THE POSSIBILITY OF COMPROMISE.
T is natural enough that compromise should just now be much discussed. The English people, to begin with, being a people of business, are seldom averse to compromise in itself, and will very often give up much in the way of form, if only they may in substantials have their own way. The French, while still Monarchists almost revolted because some speaker in the Chambers called them Louis Philippe's "sub- jects ;" but the wildest English Liberal gladly concedes the phrase, if only he may be always a subject who rules himself. Mr. Gladstone all through the contest has expressed his reluctance to push matters to extremity ; and if only the Franchise Bill is passed, will think nothing of suppressing his amour propre, pardoning the waste of public time, and allowing his adversaries the most honourable terms of capitulation. His ascendancy, moreover, is so complete, that the Radical reluctance to miss a grand opportunity, which under other circumstances might be a most formidable obstacle, will not, unless the compromise becomes a surrender, be generally expressed. The constituencies, provided the Bill be passed, leave details to the Premier, and their Members, willing or unwilling, must perforce do the same. Moreover, Peers in a Cabinet are very like Peers outside, and no Minister with half his Cabinet Peers can be heartily willing to commence or sanction a war to the knife with the Upper House. On the other hand, there are many signs that the majority of the Peers think the quarrel has gone far enough, have learnt some surprising things about the temper of the people, and would retreat if only they had a pleadable excuse to offer. They do not see their way to victory, they are not so sure as they were that a Dissolution would do Conservatism any good, and they would be glad, if they saw a way of escape out of the impasse into which men who understand everything except the people and Mr. Gladstone, have succeeded in leading them.
We suppose, therefore, there will be compromise ; but it will not be so easy a matter to arrange, or to keep arranged, until the Franchise Bill has received the Royal Assent, as is generally assumed. There are other people to be contented besides the rural Peers. The Liberals as a party surrender much, in the opinion of many of them too much, when they give up the best opportunity which has occurred in this generation of maintaining the principle that the House of Commons is the supreme power in the State, and of so reform- ing the Upper House as to bring it into more general and more cordial accord with the Lower. They may consent to the sacrifice in deference to Mr. Gladstone, but if they do, they certainly will give up nothing else, and the Government will have to protect with much care the irreducible minimum. The Franchise Bill must be passed to begin with, whatever happens afterwards, and to secure a complete guarantee that it shall pass is not so easy. The idea of the advocates of compromise is that if the Government will pro- duce its Redistribution Bill, and if the Lords consider that Bill a fitting basis of settlement, the Tory Peers will desist from opposi- tion to the Franchise Bill. We will not, though we might, press the point that Lord Salisbury will consider no Redistribution Bill sufficiently fair, and that an agreement to which he is not a consenting party can hardly be considered safe. He may, at the last moment, press some inadmissible amendment, such as a delaying clause, which will make it impossible to allow the new voters to go to the poll, even if Redistribution has been settled ; and his followers, cheered by some unexpected inci- dent, may once more "accept his lead, and so by a side-stroke nullify the Bill for a whole new Parliament. We will, how- ever, assume that the Duke of Richmond has influence enough with sixty Tory Peers to induce them to stay away from divisions, and allow the Bill to pass nearly as it stands ; and even then all the difficulties to be met are not provided for. May not the Redistribution Bill, if prematurely produced, shake the majority in the• Commons itself ? Moderate as it may be, and closely as it may adhere to the old lines, that Bill, if it is a great Bill at all, must irritate the Irish Ex- tremists, and must greatly disturb the petty boroughs, which, even if they are not totally disfranchised, but only joined in groups, must furnish the seats to be distributed among the unrepresented or insufficiently represented boroughs and- counties. The schedules of such a Bill, even when thoroughly acceptable to the nation, irritate hosts of" interests," as well as Members, many of whom may be desperate enough to dis- regard altogether their instructions to vote for the Franchise Bill. Then the question of minorities must be considered, and there is none about which these exists more bitter political and even personal feeling. Extreme Radicals are quite as savage against the principle as extreme Tories are on its behalf. We do not say the Bill will be endangered, because we know that in England inevitable Bills always pass; but the Government may create a mass of discontent that will be difficult to manage, or even stir up in unexpected quarters a wish that there should be one more appeal to the old electors. Such discontent would not, it may be, lead to hostile votes on the Franchise ; but it would greatly encourage obstruction, and strengthen the Opposition in any side-divisions they may succeed in forcing on. It is astonish- ing how acute the feeling for Montsioa is in men who think that on behalf of Montsioa Government may be defeated, and their seats, which were threatened, saved. It would be far better, if it were possible, that the Redistribution Bill should not be introduced until the Franchise Bill reached the Lords ; but then, would the- Tory Peers be content with that arrangement? They ought to be, for they would retain their full hold in the power of throwing the Bill out ; but many among them are for no surrender, and many more are anxious, before all things, to foster any possible cause of delay within. the Lower House. They cannot get rid of the fancy that Liberalism is a passing emotion which any one of half-a-docen. incidents would suffice to quench. If they will give way on this point, we see little objection to the compromise ; but if they will not, the Government must think over the dangers in. the Commons, as well as the Lords, with exceeding care.
We have said not a word about the possibility of trickery, for in truth we do not believe in any. Liberals are just as foolish when they insinuate that the Lords may not keep a compact, as Tories are when they mutter that Mr. Gladstone intends to" gerrymander " the constituencies. English politicians are crafty enough very often, and over-eager to take advantage of their adversaries' blunders ; but they are not tricksters, nor in the presence of an open-eyed people would any trickery pay. The decent Lords who follow the Duke of Richmond will keep his engagements if they Under- stand them fairly enough ; or if they do not, the House of Lords will die of popular contempt. But we hold it vain to deny that there is a section both in the Upper and Lower House which will do all it honourably can to delay or defeat the Franchise Bill. We all write and talk as if only the future of the nation and the parties were involved in the Bill ; but there is a caste question mixed up in it too. The Bill falls with cruel weight upon County Members, and all the more influential country gentlemen. Of the former, many will lose their seats, while all will lose the comfort of their seats. The pleasant arrangements which make elections so easy and seats so secure, will all go to pieces, and County Members wilb be as responsible to a mass vote, and as much compelled to cultivate that vote, as if they were Members for boroughs. As for the gentry, one source of their importance will be gone. They will no longer be members of the small committees which really choose county candidates, and which, when heartily united, are, as a rule, able to seat the object of their choice. Such men, even when convinced that a wider 'suffrage is right, are not and cannot be cordial to the Bill ; and they will, we may be sure, support any practicable method of re- sistance. It is they who have instigated the Lords' resistance, and they, we may be sure, will shrink from no exertion which. may induce their allies, however weary of the struggle, to pro- long the contest. The voice of the people has been too loud for open resistance ; but the Government will have to walk warily, and to be very careful lest its Bill should pass appa- rently whole, but burdened with insidious amendment's.
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