LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
LIBERAL ORGANISATION.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") 80.,—The letter of Mr. Herman Merivale, in which he points the moral of the Brighton election, deserves the attention of all earnest Liberals. There can be little doubt that the organisa- tion of the party generally has not been carried on commensu- rately with the advance of Liberal sentiment in the country. There is a larger mass of progressive political conviction in the constituencies than ever, but it is not so productive as it ought to be, from a deficiency of educational and organising processes. It is useless to expect the Members of the Administration to attend to this work ; it should be taken up by public men generally, by local politicians, and by the younger Members of Parliament, who would find this sort of work the best discipline for public usefulness. Cobden and Bright became effective orators by seven years' stumping the country on the Free-trade question. In close contact with the people, sympathising with their needs and directing their struggles, our younger politicians would acquire some of the best qualities of statesmanship. The Liberal party triumphs at a general election when some great wave of enthusiasm carries the better feeling of the nation. When that is lacking, and it is a question of organisation against organisation, in cool, persistent contest, the weakness of the Liberals for such warfare is discovered. The next election will not be attended by the excitement that stirred the country in 1880, and that, by turning the usually non-voting section of the elec- tors to the Liberal side, gained for Mr. Gladstone his greatest victory. It is a question how far the Liberal party is prepared for such a contest under such altered conditions. Speaking as a Liberal, and with no pessimistic bias, I venture to assert that the present state of our organisation, and the actual hold we have upon the constituencies by the diffusion of our principles, are not such as to warrant the hope that we can come through a severe campaign with the decisive results that are necessary for the efficient working of a Liberal Administration in the House of Commons. Any serious lessening of the Liberal majority would, with the peculiar attitude of the Home-Rule party, be equivalent to a tactical defeat, entailing certain and early Par- liamentary discomfiture. It is time the country began to ask itself seriously how it would care to have its home and foreign policy controlled by Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords, and Lord Randolph Churchill in the House of Commons. They afford us an interesting and perhaps amusing diversion from the grave and lofty statesmanship of Mr. Gladstone and Lord Hartington, but are we prepared to allow the men whom we now smile at, to acquire the highest portions of influence and authority the nation has to offer, and to wield the sceptre which has been swayed with such dignity and patriotism by Pitt and Peel, and Palmerston and Gladstone P From such a disaster Heaven deliver us ! But Heaven will not deliver us, if we do not show our appreciation of Liberal principles, by organising our forces in the most effective manner, and, above all, by educating the electorate. The unsteadiness of purpose, the shallowness of thought, often displayed in the constituencies show that the opportunity of the Tories and the real foe of the Liberals is want of political intelligence, lack of discernment of the great principles that lie beneath the apparently trivial conflicts of parties, and an imperfect perception of the close connection between our commercial and intellectual progress and the advance of Liberal legislation into all departments of the life of the State. Let these truths be wrought into the minds of the people, and the days of Tory ascendancy are passed for ever.
Let us take the county of Middlesex as an example of the state of things I have described. We have an immense constituency, a growing mass of Liberals, and a central organisation and execu- tive only adequate to a constituency of one-tenth of the size— the brain and heart of a mouse in the trunk and limbs of an elephant. A feebler directorate than that of the Middlesex Association for all purposes of registration and education, I do not know, and I know its. workings by actual experience. It is no more fit to take the field than Gambetta's raw levies were qualified to cope with German organisation and discipline. Under the present management, Middlesex will never recover its ancient Liberal supremacy. The system that places the work of registration for a constituency of 30,000 in the hands of an agent, cannot work successfully ; the county should be divided into districts, north, and west, and east; and in connection with a strong central agency, there should be subordinate district agencies, educating the areas they include. But I fear any such effort as this is far too arduous for the apathetic and club-house Liberalism of the leaders of the Middlesex Association. In the Counties Liberal Union alone is a veritable centre of light, a nucleus of power from which the best results may yet flow. Its leader is a man of sterling principle, an ardent and cultivated Liberal, a most able platform speaker, a vigorous writer,—I refer to Mr. John Noble. If some arrangement could be come to by which a closer relation between the Counties Liberal Union and the Home Counties Associations could be brought about, the result would be advantageous for all. Meanwhile, the district associations are active and growing, the central management is feeble and torpid, no candidates are before the constituents, few meetings are held. There is a general evasion of responsibility, under the delusive hope that the Franchise Bill will soon be passed, and the new voters will be all Liberal. Fatal blindness ! The very fact that should arouse greater exertion is made the occasion of deeper indiffer- ence. What can result from all this ? No power worth having ever was gained without adequate toil and sacrifice, and if the Liberal party wish to retain the proud position they have won and still hold, as the embodiment of the nation's best political thought, and the authors of its wisest and noblest legislation, it becomes us, one and all, to put on our armour, to sharpen our weapons, to defend our weak points, and to be ready to the last man to take the field, when the call of battle shall come.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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