THE MULTITUDE ON LORD BEACONSFIELD.
THE choice of Mr. Gladstone as a candidate for the Borough of Leeds at the General Election is a notable indication of the drift of popular opinion in the great Yorkshire town. Yorkshire is less excitable than Lancashire, less ready to run into extremes, and it would not have been wonderful if the Leeds Liberals had preferred a local and less political candi- date than Mr. Gladstone. A year or so back it is almost certain that they would have done this. A man in good re- pute in the borough, with clear views as to specific Radical measures for the adoption of which he would undertake to labour, and disposed to qualify his general professions of devo- tion to peace and retrenchment by an undertaking not to make foreign politics a party question, would have been the safe candidate to run. The preference shown to Mr. Gladstone, and the circumstances of the meeting at which his name was finally adopted by the Liberal party in the borough, show that a change of some signifi- cance has come over Liberal opinion in Leeds. The party is infinitely more hopeful and more enthusiastic than it was a year ago. There is no longer any talk about giving the Government a fair trial. On the contrary, there is the strongest possible sense that the Government has been tried, and found wanting. We do not say that all the charges brought against the Government at Saturday's meeting could be sustained, or that those who bring them are entirely free from misconception. Our object is not to estimate the justice of the Leeds indictment of Lord Beaconsfield, but simply to ascertain, as far as is possible from mere outward signs, the kind of feeling which underlies it. If party feeling did not so strangely lessen the power of judging facts correctly, this would be an inquiry which a Tory might conduct equally well with a Liberal. That there is a storm gathering on the poli- tical horizon is evident,—are there any data from which to calculate the amount of electricity which the clouds contain ?
From this point of view, an unjust charge is quite as telling as a just one. If there is one thing more than another that cannot be laid at Lord Beaconsfield's door, it is dear bread. It is curious that, for the first time in history; a time of general distress has not been aggravated by this particular cause. The loaf which, thanks to American corn, the people can put on their tables to-day, is a bigger and a better loaf than they have ever been able to 'put on their tables under similar circumstances before. But popular dislike does not care about facts. It accuses its objects indifferently of the things which they have done, and the things which they have left undone. But it must be genuine dislike that does this,—dislike strong enough to over- power the inbred justice of the English people, their'disposition to speak of men as therfind them, their readiness to fight fairly, and to take no advantage which has not honestly come to them. Yet at Leeds on Saturday the working-men, assem- bled an a huge mass meeting of thirty thousand, forgot all about the cheapness of bread, and went back to the old League antithesis of the big and the little loaf. A small niece of brown bread and a huge mass of fine white bread were chnstened respectively "the Disraeli Jingo loaf" and "the Gladstone Reform loaf." The Leeds workmen know that trade is slack, and they believe that its slackness is due to Lord Beaconsfield's policy, and the way they choose to express this conviction is by bringing the old weapon out of the
armoury in which it has so long lain unused, regardless of the fact that it is now simply an anachronism. The placards which were displayed at this meeting all told the same story. The almost-forgotten sins of the Govern- ment—such as the Slave Circular—were raked up against them, evidently under the impression that the more Lord Beaconsfield was bespattered, the better the crowd would be pleased. "Vote for the Tories, War, Slave Circular, Distress !" was an inscription often repeated. One placard bore two roughly rhyming inscriptions, setting out the characteristics of Tory policy at home and abroad. Abroad, they were Death, Danger, Disease, Disaster, and Distrust ; at home, they wee Disquiet, Debt, Distress, Dishonour, and Disgust. Another placard put the question "What stopped Trade ?" and gave the answer, "Why, the Tories." The framers of these inscrip- tions quite understood the paramount position which Lord Beaconsfield holds among his colleagues. He had the lion's share of the indictment reserved for him. The references to the Prime Minister, says a reporter, appeared to be most keenly relished by the crowd, and were most loudly and most fre- quently cheered. One ran, "Wanted, 24,000 pence to pay for the laurel-wreath ;" another, "Benjamin Disraeli,— he made the Queen an Empress and the People poor ;" another, "All hail, Emperor of Cyprus and future King of the Zulus !" Until lately, Lord Beaconsfield has been personally popular. If he is now singled out from his colleagues, and made the scapegoat on which all the sins of the Government are laid, it is some evidence that the change of feeling towards the Government goes deep down.
It must be remembered that this meeting was not called together to hear an eloquent speech. No one of more than local fame was present at it. No " star " had come down from London, to cheer fainting spirits or stimulate flagging energy. The enthusiasm shown was essentially a business enthusiasm, —the enthusiasm of men who have come to be told what to do, and are quite indifferent to the language in which the order is given. The negative character of the directions given to the meeting was also remarkable. There was scarcely any reference to the things that Mr. Gladstone might do, after slaying the present Government. The meeting did not want to look beyond this. It did not ask for a constructive policy ; it only cared for the destruction which was to over- take the present Cabinet. That is the most formidable oppo- sition a Government can possibly have to encounter,—an opposition which is content not to trouble itself with more than one thing at a time, which does not stop to ask what is to be put in the place of the destroyed object, which regards destruction as its own reward. Very little agreement is neces- sary to keep together assailants who are animated by this temper. They may entertain the most conflicting theories as to what it is that makes the present Government unfit to retain power, or the most impracticable ideas of the policy which should be pursued by those who may come after them. These are differences of no importance when the aim of an opposition is simply the overthrow Of a Ministry. The strength of the attack made at the General Election, supposing no fresh change to come over the face of affairs, will lie in this simplicity and singleness of purpose. This is a piece of good-fortune which, five years ago, it seemed almost impossible should ever befall the Liberals again. In 1874 the Government had to all appearance only to sit still, and leave to the Liberals the hopeless task of patching up their differences. Whatever the Liberals could offer the country the Conservatives could offer, and there was great reason to doubt whether the Liberals would not remain too divided as to what they should offer to make it necessary for the Con- servatives to outbid them. It is different in 1879. One of the speakers at the Leeds meeting told the crowd that Mr. Gladstone was not at one with them as regards some of the changes they desire ; but it made not the least difference to the result. The voters assembled in the Clothhall Yard only asked whether he was at one with them in disliking the present Government. It was his unmistakable sound- ness upon this point that made him the unanimous choice
of the Leeds Liberals. If they had been told that Mr. Gladstone was prepared to accept from them a mandat imperatif to disestablish the Church, or to redistribute the land, or to make nine hours the legal limit of a day's work, the enthusiasm of the meeting could not have been greater. They wanted to manifest their desire that the present Govern- ment should be overthrown, at any cost, and without regard to what might follow, and they rightly deemed that for this pur- pose Mr. Gladstone was the best candidate they could choose. Of course, Leeds is but one place among many, but if the feel- ing there displayed is shared by only half the great Northern towns, two things at least are clear,—one, that the policy of the Government has been shorn of all its glitter ; the other, that they will not, under any circumstances, be allowed to re- gild it by a European war. The time has gone by when the popularity of the Cabinet might yet be restored by a coup de the'titre. Such an attempt would now be only another nail in Lord Beaconsfield's political coffin. He must rest content with the gilt laurels he has already won, or will have won when Messrs. Hunt and Roskell can be paid.
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