THOUGH we do not look for the disruption of the Cabinet, its cohesion will not save it from internal trouble and external criticism. The end is drawing nigh. The accounts will shortly have to be made up. What will they show? How stands the legislative balance? The Prime Minister has had five years during which to carry out that long catalogue of proposals which, before he took office, he declared to be indispensable and urgent. How many of them -- we do not take account of the trumpery measures alluded to by Mr. Chamberlain last night -- have been embodied in Acts of Parliament? Most of them are now not even proposals. They are conveniently buried in oblivion. Ireland was to be handled with boldness and resolution, and when Ireland was put out of the way the Millennium was to be taken in hand for England. Unfortunately, Ireland is not out of the way. Indeed, and notwithstanding the remedial legislation of which Mr. Chamberlain makes so much, it is more in the way then ever; and of what little still remains of the present Session and the present Parliament much will have to be dedicated to that thorny theme. It is currently believed that the Cabinet intends to try to get over its principal difficulty by shearing the Crimes Act of most of its provisions, and proposing to renew the remainder for only one year. By this course it is thought that the situation will be simplified, the opposition of the followers of Mr. Parnell, curtailed, and the substantial task of grappling with the future of Ireland remitted to the new Parliament. The report may prove to be correct, but it would be difficult to conceive a decision either more unstatesmanlike or more shortsighted. Yet it is likely to be adopted, if only because it seems to promise Ministers a momentary respite from some of their embarrassments.
Standard, June 4, 1885.
The Meeting of Parliament
The Meeting of Parliament
Table of Contents
Miracles of healing - Christian Miracles or Healing
History of Russia: Christian Versus Barbarian
History of Japan: Early Christian Martyrs
The Jesus of History
The Assyrian Origin of Devil Worshippers
The Christ Of Dogma
The early history of Constantinople
