GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



333 



that these issues should be plainly stated, and 

 that others which he has avoided shall he 

 brought before you. I know of no party which 

 ' challenges the expediency of the imperial 

 character of this realm.' I know of none who 

 have ' attempted to enfeeble our colonies by 

 their policy of decomposition.' " The present 

 healthy condition of the colonies, and their har- 

 mony of feeling with the mother- country, he 

 continued, was owing to their having received 

 their institutions under the guidance of Liberal 

 statesmen, and learned "that entire depend- 

 ence on imperial assistance for their freedom 

 and defense was not compatible with the dig- 

 nity of freemen." No patriotic purpose was 

 to be gained by the use of language of exag- 

 geration in describing the Irish agitation for 

 Home Rule. His lordship believed that the 

 demand so described was impracticable, that 

 concession to it would be mischievous, and he 

 had always opposed it and always would op- 

 pose it. The Government had treated it with 

 indulgence and indifference when it should 

 have met it with firm and consistent resistance, 

 combined with proof that every just and rea- 

 sonable demand of the Irish people for equal 

 laws and institutions would be granted. Lord 

 Beaconsfield had claimed that her Mnjesty's 

 Ministers had maintained the peace of Europe. 

 " But they did not prevent," said the Marquis 

 of Hartington, u even if their policy did not 

 cause, a war in the East of Europe. The as- 

 cendancy of England has been claimed in cir- 

 culars, but it has been surrendered in secret 

 conventions. In the aggrandizement of Rus- 

 sia, and the destruction of the independence 

 and integrity of the Turkish Empire, the de- 

 clared objects of their policy have been frus- 

 trated." No progress had been made toward 

 giving effect to the provisions of the Anglo- 

 Turkish Convention for reforms in Asia Minor, 

 and the Greek question, which disturbed East- 

 ern Europe, was still as far from a solution as 

 ever ; but while the policy of the Ministry had 

 failed, the immense responsibilities incurred by 

 the country remained. In Africa, the address 

 continued, " her Majesty's Ministers have drift- 

 ed into a war which they did not sanction and 

 which they deplore a war which has brought 

 no honor and no advantage in return for the 

 blood and treasure which have been spent. In 

 Afghanistan they have created a war which 

 has destroyed a nation, the strength and inde- 

 pendence of which they declared, in common 

 with their predecessors, to be important for 

 the safety of the frontier of India." And in 

 this they had subjected India to immense loss 

 and expense. u The just influence of England 

 in the councils of Europe," the Marquis added, 

 " is an object which the Liberal party has pur- 

 sued with at least as much sincerity as, and cer- 

 tainly with more success than, has attended 

 the policy of the present administration. . . . 

 But the influence of England does not rest 

 upon boasts of ascendancy over Europe, irre- 

 spective of the objects for which that ascen- 



dancy is to be employed. It rests on the firm- 

 ness and moderation of our conduct, based upon 

 the material and moral strength of our position, 

 and exercised in concert with other nations on 

 behalf of peace, justice, and freedom." The 

 domestic consequences of a foreign policy at 

 once restless and undecided had been stagna- 

 tion in internal reforms and financial confusion. 

 Had not domestic prosperity and honor been 

 attended to by the predecessors of the present 

 Ministry, the power and influence of England, 

 of which they were the foundations at home, 

 would never have existed to be displayed 

 abroad. The Marquis then mentioned several 

 points of domestic concern which required con- 

 sideration, but in relation to which nothing se- 

 rious had been attempted by the Government, 

 and there was no indication that anything seri- 

 ous was intended. The Liberal party, he con- 

 cluded, " can offer no special favor to any class 

 or to any interest. They can only undertake 

 that, while upholding the power of the empire, 

 securing the safety of our own country, and 

 maintaining its possessions, they will engage 

 in no policy of disturbance or uncalled-for an- 

 nexation." 



The elections for the new Parliament were 

 held during April, and resulted in the return 

 of 355 Liberals, 238 Conservatives, and 62 Home 

 Rulers, giving the Liberals a plurality of 117, 

 and a majority of 55 members. At the election 

 of sixteen peers to represent the peers of Scot- 

 land in the House of Lords, April 16th, the Earl 

 of Leven and Melville, and Lord Borthwick 

 were chosen in the place of Lord Sinclair and 

 the Marquis of Queensberry. Mr. Gladstone, 

 who was universally regarded as the real leader 

 of the Liberal party, was returned to the House 

 of Commons by the two constituencies of Mid- 

 lothian and Leeds. He elected to sit for Mid- 

 lothian. He gave his view of the situation 

 and of the responsibility of his party in his ad- 

 dress to the electors of that borough, saying, 

 " The efforts of the party which now seems 

 likely to attain the full measure of its predomi- 

 nance will, I trust, be steadily and temperate- 

 ly addressed toward establishing the external 

 policy of this country on the lines of justice, 

 equal right, and sympathy with freedom, and 

 toward the direction of the internal govern- 

 ment and legislation which, during the last half- 

 century, have done so much to relieve the peo- 

 ple, to gain respect for the laws, to strengthen 

 the foundation of the throne, and to consoli- 

 date the structure of this great and noble em- 

 pire." The Marquis of Hartington regarded 

 the result of the elections as rather the expres- 

 sion of the disapproval and condemnation by 

 the voters of the conduct of the Government 

 than of their confidence in the Liberal party ; 

 he thought the Liberals knew very well that 

 they had still very much to do in order to es- 

 tablish their claims before the country. A task 

 of pressing importance which they had before 

 them was to secure a condemnation and re- 

 versal of the system of foreign policy which 



