TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 297, 8 September 1888, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

London, July 27. Mr Stead has been publishing some as tounding fairy tales apropos of Mr and Mrs Gladstone's golden wedding. It is, I believe, true that Mrs Gladstone first met her future husband afc a dinner party at Lady Palmerston's, and it may bo a fact that good-natured " Para " pointed him out to her and predicted that he would ono day bo Prime Minister. When, however, the veracious chronicler goos on to talk of Mr Gladstone being considered a bad match for Miss Glynne, and to hint that but for Lord Lyttelton marrying her elder sister the engagement would havo been opposed by Lady Glynne, he talks nonsense. So far fiom being a " plebian, moneyless young man," Mr Gladstone was the scion of a well-known Lancashiro county family (at least as old as tho GlynnO3), and fairly wealthy to boot. When he mot Miss Glynne his foot was already well on tho first rung of tho political laddor, and everyone saw in him a coming man. Young Gladstone had distinguished himself brilliantly at Oxford, made troops of the best sort of friends, and had, besides, powerful influence to back him. A bettor match for a girl, I think, it would be difficult to describe. The Gladstones were certainly merchants, but they weio county people too. Court Hey, the family seat, is one (or used to be one) of the finest places round Liverpool. The disclosures in connection with the death of poor John Mandeville will probably lead to a short Act being passed in the autumn placing political pii&oners on a diilerent footing to ordinary criminals. Theie can be no doubt that cold and privation in prison, combined with lack of medical treatment, and complicated by intense mental worry, bioke down Mandeville'fe health, but how far Mr Balfour is responsible for the catastrophe I shouldn't like to say. It is very puzzling.

THE PARNELL COMMISSION. The Judges designated by the Lord Chancellor to conduct the Parnellism and Crime Commission could not possibly have been better chosen. Sir James liannen will (if the Act pa&ses) be President, and Mr Justice Day and Mr Justice Smith his two assessors. Each of the three member* of fcho Commission, its President preeminently, is a man of mark on the Judicial Bench, Is T ot one of them has satin Patliament, or is known to the public at> belonging to either political party, and one of them (Justice Day) has aheady won the confidence of sane ireland by his impartial conduct of the Belfast inquiry. Even Mr ParnelJ, in his frantic attempt to Hud objections to the Bill on Monday last, did not dare to bay a v> ord against the formation j ot the Commission. A carious change has come over the tone of feeling at the Reform and the National Liberal Clubs during the past week. We Oladstonites no longer enthusiastically asseverate our belief in Parnell's innocence, and defy the "Times" to "come on."' On the contrary, we talk of che awkward position the Irish chief found himself in during the early days of the Land League ; of his great temptations and of the heat of party warfare. The "Times" letters axe forgeries, of course. Still, it is just possible Mr Parnell may, in those bad olden times before we softened his heart, have coquetted with crime, and allowed himself to approve of methods he now deplores. Supposing it was so, are ire to assist at the raking-up of those early indiscietions, and to place a weapon in the Tones' hands which will enable them to ciush u& tern porarily and Home Rule permanently ? 2s o : into the bona Jides of the letters wo are willing to inquire, but beyond that we decline to go. Mr Gladstone has said it.

IMPRISONED DYNAMITARDS PROFFER EVIDENCE. [ Lobby rumoius have naturally been numerous during tho last day or two. One of the most sensational is that two, if not three, of the dynamitards in Portland for life have ottered to give evidence before the | Commission. How news of it penetrated prison walls the Government do not know, probably through a warder. No doubt the [ convicts jumped at what would seem a chance of getting their terrible fate mitigated. The Government, 1 hear, declined to leceive any statement whatever from them. Whether they appear before the Commission (if there is a Commission, which appears unlikely at present) will depend on the judges.

AN EFFECTIVE SPEECH. The feature of the debate on the second reading ot the Commission Bill was undoubtedly AJr Chamberlain's speech, which made a great impression on both sides of the House. The member for Birmingham began by expressing his hope that Air ParTie! I would clear away tho clouds at present em eloping him. lie had, he reminded the House, always been a iriend and stuck up fur the Irish chief. He had believed in his non-complicity with the Invincibles, and in the " Times " letters being forgeries. Not a doubt e\er crossed his mind till Mr Parneli and his friends obviously shiiked laying their case before a jury. All sorts ot reasons had been given for this inexplicable hanging back, but none of them seemed to him sufficient. If " United Ireland " had libelled him as grossly as the " Times'' libelled Parneli, he should have at once have brought the proprietors before a jury. (" An Irish jury '!" shrieked the Parnellites satirically.) Well, no, before a Middle&ex jury if he could, but rather than diop the case altogether, before an Irish jury. If ]VJr Parneli misdoubted the integiity of a London jury, why had he not brought his action in the provinces, or Scotland, or even .Ireland ? Every news,paper that had promulgated the libels was liable, if they wera libels. Mr Chamberlain then buggestcd to the Government certain modifications in tho Bill favourable to the Parnellites. Do not, he practically urged, give them an excuse lor evading the Commission. The quo&tion of the forged letters must, of course, be taken first. The • I'arnellites need not be afraid of the field of inquiry being uselessly enlarged. If the letteis> were indeed forgeries the rest of the "Times" charges would necessarily be seriously discredited. Another good speech was made by a young unknown, a Mr Lees, who likened the dispute between the Parnellites and the "Times" to a game of "poker." Both sides, he urged, had been " bluffing '' long enough. It was quite time they should throw down their cards and let us see what they were playing upon. Mrs Kendal is getting too buxom and matronly for juvenile heroine parts, but she can still move an audience poworfully. Last Saturday night she held the house spell-bound in the last act of "The Squire." I never saw so many people crying in a theatre before. When the curtain fell there was, of course, a big demonstration and the inevitable speeches. The St. James's now passes into the hands of Mr Rutland Barrington, erstwhile of the Savoy, who opens in September with a dramatic version of Mr Phillip., 's disagreeable novel "The Dean a,nd His Daughter. "

The Duchess of Hamilton has opeuod a retail butter shop in Ipswich, England.