A HINT TO TkU OPPOSITION.
IT has been considered an advantage that her Majesty should pos- sess an Opposition in the House of Commons, for the purpose of keeping the Government up to its duty; and, according to the promise of Mr. Disraeli in one of the Eastern debates this session, the Opposition, conscious of its duty, waived the Opposition prero- gative of doing mischief. Although not serving the country in office, he promised to serve it out of office, and to make the influence of the Opposition benches felt on Government only in rendering the Government more efficient. We doubted whether it would be pos- sible so to purify public objects from individual purposes; and events justify the doubt. There have been, unquestionably, circumstances under which the Government might have been usefully stimulated and sustained in its duty by the strictures of a patriotic Opposi- tion. It might perchance have been enabled, by a little pressure from behind, to tread with greater efficiency in advance of the cho- lera, and to block out the march of that unseen enemy. It might possibly have overcome the difficulties consisting in the qualifica- tions of the Lord Chancellor ; who has shown himself, though en excellent administrator of the law, a most dilatory and hesitating reformer of it,—perpetually apologizing for the headlong zeal with which he proposes to do one tenth of what everybody is prepared to receive. But we have not to thank the Opposition for any of those useful offices; and we have already to score up against it some of the very acts which it has been careful to disavow.
According to Mr. Disraeli's promise, the Opposition was to strengthen the national Government, in these days of exertion, not to weaken it. We do not see how such professions can be recon- ciled to certain systematic efforts which we trace, in Parliament and out of doors, to undermine the character of the leading men in the Cabinet. Mr. Disraeli alluded to the cruel massacre at Sinope, which brought our Ministry to the fullest sense of duty in resisting Russian aggression ; but he so framed his allusion with reference to the previous knowledge within the reach of Mi- nisters and the Ambassadors, and with reference to the retention of the fleet in the Bosphorus, as to imply that the disaster must have been foreseen, and that the protecting fleet was absent by deliberate intent ; and then he asked, with malicious innuendo, whether such things were the result of credulity or "connivance." We see this hint of " connivance" continually repeated in the prints of the party. So it is that a Tory Opposition " supports" the Government by raising ideas that it is conniving with the enemy !
This species of public backbiting is carried on against particular persons for evident objects ; and again we connect the acts of the Opposition with some strange alliances. The same journals that reiterate the views and policy which Mr. Disraeli may be said to have invented, are constantly pointing out Lord Aberdeen as the tool of Russia—the person, it is to be presumed, who is the agent for procuring the " connivance "; and the same journals chime in. with the Czar, who discovers " a fatal influence" in Con- stantinople,—meaning Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, fatal indeed to humbug of any kind. Another favourite object of at- tack for this party, in print, is Mr. Gladstone. It is curious that those two individuals should be specially selected. The Tory party was so anxious to obtain the asssistance of Mr. Gladstone, that the formation of a Derby-Disraeli Cabinet in 18M was de- layed in order to wait his return from Italy; and the feeling which dictates a ceaseless rancour against the object of desire who has chosen another alliance may be easily understood. It is evi- dent that no case of breach of promise of marriage would lie in this instance ; but that is only the more reason why the rancour should be immortal. In the other case, the motive is more prac- tical. It was Lord Aberdeen who, superior to party, personally respected by all sides, experienced in public life, socially known for his moderation, intimately known by leading statesmen for his honesty, unselfishness, and fidelity to an engagement once un- dertaken—had the position and the influence to concentrate around him a Cabinet formed irrespectively of party. He alone bad the qualities, of greater value than mere talent, requisite for superseding the conflicting and rivalling claims to the first post, which many statesmen in the present Cabinet might have ad- vanced. In some respects the present Cabinet may be called a Cabinet of Premiers ; and perhaps Lord Aberdeen is the only one whom all would cheerfully have accepted as the chief. How great the advantage, therefore, if Lord Aberdeen could be cast down from his high position, no matter by what means. Traduce him—call him the tool of Russia, a traitor to his country—do anything so that you pull him down ! Pull out the keystone, and the arch will fall.
But it is not only by defeating the policy of England abroad, or by undermining the Cabinet in whom both Crown and country confide, that the Opposition is just now fulfilling its function. The would-be Chancellor of the Exchequer who is now exiled to the Left has also done a something to undermine the financial credit of the country. He moves for voluminous returns; he collects in- formation ; he draws out a great array of figures ; he meets the actual Chancellor of the Exchequer on Budget nights, and the whole object of this deliberate financial effort of a session is to make out that Government have not sufficient balances in their exche- quer, that they have crippled their means by incompetent tam-
ings with finance,—as in unduly reducing the interest on '
hequer Bills when interest at the Bank was rising and Con- sob were falling; and that the Chancellor, who is foregoing a loan, is carrying on a spendthrift system of finance, and risking the most hideous crises for want of money. It does not matter if Mr. ' Gladstone, by the simple quotation of figures known to everybody, disproves every position of his antagonist, and establishes what the City knows suite well, that Government can command all the money it requires, has boundless credit, and has balanced its ac- counts in a way to which few Governments have been competent. The animus has been betrayed, and the would-be Chancellor has demonstrated that to ruin a rival he would sacrifice the credit of his country. The Tory party will do well to beware before they have gone too far in this career. Mr. Disraeli boasted, in a grand peroration, that he and his friends, avoiding the example of the Whig Oppo- sition of last war, would not embarrass the Government, and that no " Wellington on the Danube " should have to complain of their obstructiveness. Mr. Disraeli has read his history imperfectly, or he might have known that the real obstructers of Wellington were not the Whigs in opposition, but incompetent Tory Ministers in office, intriguing Tory jobbers around those Ministers, and Tory underlings, to whom place was jobbing. Under the operation of arbitrary Tory rule, the English people used to regard the Tories as enemies, and the allies of despotism abroad and at home. At a time when we find so much practical accordance in the state- ments and insinuations of Nicholas and Disraeli, the occupiers of " these benches" would do well to ask themselves, whether they are not now in danger of being again regarded as the enemies of England,—at a time, however, when that enmity will stand more distinct, from the altered relation of political parties and from the smallness of their own gathering.
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