The Home Secretary, Mr. Henry Matthews, addressed a meeting of
his East Birmingham constituents in the Duddes- ton Ward Hall on Wednesday last. In answer to the remarks of Mr. Berkeley, who seconded a resolution of confidence in the Government and of thanks to Mr. Matthews, the Home Secretary said that there could be no doubt that such an office as his was far more laborious, if far less entertaining, than a career at the Bar; and assuredly he must find that it brings him a great deal more malignant °ensure than that career, though he has been, perhaps, the firmest and most sensible Home Secretary of recent years. In describing the present position of Irish Home-rule, and Mr. Gladstone's steady refusal to sketch the measure which he intends to substitute for the rejected measure of 1886, Mr. Matthews said that he supposed the Gladstonian electors were now quite willing to buy a pig in a poke, though they had refused to purchase the only animal of that description ever submitted to their view. Mr. Gladstone, he said, changed his mind so often, and acted so little on his views, that so far as he could judge, Mr. Gladstone's political beliefs must count only as "pious opinions," so seldom did he act upon them. For instance, Mr. Gladstone declares that for sixty years he has wished to improve the position of the agricultural labourer, though he has never done anything to give effect to his wish ; and in 1886, when he actually came into office by defeating the Tories on Mr. Jesse Collings's resolution in favour of allotments, he at once shelved the question, and devoted his short administration to Irish Home-rule.
Previous page
