The Story of Gladstones Life (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1897. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... tion did not last long. On the 18th of November Parliament was dissolved, and the question then which everybody asked everybody else was, What is to be the result of the general elections? The vote at these elections was to be taken under the conditions of the new Reform Bill which Mr. Gladstone had so lately introduced. The result of the elections was to give the Tories only a nominal majority, and even that majority depended altogether on the support of the Irish members. Lord Salisbury had to go out of office after a very short and uncomfortable interval, and Mr. Gladstone returned to power once more. In the meantime the question of Home Rule came up again. An anonymous paragraph appeared in the newspapers announcing, on no particular authority, that Mr. Gladstone had come back to office determined to deal liberally with the question of Home Rule. The paragraph created consternation among the Tories and even among many of Mr. Gladstone's own followers. It was met with a prompt denial by some of Mr. Gladstone's own colleagues in office. Mr. Gladstone himself preserved for a while an ominous silence. CHAPTER XXX HOME RULE Mr. Gladstone's political opponents have made much talk about the suddenness of his conversion to Home Rule. The imputation is that he became a convert to the principle of Home Rule at the moment when he found that Irish Nationalist members were returned to Parliament in numbers strong enough to hold the balance of power between the two great English parties, the Liberals and the Tories. I think I shall be able to show that the conversion was by no means rapid; that it was, on the contrary, of slow growth, and that it was not occasioned by the mere fact that the Irish Nationalist members were strong enough to make themselves of account t...