We shall then
realise that defeat in the division lobbies was not the end of Mr.
Gladstone's policy in 1886 and 1893. That policy has since borne rich
fruit. It has been largely carried into effect by the very men who
opposed and denounced it. Not even they could make the sun stand still
in the heavens.
The Tories and Liberal dissentients who defeated Mr. Gladstone gave us
no promise of these concessions. The only policy of the Tory Party at
that time was expressed by Lord Salisbury in the famous phrase, "Twenty
years of resolute government." Although the Liberal Unionists were
inclined to some concession on local government, Lord Salisbury himself
held the opinion that the grant of local government to Ireland would be
even more dangerous to the United Kingdom than the grant of Home
Rule.[23]
If we turn back, indeed, to the early Parliamentary debates and the
speeches in the country, we find that Mr. Chamberlain in 1886
concentrated his attack rather on Mr. Gladstone's Land Bill[24] than on
his Home Rule scheme. In his speech on the second reading of the 1886
Bill, indeed, Mr. Chamberlain proclaimed himself a Home Ruler on a
larger scale than Mr.
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