Gladstone to a demand for a day on Bimetallism.
This demand had, it is true, been urged upon him from various parts of
the House, including his own, and he seemed to be yielding to a pretty
universal demand. But Bimetallism was a craze with no chance of even
distant success, while Railway Rates were at that very moment urgently
calling for redress from hundreds of threatened industries. It would be
seen then what a dexterous weapon for striking the Government the
selection of the day for Railway Rates was.
[Sidenote: No Tory Leader.]
The Tories ought to have at once perceived the value of the weapon which
a Liberal had thus placed in their hands. Some of them did so, and,
undoubtedly, if a man with the Parliamentary instinct of Lord Randolph
Churchill had been at their head, they would at once have made deadly
and, haply, destructive use of the opportunity. But Mr. Balfour was
away. Lord Randolph sate, dark and solitary, at a remote seat, and Mr.
Goschen can always be confidently relied upon to do the wrong thing. It
will be seen presently how he helped to save the Government it was his
duty to destroy. No; the danger of the situation came not from the Tory,
but from the Liberal benches.
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