THE SALFORD ELECTION.
THE result of the Salford Election is a great blow to the Liberal party. There is no use in concealing that, or any other disagreeable fact in politics. They had hoped that the electors of Salford would have been so disgusted with the con- duct of the Government in the East that many Conservatives would have stayed away from the polls, and many more would have voted for the Libiral candidate, and that the total result would have been an emphatic warning to the Cabinet that the great*Constituencies had finally condemned Turkey. No such enthusiasm has, however, been excited. On the contrary, the Conservative party, reinforced no doubt by some men annoyed by Mr. Kay's known dislike of the liquor trade, and by many men irritated by his concessions to Home-rulers, mustered in greater force than ever, and whereas in 1868 Mr. Cawley, the highest Conservative, had only 6,312 votes, and in 1874 only 7,008, the Tory candidate had on this occasion 8,642 votes, a total increase of 20 per cent, upon his roll. No doubt the Liberal vote had increased also from 6,827 to 8,372, and in a nearly equal degree, the Tory majority in 1874 having been only 176, but still the Tory increase shows that the enthu- siasm is as great on their side as on that of their opponents. This is not what was expected, and the defeat is a disappoint. ment which Liberals who believe in their principles are bound to acknowledge frankly.
Having acknowledged it, however, they are at liberty to consider whether there is not an explanation of the defeat which may convey to them at least some warning that they can profitably take to heart. We believe there is, and it is conveyed in the single sentence that in this country, and at this time, truckling to mischievous crotchets, besides being a most demoralising practice, does not pay. Liberal candidates in the North have recently shown a disposition to purchase the Irish vote by concessions which, when every allowance has been made, are discreditable to their reputation for upright- ness and independence. They know perfectly well that they do not in the long-run mean to grant Home-rule as Irishmen understand those words, that they would rather see Ireland independent, or reduced once more to a dependency, than attempt to carry out the Federal idea, yet they keep on promising to vote for a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the reasons for and against that plan. That, they argue, is quite fair, because investigation can hurt no man, but it is not fair. In making the promise, they leave on Irish minds the impression that their minds are open to con- viction on the subject, which is false ; that they think the pro- posal one of practical politics, which is not true ; and that they are friendly among Irish parties to the least sensible among them, which is not the case. They in fact, unless they believe in Home-rule, as Irishmen believe in it, are either deceiving their Irish supporters, which is distinctly wrong, or they are fostering an injurious agitation which they know will come to nothing, and that is, if possible, worse, because they are helping for selfish ends to waste the resources and misdirect the energies of the Irish people. Their own conviction in the majority of cases is that of all possible methods of settling the Irish diffi- culty the concession of Home-rule would be the worst, and they deliberately conceal that important conviction, for fear a section of their supporters should in wrath and disappointment join the Conservatives. That is base, and we confess that deeply as we regret the vote of Salford upon the Eastern Question, our regret is modified by the decisiveness of its vote against the prac- tice of pandering to an unwise and insincere agitation. If the Liberals are only convinced by it that Englishmen hate both the proposal and those who truckle to it, that for every Irish vote so gained an English vote is lost, and that in making promises to Home-rulers they sell their self-respect without receiving the reward, the loss of Salford will be a decided gain to the morale, and therefore to the future pros- pects of the party. We do not believe, as a matter of fact, that the Home-rulers, opposed as they are by the Catholic Church, do sway a majority of the Irish- men in the great towns, while they are special objects of aversion to the English Catholics, who in Lancashire are strong, but that is only a mechanical detail in the question. The broad fact is that candidates who truckle to the Home-rule combination without being convinced that Home-rule is feasible and wise, and promising to vote for it, rouse the just indigna- tion of all Conservatives and the just suspicion of all Liberals who would rather wait a generation for power than purchase it by an affectation of deference to an idea which, if it were realised, would make the government of the Empire impossible, and produce either a resolve to be done with Ireland, or a resolve that Ireland could no longer be governed as she is now, on the theory of absolute equality in all political rights with the sister-kingdoms. The sooner the Northern Liberals learn that fact, and give up truckling and yielding, and making unreal promises to agree to inquiries the result of which is predetermined, the better for their repute and their future prospects. Let Ireland turn Conservative, if it will. The difficulty of educating England in the only true system of politics will be but a little increased, and can be overcome.
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