TOPICS OF THE DAY.
PERTURBATIONS OF PA]ITIES.
A GREAT question agitated by mathematicians in the last century was the law of three bodies in motion : its application was to the revolutions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth ; and the problem to be solved was the eccentricities in their movements from their re- ciprocal gravitating powers. Euler, D'Alembert, and the Ber- nouillis, all essayed solutions ; and a perplexity of kindred import seems to challenge the genius of politicians in respect of party evolutions. It has become manifest that the tendency of every representative assembly is to resolve itself into three antagonistic masses at the least—namely, the ministerial or executive ; the regular opposition ; and an ultra minority, inferior to both the others in numbers, but often with the option of giving to either an ascendancy. A similar disposition of forces is frequent in con- stituencies; and just as the Mountain, the Manchester, or Irish brigade, may sway the National Assembly or House of Commons, a reserve of Socialists, Longshore men, or hereditary Freemen, may turn the scale of elections. But the celestial phwnomenon differs from the sublunary in the fact that the lesser orbs do not exercise a controlling influence over the superior luminaries : in legis- latures, however, and indeed in all voting assemblies, when parties are nearly balanced, a small minority may have the casting-vote by which the direction of the preponderating masses is decided. A result of this kind is certainly not that intended by represent- ative government, which is that majorities' not minorities, should rule; and the anomaly can only be obviated by consolidation. Os- tensibly, parties are always divided either on measures or prin- ciples, never avowedly on a love of place, power, or other vulgar element ; it follows that the party in possession or immediate ex- pectancy has always the means of strengthening itself by conceding the points of difference with the tertium quid that hovers between them. But this concession seldom operates more than an allevia- tion or postponement of the former divisions ; since the coa- lition mostly has the effect of generating a new description of sphinx with pretensions more irreconcikable than those of its pre- decessor. So that homogeneity of sentiment is hardly to be ex- pected in modern legislatures ; nor, probably, is entire unanimity a condition most favourable to the public welfare.
The peculiarity of a third party in the British Parliament does not date much earlier than the commencement of the present cen- tury. Previously the country was only cognizant of the two great divisions of 'Whigsand Tories, Ins or Outs ; and the chief differences of these from the Revolution to the death of Queen Anne, were either dynastic or religious ; the last mainly turning on the toleration of Dissent, Roman Catholics for long after not being recognized by either party as eligible to any indulgence. But the entire discomfiture of hope in the Stuarts, and the acces- sion of the Hanover family, gave unchallenged ascendancy to the Whigs ; which they held till internal dissensions on the allocation of offices among themselves left an open- ing for the long administration of Mr. Pitt and the revival of Toryism. By this time the germ of a Democratic party had be- come plainly defined ; 'which doubtless had originated in the discussions on popular rights growing out of the first American war, and to which the after explosion of the French Revolution -gave corroborative energy and development. But its progress was slow and arduous. Under the ovenha- -clow-ing greatasssis and long-established prestige of the aristocratical i ,parties t was hardly possible for any formation distinct from them to take root and thrive. The first open severance from the feudal domain was Westminster ; the public-spirited electors of which city repeatedly returned, free of expense, representatives who dis- claimed all connexion or sympathy with the Ins and Outs. Be- yond this conquest no marked advances were made till after the Peace, when the public mind, with less of foreign distraction, na- turally became more concentrated on domestic interests. A brief survey suffioed to show that the old monopolies in Church and State were no longer maintainable ; but the concession of religious immunities seemed to be held less hazardous than political fran- chises. In consequence, Catholic disabilities were removed, and the Test and Corporation Acts repealed in favour of Dissenters ; and these concessions, -with the opening of the East India trade, and some curtailment of the monetary privileges of the Bank of England, would probably have long continued the limit of popular advancement, had not the peal of a second French Revolution fixed the national mind immoveably and resolutely on the urgency of Parliamentary Reform.
The adjustment, final or temporary, of these large questions, has greatly narrowed the field of party divisions. For the last eight years, repeal of the Corn-duties and revision of the Tariff have been the chief topics of discussion ; and Free Trade or Protection, which is now the separating line, may be beheld as a fast vanishing dis- tinction after the admissions of Disraeli and the electoral cast on which Lord Stanley has staked its future existence. But it would be rash to infer hence that we are verging to the end of parties : they will always exist ; they are in man's nature ; and if nothing better will serve for division, men will divide on theology or metaphysics, or even, as Mr. Wilberforce said they would, on "simple arithmetic." Even the Stanley and Graham sections it cannot be forgotten, swarmed off from the Reform Ministry solely on the Appropriation-clause—on the secularization of Church pro perty; a consummation which to this day has never happenel What, too, defeated the recent project of a coalition Ministry ? Sir James held that there ought to have been no legislation on the Pa- pal aggression; Lord John thought otherwise, but is plainly con- tent to accept a nullity as an equivalent. Still the two magnate leaders cannot coalesce. With such hair-splitting what hope can there be of unanimity among statesmen ? One party, however, is based on more tangible realities. It is the third party of the state, whose position and influence have been adumbrated if not elucidated by a celestial analogy. This is the party of Progress, identified with increasing wealth and population, and which must grow with the growth of the community.
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