LITTLE GREATNESS.
M. Merimée writes:--
“That which strikes me most in the English politics of our own
times, is its _littleness_. Everything in England is done with
a view to keep place” (conserver les portefeuilles), “and they
commit all possible faults in order to keep twenty or thirty
doubtful votes. They only disquiet themselves about the present,
and think nothing of the future.”
Unfortunately the _littleness_ to which M. Merimée refers is not
always attended with _little results_.
In his anxiety to secure the Irish votes, Mr. Gladstone, by his
notorious Midlothian speeches, directly encouraged Irish demagogues
to agitate.
His advice was followed, and the result has been, as every one
expected, anarchy, murder, and assassination.[86]
Froude, the historian, writing in 1880, clearly predicated it:--
“Mr. Gladstone will not willingly allow himself to be foiled.
Yet, if he perseveres, he may bring on the struggle so long
foretold between democracy and the rights of property, and in a
great empire like ours, with such enormous interests at stake, it
is not difficult to foresee on which side the victory will be.
However this may be, the apple of discord has been flung into
Ireland, there to spread its poison.”[87]
Let us charitably hope that the results of Mr. Gladstone’s advice
to _agitate_ were not anticipated by him; but a man who will
scatter sparks in a powder magazine cannot be held altogether
guiltless of the results of the explosion that may ensue, whether
he did it in ignorant folly or with culpable intent. Froude,
alluding to the Midlothian speeches, says:--“No statesman who
understood Ireland would ever have spoken of the ‘_Upas Tree_,’
unless he was prepared to sanction a revolution.” Mr. Gladstone
must, therefore, be held morally responsible for the blood
guiltiness--for the atrocious crimes and murders that have
disgraced Ireland; he has sown the wind, and he has reaped the
whirlwind; he has sown agitation, and reaped dynamite; he has not
only caused anarchy by his advice, but has encouraged it by the
weakness of his policy.[88]
An admirer of Mr. Gladstone writes in the _Westminster Review_,
describing Mr. Parnell and his associates as “_indispensable_
to the _success of Mr. Gladstone_!!” A fitting associate indeed
in a work of legalized plunder is Mr. Parnell, whom Mr. Forster
denounced in the House of Commons as the aider and abetter of
assassins and murderers; who dared not stand up and answer the
scathing denunciation, but slunk off to America like a whipped
hound.
FOOTNOTES:
[86] Lord Beaconsfield, with great foresight, vainly warned us of
the dangerous state of Ireland.
[87] _Nineteenth Century_, September, 1880.
[88] An admirer of Mr. Gladstone naively writes in the _Westminster
Review_: “During the six years of Tory repression and Tory refusal
of remedial measures, they were as mild as doves and comparatively
silent in Parliament, because they knew that the Tories would
strike with despotic severity and with exceptional laws; but from
the moment the magnanimous and friendly Gladstone came into power
... they excited the excitable Irish people to such a degree
against this friendly Government, that there were perpetrated a
long run of cruel and brutal outrages, &c.” (_Westminster Review_,
October, 1883.)