LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
MR. GLADSTONE IN NOVEMBER, 1885.
[TO THE EDITOR OF TIER " EPECTATOR."]
SIR,—No doubt, as Mr. Gates says, Mr. Gladstone would have very much preferred, in November, 1885, a majority in the House of Commons independent of the Irish Party ; but he would have preferred this, not to refuse the Irish demand for Home-rule, but to enable him, should Ireland's demand be practically unanimous and reasonable, to grant Home-rule with a free hand,—i.e., not at the point of the bayonet. This is the sense in which I took his words at the time, in the light of his previous utterances ; and this is the sense in which Mr. Gladstone uttered them. He was prevented from expressing his meaning more clearly by his determination not to make any bid for the Irish vote on the eve of a General Election. There was at no time any question of "conversion to Home-rule" in his case. He had always declared (e.g., at Leeds and at the Guildhall in 1881, and in the debate on the Address in 1882) that his mind was open on the subject; that as soon as Ireland's voice was unanimous, definite, and consti- tutionally expressed, it would be the duty of Parliament to listen and consider. He had no more prejudices against Home. rule, as such, than he had prejudices for Establishment as such. With him, both would simply be a question of justice.—I am,
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