Mr Gladstone on His Majority

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 38, 15 September 1892, Page 4

Mr Gladstone on His Majority

Mr Gladstone, in speaking on his majority the other day said : — Do not be discouraged because our nominal majority in the Bouse of Commons is not a very lars^e one. It is between forty and fitty. If we had economised our resources at Perth I and elsewhere it mi^ht have been better. It will comfort you to know that I have sat in twenty-five Parliaments, and in five I have seen Liberal Governments in office which have done a great deal oi work for the country wi;h not sach a majority as is now returned to support Liberal principles. Another point of considerable and curious interest: you know there is a body of gentlemen who call themselves Liberal Unionists, it is a very great stretch of courtesy for us to call them Liberal Unionists, because we do not tilink their conduct has tended to the union, but to the disunion of the country. If I have called them Liberal Unionists it is from my respect for them. I do not know whether you have observed that there has been a great change in their position for the last six years. They voted aga'nst us in the matter of Home Kule ; and they said, "We must vote against you in everything else, in order to keep in office a Government that is opposed to Home Rule. Will they not continue giving Tory votes? I believe I am the first man that has put the question. As there are 24 of them, it is a question of some interest. I can't help cherishing the hope that some of them will do light. We must hope for the best, although you often feel it is always wisest to expect the worst, I look upon them with a kindly interest ; but whatever they do, whether they do their best or their worst, the Liberal cause does not depend upon them, and I trust Liberalism will b°e strong enough to sec about the real prosecution ot its work with sincerity and earnestness and decision.