Lord Cross made a speech at Hanley yesterday week, in
which he gave the reins to his political scepticism with an abandon not usual in so fair and prudent a politician. He said he believed there was "only one man" in the Liberal Party who was fully persuaded that Home-rule should be granted to Ireland, "and that man was Mr. Gladstone him- self." Surely that is rather hard upon Mr. Morley, who is often credited (perhaps groundlessly) with having converted Mr. Gladstone to his own view on this subject. And it is hard, too, on Lord Spencer. No man who understands Mr. Gladstone in the least can doubt the genuineness of his con- victions on the subject ; but, for our own part, we have no hesitation in believing that Mr. Morley and Lord Spencer are every bit as sincere in that article of the Gladstonian faith as Mr. Gladstone. Mr. Morley, no doubt, believes it rather with the strenuous determination of a man who has burned his ships, and is committed to the positive obligation of granting it, even if he perish politically in the attempt ; and it is very probable that he does not underestimate the many difficulties of the enterprise, as Mr. Gladstone underestimates them. Still, he is passionately convinced that Home-rule should be granted, even if it is never granted, or even if, alter it had been granted, it had to be taken away again. And Lord Spencer, we have no doubt, shares the same conviction. But Lord Cross would probably have been right if he had said that Mr. Gladstone is the only man in the party who believes that the task will be an easy one, and that its achievement will certainly bring about a "Union of Hearts."
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