Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/18

 thing. The only thing he had ever proved himself consistent in was his utter inconsistency, while his whole career had been marked by a violence of language and an aptitude for personal abuse which were tolerated only because they came from John Bright. But this very fact only serves to show how effectually he was able to gloze his fellow-men by the dangerous glamour of his rhetoric. He had preached the doctrine that "Force was no remedy" in reference to Irish affairs, and there is little doubt that that doctrine had been an incentive for Irish agitators to demand from England impossible conditions, and to seek to enforce that demand by dastardly outrage. Ireland, in fact, was a terrible thorn in the side of the Gladstone administration, which, in its endeavour to cope with the hydra-headed difficulties of that unhappy country, resorted to the most severe repressive measures; and, stooping from its high dignity, and in order to acquire still further political power, it entered into a compact with so-called Irish patriots—men who had been described as "being steeped to the lips in treason." But if that were so, then the British Government itself must have been guilty of treason in making a compact with traitors. That compact opened the doors of Kilmainham jail, into which many of the patriots had been cast; but, like the opening of Pandora's box, it was destined to only let loose evil. It is a remarkable fact, and one which, being read now by the light of history, seems incomprehensible, that this powerful Government had, after more than four years' rule, utterly failed to carry to a successful issue any policy it had initiated. It had, in fact, brought the country into a condition that caused grave uneasiness amongst those who were disposed to set a higher value on the honour and dignity of their flag than on the plums of office. In all parts of the world events were taking place that were well calculated to arouse alarm in the breasts of patriotic Englishmen. But the Gladstone Cabinet seems to have been actuated rather by the instincts of a vestry, than by the high dignity and conscious might of an Imperial Government.