LETTERS TO TILE EDITOR.
ON THE STATE OF POLITICAL PARTIES.
ITO THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR.".1
believe there is no doubt that a large proportion of the people of England are very tired of the extreme hostility which has existed for some time between the two parties in the
Rouse of Commons, and the violent counsels which have mote or less prevailed in the leadership of both sides ; and this majority would gladly welcome a Government which, while carrying out its own policy, would try to do so on the principle of carefully listening to the view of the other side, and trying to compromise and modify so as to cause the smallest amount of injury and annoyance according to the views of the Opposition, instead of ignoring and defying their views altogether. Such position could only be held by a moderate Liberal Government which, while sympathising with the views of all sections of the community, would work on the principle of trying to carry out the resultant of a number of unequal forces acting round one point. Recent events have shown the difficulty of the Liberal Party marching any longer abreast of Socialism without a serious rupture ; but, on the other hand, I believe many of the Conservative Party would gladly compromise on a number of burning questions, and that although when once a strong cleavage is made between the two sides of the House the leadership necessarily falls into the hands of the extreme men of each party, it would be more natural and more proper if, instead of such wide cleavage, there were an effort more or less to bridge over the difficulty, and a modus vivendi could be established between the moderate men of all parties. As illustrations, the following four points might be taken :—
(1) The first extreme party that has to be reckoned with is Socialism. As the foundation of a policy it is difficult to make anything of it, but there is no doubt that it is the expression of a real complaint against many things that are wrong, and getting worse, in our ordinary organisation. It is, in fact, a genuine cry of pain, though it is useless as a prescription ; but in some of its forms it might be dealt with sympatheti- cally. For example, municipalisation may not be altogether wise in principle, but in many cases it works very fairly in practice, and there is plenty of room for progress without at present considering at what point that progress should stop. The more reasonable men of any party will be tolerably patient if they see their views are being considered and tried, even though only slowly.
(2) Fair-trade.—The great difficulty of this movement is that while, in general terms, the leaders clamour for all sorts of duties on foreign articles, they have never definitely formu- lated how much exact duty they would put upon any given article, or exactly what change would be produced if they did. Now, while all the older traditions of England are in favour of Free-trade, still a very large portion of the population of the world are Fair-traders or Protectionists, and their views may therefore claim courteous consideration, if nothing else. Might it not be fair to ask the Fair-trade Party to specify exactly what they think would be a very strong case for the protection of some one industry, and if a suitable case could be found, let that one case be tried and see what it is worth ?
(3) Education.—There can be little doubt that a large majority of Churchmen would gladly co-operate with a large majority of Nonconformists to bring about a measure tolerable to both parties, if only the extreme men of both sides could be silenced.
(4) Licensing is a most burning question, and one well calculated to upset a Ministry. Much blame has been thrown on the late Conservative measure, which, no doubt, had serious defects which it has shown in practice, but it nevertheless aid a certain amount of real work in the right direction. Might it not be possible to get over the evils of that measure by, a time-limit longer than fourteen years, and also by fixing some point beyond which the value of no license could rise ?
These are only rough indications of the sort of way in which the various questions before the country might be bridged ; but I believe there is a numerous and rapid increase in the party who would be only too thankful to see statesmen of opposite opinions trying more to work together to make uniform and patriotic progress instead of the present wasteful and weakening strife.—I am, Sir, &c., BENJAMIN C. BROWNE.
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