TOPICS OF THE DAY.
on Lord Mayor's day. Sir Andrew Clark has, it is already been dragged. Mr. Gladstone, especially in the dinner speakers, he prefers to dine with the Prince Spencer, the godfather, as Mr. Gladstone is the father, princely hospitality. Probably it may be left to Lord ce hausted, and that he hoped to defeat the party which of Home-rule, or even to the victor of the battle of was marching through rapine to disintegration. He has Trafalgar Square, to respond meekly to the toast of the since passed through very different phases of emotion Government, and evade the task of saying anything which towards Mr. Parnell and his former followers,—those of would would set political gossip afloat on the great subject hope, gratitude, self-reproach, admiration, friendship. And ll of the approaching birth. There was the same interesting then again came the revulsion, the exposure of Mr. Parnell remembered, on the eve of the victory modesty, it will be in the Divorce Court, the sense of fear, dismay, bewilder- which expelled the late Government from office, except, went with which that exposure was received, the perplexity indeed, that Mr. Gladstone could not, on that occasion, by which it was followed, and the partial return of the old wholly avoid speaking, and giving those rather anxiously feeling of admiration when Mr. Parnell's death obliterated worded pledges to Mr. Justin McCarthy which he read the sense of irritation and anxiety which his sudden and from a paper to the strained ears of the House of Commons. violent denunciations had caused. It is surely natural that All the other leaders were as silent as if they had been bound by a solemn vow to keep silence " even from good words." the enthusiasm of his conscious political beneficence, and it Evidently the word has gone forth to let discretion be the better part of valour. No one is to speak whose heart anxious to economise rigidly even what he regards as good words on the Irish Question. He has, to use his own is " inditing of a good matter." There is to be no sign given that the deliberations of the Cabinet augur either a phrase, burned his fingers too often in dealing with it not difficult labour or a happy unanimity. It might be die- to feel a certain discomfort even in speaking what seem to astrous in the highest degree to indicate where the Par- him the words of truth and justice upon it. Even Mr. nellites may probably find the Government tripping, or how Justin McCarthy's gentle and colourless menaces may drift him into a sea of troubles. There is no measuring the eon- far they are likely to go in offering to eager Nationalists the draught for which their parched lips have so long sequences to which surrenders to that both vain and humble race of Celts may lead. If their vanity makes them hard thirsted. It is a very delicate situation. There are jealousies to be taken into account as well as hopes. The masters, their humility makes them comparatively harmless English Home-rulers are by no means thirsting for the foes ; and Mr. Gladstone probably feels as much annoyed at offered to Mr. same goodly wine as that which must be their having proved so very harmless under Mr. Balfour's Justin McCarthy and Mr. O'Brien. Mr. Labouchere has yoke, as he does at their proving so very irrepressible plainly stated his determination not to let Ireland keep under the stimulus of his own benevolent encouragement. England out of the running, and especially not to let It makes him quite inclined to blush when he sees that ^, Ireland get local government for herself, and yet keep her the more he pets them, the more exacting they becom control over the local government of England. The ground and that his antagonists find them much less difficult to is full of pitfalls. The promised kiss of peace will be manage than he, their friend and patron. It is pretty clear narrowly scanned to see whether it is too tender or too that Mr. Gladstone feels the advocacy of Irish claims at conventional, too passionate or too frigid. Probably every once fascinating and embarrassing. There is something of one of the new Ministers feels towards Ireland very much the excitement of a flirtation about it. He never quite like the interesting little boy did who, when asked to give the knows the mind of the object of his attachment, and yet lady of the shop a kiss, replied, " You kiss her, pa, I fo shy." is always ready to be convinced that his uncertainties are A more delicate state of mind can hardly be imagined than due to the virtues of Ireland or to his own defects, and not the embarrassment with which the Ministers contemplate any shortcomings on the part of those who keep him so the fulfilment of their many warm and ardent vows. Mr. constantly in hot water. And with his colleagues it is much Gladstone has told the world that he regards the Irish as the same. Even the Lord Chancellor, should he be chosen the babes and sucklings out of whose mouth strength is to return thanks for the Government on Wednesday night, ordained ; but the compliment hardly pleased those for will probably feel a certain unaccustomed shyness and whose ears it was intended. They care a good deal more to consciousness of the delicacy of his position flushing his know how much strength is ordained for them, than they do bronzed cheek, as he reflects on the various Irish