NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. GOSCHEN delivered a very spirited speech at Hastings on Monday, where he had also happened to speak on the very day in 1885 when Mr. Gladstone's manifesto to his consti- tuents in Midlothian first appeared. Mr. Goschen reminded his hearers that in eulogising that manifesto and giving it his sup- port, he remarked that Mr. Gladstone had spoken in a proper spirit of preserving the unity with Ireland, but that he hoped it meant something more than unity,—that it meant legislative -unity. "Unity," he had remarked, "is not sufficient, for there might be simple unity under the Crown; there must be legislative unity between the two countries ;" and the remark had been cheered to the echo by the Hastings Liberals of 1885. That was the time at which Mr. Gladstone was appealing to the country to give him such a majority as would prevent him from feeling the least temptation to truckle to the wishes of the Irish Nationalists. And Mr. Goschen added a remark in which we, for our part, do not at all agree. "The moment the temptation came, the leader who had implored his fellow-countrymen to strengthen his hands in order to enable him to resist the temptation, was successfully tempted, and fell." For our own part, we believe that had Mr. Gladstone obtained the majority he asked for, he would have proposed just what he did propose, though he would than have been able, to boast that his only motive was justice, and that he was quite inde- pendent of Mr. Parnell. That does not make Mr. Gladstone's action less unwise, but it does clear it from the taint of ignobleness.
