument would be to put off the date of the exposi- ceremonial was a grand one, and must have brought to the tion. Consequently, Mr. Gladstone got little in re- monarch a thrill of pride, not in his throne, but in his own turn for his proposal, save copies of certain documents cool diplomacy, which has conquered so many obstacles of which he was already cognisant. But the reso- and retrieved so many apparently ruinous disasters, lutions passed on the subject by Trade-Union Congresses, gathering new force even from such strokes of political and by the Hyde Park demonstration on May-Day, were lightning as Villafranca and Sadowa; but we do not know enough for his purpose ; perhaps, indeed, considerably less that it will have any political result. The work had all would have been enough. Mr. Gladstone can be as deter- been done before, and though its success has been wonderful, mined in arranging an interview as in avoiding one, and it has but encouraged .other separatists within the had it been necessary, he would doubtless have made Monarchy. The Empire, though as strong as it can be reflection do the work of information in qualifying him made, is hardly strong enough, and is no stronger because to receive a deputation. Anyway, on the last day of the Magyars, who are in politics the most sensible of May he found himself furnished with "a sufficiently dominant castes, have forgiven the dynasty for striving to definite view of the desires expressed by the Trades crush them down. The Hapsburg strength, the impossibility Council" to enable him to "enter with advantage" of any of their Kingdoms quitting them without absorption into a personal conference. What he could possibly into some dreaded Power, remains precisely as it Was; and so know of these desires on May 31st that he did not know does the Hapsburg weakness, their imperfect hold over either on May 1st, it is not easy to say. The object of those who the affection or the convictions of the Southern Slays. If wish to see the hours of labour fixed by statute has long they can keep that, they may survive greater misfortunes been clear. What is not clear is the means by which they than they have ever yet sustained ; but the spectacle of propose to give effect to the law when it is passed ; and Monday will not help them, for it only registered the on this latter head the resolutions of Congresses and pardon accorded to the dynasty by the caste which revolted demonstrations afford no light whatever. To use language in 1848, and which then, as now, was distrusted or detested with which Mr. Gladstone is familiar, the difficulty lies, by the Slays. The position of Europe, in truth, is un- not in framing the resolution, but in drafting the Bill. All altered by any of the events of the week ; yet they are all that we know at present is that the Trades Council is of striking enough, and new enough, to deserve comment as opinion that no workman should be employed for more well as record. There is something of the histrionic in than eight hours out of the twenty-four, and that we have them, no doubt ; but if all the world could witness a play known for some time. What we want to know is, by what at one and the same time, scenes in the theatre would gain machinery the prohibition is to be made effectual, what is penalty is to be paid.
As, however, Mr. Gladstone had carefully refrained from MR. GLADSTONE'S " OPEN MIND." saying what kind of information he was in search of, he with the coaditions of labour is likely to bring into pro- minence. We wish we could feel the same confidence in his willingness to make use of the opportunity that we have in his ability. We cannot but fear, however, that other considerations than those of scientific truth may assert their claim to be listened to, and will find that claim but too easily admitted. Certainly Mr. Gladstone's reference to the Eight-Hours Bill in his speech at the Memorial Hall, was not of a kind to dispel this alarm. It had no trace of that desire to bring the working man face to face with the difficulties of the subject which was visible in Lord Salisbury's and Mr. Balfour's replies to the recent deputation. It rather suggested that Mr. Gladstone had noted with pleasure the dissatisfaction which Lord Salisbury's application of cold water excited in the Trades Council, and is bent upon using it to catch any wavering votes. This is not the temper in which legisla- tion of this enormous importance ought to be approached. The trade supremacy of England may be put in peril by the passing of an Eight-Hours Bill. We do not urge this as a reason for not debating whether such a Bill shall be passed, for there may be considerations higher than trade supremacy. But we do urge it as a reason for not passing it simply as an expedient for keeping the Liberal Party together, or for making doubly sure of a majority in favour of Home-rule.
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