MR. GLADSTONE'S ADDRESS.
WE take the unusual course of placing Mr. Gladstone's Address in our editorial columns. In language which it would be difficult to improve and impossible to condense without injury, the late Premier states the whole case against the existing Ministry upon which Liberals appeal to the country to dismiss its members from power. Add only that the Ministry have repeatedly misrepresented to Parliament designs of the highest importance, that they have given away in Egypt an ascendancy essential to the safety of India, and that they have neglected to secure that increase of material strength in ships and regiments which was essential to their own view of the European position, and this address contains all that the Spectator, for the past four years, has been endeav-
ouring to prove, and for which it has pleaded with the public and with the leaders, that Mr. Gladstone is the most natural and most competent leader of the Liberal party :—
GENTLEMEN,—I heartily rejoice that the time has at length arrived when you will be called upon to declare by your votes whether you approve or whether you condemn the manner in which the Govern- ment of this great Empire has during these last years been carried on. This, Gentlemen, is well ; although, by a striking departure from established practice which must cause great inconvenience, a Session opened by her Majesty with the regular announcement of its annual work is, without the occurrence of any Parliamentary difficulty, for the first time in our history, to be interrupted after a few weeks by a dissolution.
In the electioneering address which the Prime Minister has issued, an attempt is made to work upon your fears by dark allusions to the repeal of the Union and the abandonment of the Colonies.
Gentlemen,—These who endangered the Union with Ireland were the party that maintained there an alien Church, an unjust land law, and franchises inferior to our own ; and the true supporters of the Union are those who firmly uphold the supreme authority of Parlia- ment, but exercise that authority to bind the three nations by the indissoluble tie of liberal and equal laws.
As to the Colonies, Liberal Administrations set free their trade with all the world, gave them popular and responsible government, undertook to defend Canada with the whole strength of the Empire, and organised the great scheme for uniting the several settlements of British North America into one Dominion ; to which, when we quitted office in 1866, it only remained for our successors to ask the ready assent of Parliament. It is by these measures that the Colonies have been bound in affection to the Empire, and the authors of them can afford to smile at baseless insinuations.
Gentlemen,—The true purpose of these terrifying insinuations is to hide from view the acts of the Ministry, and their effect upon the character and condition of the country. To these I will now begin to draw your attention. With threescore years and ten upon my head, I feel the irksomeness of the task.
But in such a crisis, no man should shrink from calls which his duty may make and his strength allow.
At home, the Ministers have neglected legislation ; aggravated the public distress by continual shocks to confidence, which is the life of enterprise ; augmented the public expenditure and taxation, for pur- poses not merely unnecessary, but mischievous ; and plunged the finances, which were handed over to them in a state of singular pro- sperity, into a series of deficits unexampled in modern times. Of these deficits, it is now proposed to meet only a portion, and to meet it partly by a new tax on personal property, partly by the sacrifice of the whole Sinking Fund, to which five years ago we were taught to look for the systematic reduction with increased energy and certainty of the National Debt.
Abroad, they have strained, if they have not endangered, the pre- rogative, by gross misuse ; llave weakened the Empire by needless wars, unprofitable extensions, and unwise engagements ; and have dishonoured it in the eyes of Europe, by filching the island of Cyprus from the Porte, under a Treaty clandestinely concluded in violation of the Treaty of Paris, which formed part of the international law of Christendom.
If we turn from considerations of principle to material results, they have aggrandised Russia, lured Turkey on to her dismember- ment, if not to her ruin, replaced the Christian population of Mace- donia under a debasing yoke, and loaded India with the costs and dangers of a prolonged and unjustifiable war, while they have at the same time augmented her taxation and curtailed her liberties. At this moment, we are told of other secret negotiations with Persia, entailing farther liabilities, without further strength; and from day to day—under a Ministry called, as if in mockery, Conservative—the nation is perplexed with fear of change.
As to the domestic legislation of the future, it is in the election address of the Prime Minister a perfect blank. No prospect is opened to us of effectual alteration in the Land-laws, of better security for occupiers, of reform and extension of Local Government throughout the Three Kingdoms, of a more equal distribution of political franchises, or of progress in questions deeply affecting our social and moral condition. It seems, then, that, as in the past so in the future, you will look with more confidence to the Liberal party for the work of domestic improvement; although the inheritance which the present Administration will leave to its successor threatens to be one of difficulty and embarrassment without parallel.
It is true that you are promised the advantage of "presence, not to say ascendancy," in the Councils of Europe. The word "ascend- ancy," gentlemen, is best known to us by its baneful connection with the history of Ireland. I must assert the coequal rights of in- dependent and allied Powers. But in the month of the present Ministry, the claim is little less than ridiculous. Ton may judge of our present ascendancy in Europe from our ascendancy in the Councils of Turkey, where we recently demanded the dismissal of a Minister, who has not only been retained in office, but selected for special honours. There is, indeed, an ascendancy in European Councils to which Great Britain might reasonably aspire, by steadily sustaining the character of a Power, no less just than strong, attached to liberty and law, jealous of peace, and there- fore opposed to intrigue and aggrandisement, from whatever quarter they may come ; jealous of honour, and therefore averse to the clan- destine engagements which have marked our two latest years. To attain a moral and unenvied ascendancy such as this is indeed a noble object for any Minister or any Empire.
You have then, Gentlemen, great issues before you. The majority of the House of Commons, and all the members of that majority, have by their unqualified support of the Government fully taken over upon themselves the responsibility of its acts. If the constituencies are well pleased with the results which, after six years, have been at- tained, they have only to return again a similar majority, which will do its best to secure to them the like for six years more. But let no individual voter, who supports at the election a member of that majority, conceal from himself the fact that he is taking on himself both what has been done already, and what may be done by the same agency hereafter. I have not a doubt that the county of Midlothian will nobly discharge its share of the general duty ; and I have the honour to remain, Gentlemen, your most obedient and faithful servant,
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