THE ENGLISH MAIL. [Via Brindisi.] COLLAPSE OF LIBERAL UNIONISM. London, September 28.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 315, 10 November 1888, Page 6

THE ENGLISH MAIL. [Via Brindisi.] COLLAPSE OF LIBERAL UNIONISM. London, September 28.

The Liberal-Unionist Conference at Brad, ford last week wag followed by another conclave of the same nature at Nottingham , on Wednepday, was been of a somewhat more successful character than thofirsb, though the Liberal-Unionists are in a state of such despondency at the present moment that any littlesuccess is eagerly receivedand mudo tho most of. Ever since this party came into existence two years ago its leaders have been dilating upon the necessity of a political organisation extending all over tho country ; but hitherto little has been done in this respect, and borne members of the party are begining to despair that it over will be. llowover, there seems to bo evidence of a spasm of activity just now, and the reports which have come up trom Scotland ■concerning the virtual extinction ot Liberal Unionism in that part of tho country &oem to bo having the effect of galvanising tho managers of the party into something lileo genuine exertion. We are told that special efforts are to bo put forth to render the approaching Liberal Unionise demonstration here a conbpicuous event; ,hut we have heard the same tale in regard to the pa&t gatherings ot thid party, and so little hag resulted /from them, that no> small degree of scepticism is felt as to whether anything of moment really will beclone in Hcotlano. Mr Chamberlain continues to figure prominently in the public gaze, and evon that right hon. gentleman's opponents cannot refuse him credit for the astuteness ho shows in running with the Radical hare ahd hunting with the aristocratic hounds. While attending tho Liberal Unionist Confeience at Nottingham he has been the guest of the Duke and Duchess of St. Albans at estwood. The Duke was at one time a follower of Mr Gladstone, and acted as Liberal' whip in the House of Lords, bub lie left that gentlemen when most of the " thanes " fled from him. He has always been looked upon as one of the most libra aristocratic of those who toil not, and we hardly know which to be the most surprised at — the fact of tho Duke entertaining Mr Chamberlain, or Mr Chamberlain being entertained by tho Duke. Speculation is still busy with the political future of the right hon. gentleman. Theio has been a rumour repeated with much confidence in certain circles that he was to be raised to the peerage as Lord Highbury ; but this cannot be true. It it really should bo 'correct, it . can only mean that Mr Chamberlain Fees the" causo of Unionism to be hopeless in the future, arid, 'despamnor of reconciliation with his oU friends, has determined to take such political reward -as he can get while he has the chance. The repoit is also maintained that he will shortly become a ' member of Lord Salisbury's Cabinet, and his speech at Bradford last week is regarded as an unmistakable hint of his willingness to take such a step. But there are two parties to that quettion, and tho Conservatives are not very anxious to have him. If he entered the Cabinet, he would, no doubt, in his character of an advanced Radical, make the introduction by the Government of further medial legislation for Ireland a condition precedent to his doing so, and he might even want Lord Salisbury to take up his Irish local government scheme. But the Pritno Minister has, within , the-las,t,day or owo, privately expressed his deteimination not to do anything more in the shape of substantial boon to Ireland until the supremacy of the law hs.& been thoroughly established in that country, so that he would be bound to veto Mi Chamberlain's condition.

AIR GLADSTONE AND AIR PARK ELL We tire promised an interesting document. Theie has been a controversy between Mr Glad.-tone and the Liberal Unionist members of his late Cabinet with reference to the decision arrived at by them concerning the complicity of Mr Parnell in crime previous to that gentleman's libeiation from gaol in 1882 under the terms of the Kilmainhain treaty. Mr Gladstone avers that his Cabinet came to a unanimous decision that there was no eviflencc which warranted Mr Parnell being suspected of any connection with outrage in Ireland, but his word has been publicly challenged by nearly all the" dissentient Liberal Ministers who sab in the Cabinet of 1880-3885. Mr Gladstone has now applied to her ' Majetsy for permission to publish a full statement; of all that occurred in con nection with the inquiry into Mr Parnell's conduct. Mr Gladstone adheres firmly to the point or constitutional etiquette, which forbids the disclosure of anything that transpires intheCabinefcconclaveswith- [ out the acquiescence of the Queen, and he would lather suffer any amount of misunder- | standing in silence than infringe this regulation. Of course therequired permission will be granted, and an importantStatedocument may be looked tor. Mr Gladstone is very likely to get the better of his opponents, for he' is wonderfully accurate in matters of fact, while his- powers of memory are somothing phenomenal. Statesmen who have sat in the same Cabinet with him have often related how they have been awed and overcome by the Liberal leader's terrible powers of recollection, which extends over the whole of the half century of his political career. This memory is backed up by a most elaborate systemof commonplace books which must be ot Mr Gladstone's own devising, because the right hon. gentleman keeps no private Secretary save when ,be is in office. No one knows exactly what this system is, but, at all events, it enables him, .when an historical fact is in controversy in* the course of a Cabinet discussion, to ring his bell, and, when a secretary enters, to say " Bring me such and such a document relating to my conversation with so and s6 on this", that, or the other subject in the year 1854," and the secretary departs, presently to return with the paper required. The likelihood, therefore, is that Mr Gladstone lias, somewhere in his pigeon holes, a complete account of the discussion j which took place in the Cabinet relating to Mr Parnell, and that he will discover the j same, to the confusion of his adversaries.

WHITECHAPEL MURDER. The statement made by the Coroner in the closing of the inquest on the * body ot Annie Chapman, the moat recent of the Whitechapel victims,- has created tremendous 1 excitement, 'hot only in London, bub throughout the country, and, ha? raised what seemed, to be, a series of commonplace,, purpo^ele&s outrages bo the position of the most startling sensation of the century. , Briefly speaking, Dr. Wynne i Baxter. stated that there was every reason ! to believe that the .murders which have thrown the East End of London into a state of panic have been committed for the purpose of obtaining* specimens of certain pbrtiohs of, the anatomy of the; female 1 frame, and that, furthermore, they must' have been the work nob of a lunatic or a common man, but of either a

medical student or a surgeon. The victims I must' have been seized and held by the 1 throat in such' a manner as to produce immodiafce insensibility, the fatal gnsb.es given in a manner which would cause, instantaneous death, and tho body was out opon in a way 'that showed that the 'nfan who did the deed knew exactly where to find the organ he wanted. In the significant words of the coroner, "There are no meaningless cuts. Tho organ has been' taken by one who knew where to find it, What difficulties ho would have to contend against/, and how ho should use his knife po as 1 to abstract tho organ without injury to ifc. No unskilled person could have known whero to find it, or could have recognised it when ib was found." It is understood that what relates to the body of Annie Chapman, applies also to thoso of the three previous victimfr. The coroner , then proceeded to pay that a tow months ago _ an American gentleman called at ono of the leading London pathological museums, and offered £20 a piece for anatomical specimens, 'ap he < wished to issue a complefco specimen with each copy ot a medical work, which he intends to publish. At the first placo he applied to he was told that his request could not be complied with, but it was ascertained that he had made a similar application at other museums. The inference, therefore, is that, findinghe could not obtain what he wanted, this American induced some noedy surgeon or medical student to got the specimens tor him, shutting his eye" or asking no questions as to whereorbow they wore procured, or else that some impecunious person with surgical &ldll and knowledge, hearing that thine was, a market for these organs, undcilook to supply them on his own account, and that he committed the murders in oider to get them. Since tho days when Burke and Have murdered 14 people ior the sake of selling their bodies to surgeons for analomi cal purposes, the British public has received no such horrible sensation as that caused by , the disclosures of the Whitcchapel inquest.