Lord Salisbury is getting more Conservative and less Tory as
he goes on,—wisely, as we think, for Conservatism is in English- men's blood and Toryism is not. At Brighton on Thursday, after a clever reply to Mr. Chamberlain on foreign policy and other matters, he declared himself reluctant to alter Procedure in Parliament. The House of Commons -was becoming the supreme power, and the supreme power required the check of fall discus- sion. No provocation will make him mention primogeniture, which, indeed, he could only defend by saying that the system was the main pillar of an aristocracy, and he thought an aris- tocracy good, and he gave up entail ; but he fought for settle- ment as essential to protect families against ruin, and ven- tured in a serious way on the statement that it limited the power of mortgaging, and that "an unlimited power of mortgaging was not for the benefit of the community." Why not ? Suppose a man wants to build, may it not be to his advantage and that of the community to mort- gage his land to the last shilling of its value ? As for mortgaging being "the greatest danger to landed pro- perty," it is the greatest cause of the fluidity of such property, which otherwise would remain in the same hands for ever. That, no doubt, is what Lord Salisbury at heart wishes ; and why does he not say so ? He expressed his belief that if transfer were made easy, land would go to the wealthy. Little people "only desire small properties, in order to sell them." Well, transfer in Switzerland takes ten minutes, and costs nothing, and land does not go to the wealthy.
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