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Parnell's importance to Gladstone was that he alone could translate the fury of Irish grievances into something politically constructive.
帕內(nèi)爾對格拉斯頓的重要性在于，他孤身一人便可讓愛爾蘭人化干戈為玉帛，推動政治發(fā)展。
Gladstone's importance to Parnell was that he was the first British politician to take seriously the nationalist dream of home rule.
格拉斯頓對帕內(nèi)爾的意義則在于他是英國第一位認真考慮地方自治民族獨立夢的政客。
By the mid-1880s, Gladstone became more adamant that by embracing the cause of home rule, he was doing God's work in Ireland.
十九世紀八十年代中期，格拉斯頓更加堅信推動愛爾蘭地方自治是順應天意。
He was indeed in another world, combing his library at Hawarden for Irish history.
他確實沉浸在另一世界中，在哈瓦登的圖書館為愛爾蘭歷史整理資料。
Yet, for all the prayers and the penance, he was only being realistic when he told the House of Commons that this was:
然而對禱告者和苦修者來說，其實際意義得以彰顯是在他告知下議院：
One of the golden moments of our history, one of those opportunities which may come and may go, but which rarely return.
這是歷史長河中的黃金時刻，這是稍縱即逝的改革良機，時不再來。
The speech lasted three and a half hours, as if Gladstone could overcome the adverse arithmetic of the lobby by sheer force of oratory.
演講持續(xù)了三個半小時，好像格拉斯頓可以全憑演說之術(shù)說服說客們的反對意見。
With the tragic hindsight we have of the miseries that ensued on his failure, nothing rings more powerfully true than his moving appeal to ditch history and memory for the sake of the future.
作為后人，我們知道他接下來遭遇一連串遭遇并最終失敗，他拋開歷史，放眼未來的動人呼吁才是最有力的警世之鐘。
Ireland was asking, he said: For what I call a blessed oblivion of the past, she asks also a boon for the future.
愛爾蘭需要的是，他說：她不僅需要我所說的淡忘歷史，還需要未來的利益與恩惠。
And that boon will be born to us in respect of honour, no less than a boon to her in respect of happiness, prosperity and peace.
此等恩惠之于我們是榮耀，之于她也是如此，即幸福、繁榮與和平。
Such, sir, is her prayer. Think, I beseech you, think well, think wisely, think not for the moment, but for the years to come before you reject this bill.
先生們，這就是她的祈禱。想想吧，我懇求你們認真想想，明智些、長遠些，在你們急著否決這個提案前好好考慮一下未來。
The prayer was not answered. In 1886, the bill went down to defeat. So too did Gladstone and his party.
祈禱并未實現(xiàn)。1886年，提案以失敗告終。格拉斯頓及其黨派也在所難逃。
It would be six years before he'd be back in power for the last time, with the chances of success even slimmer.
六年后他才得以重歸政壇，但成功的機會愈發(fā)渺茫。
By that time, Parnell's reputation had been destroyed. In 1890, the husband of Katherine O'Shea, his mistress, brought a divorce action based on Parnell's adultery with her.
當時，帕內(nèi)爾已名譽掃地。其情婦凱瑟琳·奧謝的丈夫，在1890年提出離婚申請，狀告帕內(nèi)爾與她通奸。
A year later, deserted by his followers, disowned by the Catholic clergy, he died in her arms.
一年后，眾叛親離，為天主教神父所唾棄的他死在她情婦的懷抱中。
New liberalism was now high on the octane of imperial conquest or concerned with social conditions at home.
新自由主義在帝國侵略和國內(nèi)相關(guān)事宜方面異軍突起。
Its politicians were just humouring Gladstone with another doom reading in 1893 of the Home Rule Bill. The grand old man died five years later.
1883年，相關(guān)政客以另一項失敗的自治法案嘲諷格拉斯頓。這位偉大的老人在五年后辭世。
But he'd been right, the chance of satisfying Irish self-government inside the United Kingdom would never be realised. We're still living with the consequences of that defeat.
但他是正確的，要實現(xiàn)愛爾蘭自治，靠英國內(nèi)部力量是絕無可能的。那次失敗的影響延續(xù)至今。
The failure of Home Rule was more than just the death rattle of Gladstone's project for Ireland.
自治法案的失敗不僅是格拉斯頓愛爾蘭政策死前的嘆息。
It spelled the end of the whole Liberal dream of an English-speaking empire grounded on English justice and buoyed up by the great miracle of the Victorian industrial economy;
更是以英倫憲政為根基，以偉大的維多利亞工業(yè)經(jīng)濟為給養(yǎng)誕生的整個英語帝國自由夢的終結(jié)。
an empire whose pupil colonies would be educated and legislated into free self-government, Macaulay's vision of a half a century earlier.
這個帝國應給予其殖民地子民自由自治的教育和法制，這是麥考萊半個世紀前的設(shè)想。
