Mr. Asquith, on Tuesday, made a good speech at Glasgow,
of which we have said almost enough elsewhere. The peroration is curiously fine, quite beyond Mr. Asquith's usual style, but public interest has fastened on a statement that Mr. Gladstone has been misconceived, and that the Government, apparently with the consent of the Anti.Parnellites, has determined not to re-introduce the Home-rule Bill next Session. We shall see better how that is when Mr. Gladstone has passed through another winter, and feels that if he is to carry his fixed purpose, he must override all projects of delay. Mr. Asquith was not bitter against the Lords, attributing their faults rather to the people who left them such powers, but pro- tested against dissolving on account of any vote of theirs,— unless, indeed, it were one against the Registration Bill. Then, indeed, the Government would dissolve at once,—a most mysterious reading of the " grand constitutional prin. ciple " that the Lords do not signify. Mr. Asquith looks, in carrying both Irish and English "ends," to a "continuous, permanent, and unbroken" alliance of the English and Irish democracies. That means, of course, that the Irish Members are to be retained to govern Englishmen and Scotchmen with- out responsibility either to Scots or Englishmen. All things are possible in politics always ; but that prophecy may be pronounced at least improbable.
Previous page
