.N273 LEGH, T. W., M.P. Personal Experiences of Bulgaria 626 LYMINGTON, Viscount, M.P.. Richard Jefferies, and the Open Air 242 MAGNUS, Lady Charity in Talmudic Times. 701 MAVOR, James. MORGAN, E. Strachan THE NATIONAL REVIEW. No. 55.—SEPTEMBER, 1887. MR. GLADSTONE'S CONCESSIONS. THERE can be no doubt that Mr. Gladstone's so-called concessions have operated to the advantage of his party in recent bye-elections; and candidates fighting under his standard have made especial use of what he is supposed to have conceded with regard to the retention of Irish members at Westminster. Sir George Trevelyan presents the most striking illustration of the effect produced by these concessions. So completely have they captivated him, that he has lost all patience with other Liberal Unionists who refuse to join him in his renewal of allegiance to Mr. Gladstone, and heaps reproaches on his former associates. They must (he says) be Tory Unionists, and only poor Tory Unionists into the bargain; traitors to the sacred cause of Liberalism, and contumacious rebels against the divine right of the Liberal party to rule the country. Moreover, they are wilfully ignoring or misrepresenting Mr. Gladstone's explicit declarations. That a statesman "with such a past" as the late Prime Minister should have been rebuffed when holding out the hand of friendship to effect a reunion of the Liberal party, fills Sir George with humiliation and indignation. And he is amazed that any Liberal Unionist leader should hesitate to enter into conference with a politician so simple and straightforward, so plain-spoken and invariably lucid in his meaning as Mr. Gladstone. A few reflections, therefore, on the real extent and value of these concessions, which have entranced Sir George, may be offered by a Liberal Unionist, to whom even the disruption of the Liberal Party appears to be a light calamity, when weighed in the balance with the disruption of the United Kingdom. There were four main points in Mr. Gladstone's Irish policy of last year, about which division arose in the Liberal ranks. They were (i.) the employment of British credit for buying out Irish landlords, and the consequent liabilities imposed on British tax VOL. X. 1 |