Mr. Balfour, in a speech at Haddington last Saturday, seemed
to be possessed with the conviction that the Conserva- tive cause is gaining adherents amongst the agricultural labourers of Scotland. He appeared to ground that convic- tion a good deal on the evidence of the reaction which has certainly taken place against the policy of Scotch Disestab- lishment ; but he is also convinced that the direct effect of enfranchising a large class like that of the agricultural labourers, is to make them take a pride in the Constitution for which they become responsible, and therefore to be un- willing to destroy and mangle that Constitution, or to see the nation to which they belong dismembered. That may be perfectly true, and yet it may also be true that the agricultural labourers in Scotland, as elsewhere, may be only too willing to accept the Gladstonians' assurance that what Unionists think dismemberment is nothing but a " union of hearts," in substitution for the union of bonds. And Mr. Balfour was certainly quite wise in impressing on his audience that it will not do to rely too much on a priori considerations, and to neglect the cares of organisation. As he truly said, " the time when an election is won is the time when a dissolution still seems remote, when the natural inclination of every man is to slacken his efforts, when the machinery is allowed to get rusty, when the wheels of an organisation are clogged. It is then that work is really required." And it is then, also, that work is too seldom given.
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