Mr. Gladstone, in spite of his extraordinary ability and mag-
nificent courage, must often rue the day when he undertook again labours to which those of Sisyphus must sometimes seem trivial. He has not yet got his Home-rule Bill up its first hill, whence it will soon begin to roll down under the precipi- tating impulsion of Lord Salisbury, and yet all the Liberal pack are upon him to secure his promises for the vacancy which Home-rule will leave, if next Session also is not to be given-up to it. The Labour party ask for an eight-hours mining day, but to them Mr. Gladstone gives little encouragement. It is evidently a great satisfaction to him to be able to say that as the miners are not agreed upon the point among themselves, they had better come to some mutual understanding before they require the Government to take an initiative. That is quite a respite for him. But the Welsh Disestablishment party are not so easy to deal with. They began asking for pledges on July 5th, when Mr. Gladstone, not yet through Committee with the Home-rule Bill, managed to put them off to " a more convenient season." But on July 28th they returned to the charge, and hoped Mr. Gladstone could then see his way to guarantee them the second place. Mr. Gladstone could do nothing of the kind. But instead he spun a sort of silky cocoon round Welsh Dis- establishment, which goes as near as he can to saying that it is the darling measure of all the Liberal leaders' hearts, not only his own but his colleagues'. If the thirty Welshmen care to have what is coarsely termed their bellies filled with the East wind, they will be content. If not, they have certainly got neither pledge nor earnest, but only conciliatory circumlocution.
