Mr. Gladstone, in replying to an address read to him
at Knowsley on Thursday by the Committee of the Liverpool Liberal Association, made a very important statement as to the action of the Government in Ireland, and the immediate effect of that action on the prospects of the new Land-law, of which we have said enough in another column. Here, we may add that Mr. Gladstone, in referring with satisfaction to the con- clusion of the Transvaal Treaty, remarked that whether or not it might be found possible to improve it after it had been tried, he was quite unable to say, having as yet no light on the sub- ject ; and this has been absurdly interpreted as meaning that Mr. Gladstone is already holding out to the Boers the hope of essentially modifying the terms of peace. One might as well declare that when a mechanical inventor states that till his model has been tried, he cannot say whether or not it admits of -practical improvements, be has virtually admitted the imper- fection of his design. He has admitted, of course, nothing at all, except that experience does occasionally enable us to im- prove upon our first experiments,—which is of the nature of an absolute truism, not of a significant hint.