entangle- to hear that they are babes and sucklings, which is not the ments of the Government and the difficulty of satisfying sort of flattery most welcome to Irish ears. And where Mr. the requirements of so exacting a political liaison without Gladstone has failed, it is rash for any one else to inter- dissolving other and more trustworthy ties. The prudence vene, especially as compliments of a more full-bodied kind of the Government, no doubt, weighs on the side of might excite so much more apprehension amongst English reticence ; but it is their bashfulness in the strictest sense Radical competitors for the favour of the Ministry, than which ties their tongues, which makes them dumb when it would be worth while to risk simply for the sake of they should be eloquent, and apparently frigid when their pleasing the Irish. It is comparatively safe to let Mr. hearts are in their mouths. Labouchere know that Mr. Gladstone regards Mr. Healy and Mr. Dillon as babes and sucklings out of whose mouth strength is ordained. Mr. Labouchere certainly would not THE BASHFULNESS OF THE GOVERNMENT. aspire for himself to any such biblical tribute as that, and as applied to the Irish, it might elicit from him a grim smile. ATE are told that none of the greater guns will go off But let him receive any hint that Ireland is to have a grain announced, forbidden Mr. Gladstone to attend the Guildhall more than the strictly covenanted concession, and Mr. dinner. He was allowed to speak for an hour and a half Labouchere may see his way to a kind of action which at Oxford on the history of Universities, but half an hour would bring the Government to a speedy end, by de- after a Lord Mayor's feast would be a much more dangerous feating them in the House of Commons. We do not violation of what the great physician regards as the laws wonder, then, at the extreme reluctance of Ministers to of " physical righteousness." Sir William Harcourt pro- let a single word drop from their lips which will put bably finds the prospect of stewing in Parnellite or even their many watchful foes upon their guard. They have Anti-Parnellite juice, after so much turtle soup, too, die- to steer between the difficulty of satisfying babes and couraging, and he will not go. Mr. John Morley is busy sucklings who are as shrewd and hungry as Mr. Healy, with Ireland, and to the author of the studies of Voltaire and the difficulty of satisfying zealous Nonconformists and Rousseau the blushing honours of Archbishop Croke's who are as scrupulous to scan every needless eons ces- and Archbishop Walsh's benediction are too much for his ion to the Irish prelates as Dr. Joseph Parker and the modesty, so he, too, declines to be the spokesman of the Wesleyan. new Ministry. Lord Rosebery, again, is too deeply aware Still, no doubt, the chief cause of the great sensitiveness of the reserve which best becomes the lips of a Foreign and bashfulness of the Government is much less to be Minister, and too discreet to open his lips on a subject on sought in its natural and not in any way reprehensible which his great leader's are carefully sealed, to accept the prudence, than in a real sense of humiliation at the work they have undertaken to do. They cannot altogether get responsible task of even darkly hinting at the nature of that august decree with which the November Cabinet over the manifold inconsistencies through which they have are travailing. And, though the most adroit of after- already been dragged. Mr. Gladstone, especially in the dinner speakers, he prefers to dine with the Prince Guildhall, could hardly have forgotten his announce- of Wales, and to fight shy of the new Lord Mayor's went in the same place to a delighted world that the resources of civilisation had not yet been ex- hausted, and that he hoped to defeat the party which of Home-rule, or even to the victor of the battle of was marching through rapine to disintegration. He has Trafalgar Square, to respond meekly to the toast of the since passed through very different phases of emotion Government, and evade the task of saying anything which towards Mr. Parnell and his former followers,—those of h would would set political gossip afloat on the great subject hope, gratitude, self-reproach, admiration, friendship. And ll of the approaching birth. There was the same interesting then again came the revulsion, the exposure of Mr. Parnell remembered, on the eve of the victory in the Divorce Court, the sense of fear, dismay, bewilder- which expelled the late Government from office, except, went with which that exposure was received, the perplexity indeed, that Mr. Gladstone could not, on that occasion, by which it was followed, and the partial return of the old wholly avoid speaking, and giving those rather anxiously feeling of admiration when Mr. Parnell's death obliterated worded pledges to Mr. Justin McCarthy which he read the sense of irritation and anxiety which his sudden and from a paper to the strained ears of the House of Commons. violent denunciations had caused. It is surely natural that All the other leaders were as silent as if they had been to a man looking back on this long train of complex associa- tions there should be a good deal of distrust mixed with is this distrust, we suspect, which makes Mr. Gladstone so a m to
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