Mr. Gladstone has addressed a letter to Mr. John Cowan,
of Beeslack, the chairman of his Midlothian Committee, on the subject of the Ninth Clause in the Home-rule Bill as it has now been remodelled by the Government. Mr. Gladstone is evidently not very proud of it; but he thinks its anomalies and injustice may well be borne as the price we pay for what he funnily calls " the great Imperial cause of Home-rule," which is like talking of the great Imperial cause of restoring the heptarehy. Mr. Gladstone insists that the retention of the Irish Members having been forced upon him by the country, the Government had done its best to attenuate the injustice of allowing the Irish Members to vote upon British questions, and argues that Home-rule once gained, Ireland will no longer have any great desire to meddle in purely British affairs, though he is dangling before her eyes the possibility of greatly improving her normal financial position at England's expense by the active intrigues of Irish Members during the six trial. years of Home-rule. The letter, which we have discussed elsewhere, will still further weaken Mr. Gladstone's waning influence in Scotland.
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