11 FEBRUARY 1854, Page 14

TOPICS OF THE DIY.

WAR AND REFORM.

WHAT is a political opportunity? What is that combination of cir- cumstances which renders one time fit and another time unfit for the application of remedies to political disorders, whether the question be of removing bad laws and institutions, or of creating new ones demanded by alterations in the social state The con- sideration becomes practical just now, when the fact that the country is to be engaged in war is urged as a reason why it should not undertake a reform of its electoral constitution. Two requisites are implied in the very form of the question itself. The evils to be remedied or the defects to be supplied must be known, the method of cure must be ready. In a country like ours, where public opinion is the real basis of legislative action, a convergence of public opinion towards the proposed change is not only a con- dition of its fitness in point of time, but in most cases- a necessary condition of its proposal at all by those who have the power to carry it into effect. That state of public opinion which of all others marks the fittest opportunity for legislative changes is, when the people generally are so sufficiently alive to the desirableness of such changes as to watch with keen interest and thoroughly to discuss the schemes prepared by statesmen, and at the same time are not so frantically excited as either to expect impossibilities from legisla- tive action, or to refuse to listen to objections or modifications. It has unfortunately too often happened that reforms have been delayed till the public mind was in this latter state, and until of two evils wise men have thought it the lesser to pass a rough and sweeping measure than to encounter the perils of further• delay : but few would contend that measures so passed are passed under favourable circumstances, or that it is expedient. as a rule that governors should wait for such a display of popular force before they proceed to reform abuses or supply defects. One other requisite alone seems wanting to complete the conditions which determine ordinarily the fitness of legislative action, and that is, that the legislative body should have its hands free to attend to the business in question—. that its attention should not be absorbed by other and more press- ing concerns ; since of all requisites none is more obvious than this, that the work to be done should be set. about with proper deliberation, and with a carefulness and calmness proportioned to its importance.

It is to the last point alone that those who urge the war as a rea- son for postponing reform can honestly refer. Many of- those who use the argument would no doubt prefer to veil its meaning in con- venient obscurity, and to trust to the prescriptive authority of commonplaces over the Great British public. We prefer that what- ever plausibility the argument has should be correctly assigned. It amounts then to this, that whereas the evils of the present elec- toral system are matter of common consent, at least so far as public avowals go, and the Government has announced measures as ready prepared to correct those evils, and the public would be generally exceedingly glad to have them removed and exceedingly willing to accept from Government any scheme that would tend in this direction, yet that Parliament is likely to have its hands so full of war business that it will not have time to discuss reforms of the electoral system, without trenching upon the other, acknowledged to be the far more important and pressing concern. Now it is to be presumed that the party which chiefly holds this language, the so-called Tory party, is not intending to take the direction of the war out of the hands of the Cabinet, or to supersede the Horse Guards and the other offices in their executive functions. Yet, ex- cept on this supposition, it is difficult to understand what excess of occupation will be imposed on Parliament by the war. Certain de- partments, and indeed the whole Cabinet, might urge this excuse for not giving their time to frame a Reform Bill ; probahlyy had it been urged by Government, the country might have- :le- g

uiesced, though not without grumbling and suspicion. But it appears extremely absurd, that when the Ministers, who have had a protracted negotiation to carry on during the recess, have found that no obstacle to the careful prepara- tion of a Reform Bill, and when these same Ministers, upon whom will fall the chief labour and responsibility of such details of military business as are transacted at home, make that no objection to taking the conduct of this bill through the Houses of Parliament,—it does, we say, seem extremely absurd that the objection should come from those who certainly will not find themselves much the busier for the war, unless they intend to oc- cupy the session with factious criticisms on the mode in which those who are responsible for its conduct think it right to carry it on ; a supposition wholly improbable, if only from the indignation such a proceeding would rouse throughout the country. We may then most confidently conclude, that if Ministers have found leisure to prepare their bill amid the distractions of negotiation, and do not anticipate in the more distracting operations of actual war any such absorption of their time and energies as to prevent them from undertaking to conduct the Parliamentary discussions on the bill, there can be no valid reason why independent Members of Parlia- ment should be prevented from giving to these discussions all the time and wisdom the importance of the subject demands.

It may be further urged, that a Reform Bill, implying the dis- placement and redistribution of political power, necessarily engen- ders the fiercest political passion and conflict, and that such a con- flict is especially to be avoided when the war in which the nation is engaged demands hearty unanimity, and the suppression, of all domestic differences. The obvious answer is, that just so far as the-

passions of the dispossessed, are likely to be roused by the measure, the passions of those who demand enfranchisement or an increased share of political power are also sure to be roused by deferring it. It is an argument which, so far as it is valid at all, cuts both ways, and pleads for the measure as strongly as against it, with the ad- vantage to the advocates of Reform, that they propose to satisfy a large class by granting them their rights, while they may dissatisfy only a small class by depriving them of what they wrongfully pos- sess or have wrongfully used. But the more satisfactory ground is that we have no reason to expect from Ministers a measure which by its sweeping changes will materially diminish the politi- cal power in the possession of any particular class, simply because no such measure, is called for by the country, or justified by the present state of the electoral system. Of course there will be shift- ings, and of course individuals and local communities will have to submit to a deprivation of power to which they are not entitled. We may anticipate, too, that some share of direct political influence will be bestowed, where at present there is none given by the con- stitution. But to refer back to the Reform Bill of 1832 for analo- gies is unreasonable. The work done then does not need to be done again ; and while no cases of disfranchisement are likely to occur but those which public opinion has by anticipation sanc- tioned, the measure will probably bear a far more marked character of caution and consideration for various classes than of audacity and preference for any one class. There is far more reason to sup- pose that "Extreme Liberals" will find their nostrums disre- garded, or very sparingly applied, than that any important in- terests, in the country will have occasion to be up in arms. For these reasons, we do not acknowledge in the war any ob- stacle to fairly discussing and carrying a plan of electoral reform ; and we incline to think that Lord John Russell hit the true mean- ing of the plea when he said, that to those who do not like a measure any time is unfit. It is plain, however, that those who use the plea are bound in common decency to act out their own convictions, and, as they cannot prevent the introduction or dis- cussion of the measure, to take especial care that they do not by factious opposition and mere dilatory action waste more time than is necessary upon the discussions, or appeal more than the nature of the measure demands to the passions whose excitement under present circumstances they so much deprecate. If the obligation of being consistent to the plea they have used shall be found to produce -this salutary change in the political generalship of my Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli, we will gladly excuse the badness of the argument which bears such wholesome fruit. And we will answer for it, on the other hand, that Ministers will not avail them- selves of the same argument to bar honest objection, complete discus- sion, or, in case they be offered, wise suggestions of amendment. If the country is expectant, it is also calm ; and while it will not tolerate that the calamity of war should be laid hold of as an excuse by the enemies of all reform, it will see in that calamity a reason why no mere party opposition should be employed in thwarting public business, and equally a reason why Ministers on their side should do all that is possible to avoid provoking such opposition : and above all will it recognize in that calamity, and in the additional burdens to be entailed upon all of us from the highest to the lowest, a sound as well as a generous reason for extending political privileges, at the moment when the honour and interests of the country demand from all classes peculiar sacrifices and the maintenance of a high spirit of patriotism.