A letter has been published, or rather a summary of
its- contents has been published, which Mr. Gladstone addressed to- Monsignor Faraladlini in answer to certain questions of his, one of them referring to his desire to give Ireland Home-rule. Mr. Gladstone states that as he has retired from public life,. he can no longer take any part in that great work, but that the division of the Irish Nationalists among themselves,— which he seems to limit to the quarrel of the Parnellites with the Anti-Parnellites,—greatly retards the achievement of Home-rule in Ireland. Apparently he is not aware of the- division between the Healyites and the Dillonites, i.e, the division within the ranks of the Anti-Pamellites them- selves, for he appears to have thrown the whole blame on the- Pamellites. But it is not true that even the submission of the Parnellites would do much to help Ireland to Home-rule. The danger of the Protestants of Ulster is a still more fatal objection, and the danger of the United Kingdom as a whole is the most fatal of all. Mr. Gladstone sometimes speaks as if to promote weakness and division, under a nomi- nally supreme power, were an end in itself. If you crumble your bread too sedulously, a great deal of it is sure to be lost.
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