TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CONSERVATIVE MEETING. THE meeting of the Conservatives at the Carlton Club on Wednesday was a most timely one. It is quite use- less to deny that the whole Unionist Party, and especially its Conservative section, stood in need of some strong stimulus,—not, indeed, to its resolution, but to its energy and hope. The new Home-rule Bill rouses, we believe, much more dislike, rising often into positive hatred than the old Bill of 1886 but the very intensity of the hostile feeling has diminished the ardour of opposition. The Bill seems to many, perhaps most, of the Unionist Party, not a statesman's proposal at all, but an exhibition of folly almost outside discussion, and only to be accounted for by some illusion or glamour which has fallen upon Glad. donjons, and under the influence of which argument is thrown away. No discussion can alter the impression of the Bill, and therefore there has been an unwillingness to dis- cuss it, a readiness to abuse separate clauses rather than the Bill itself, and a reliance upon the House of Lords such as we hardly remember in the politics of this generation. The effect was most unhealthy, for while the English Unionists stood half-paralysed waiting, as it were, for the Bill to reach Committee, the Irish Unionists, whose lives and property are at stake, and who see that an Irish Parliament of any kind will mean a Government controlled by their deadly enemies, began to grow irritable, to fancy that they were deserted by England, and to cry aloud that their allies were more moved by the Ninth Clause which affects themselves and their future Consti- tution, than by the Bill itself, which will ruin all Ireland. There was a pause of perplexity with gleams of temper under it, amidst which it really looked as if the rank- and-file were in advance of their leaders, and as if the latter, with their greater experience, saw stronger reasons for dismay than their followers did. All that mist was dispersed by the meeting at the Carlton. Lord Salisbury, whatever his precise words—which, for some incompre- hensible reason, it is thought better not to report— announced that he and his colleagues had decided on the only reasonable course, to meet the Bill with a direct negative couched in the old-fashioned terms, and the entire party was enthusiatic in its approval. Even the Free Lance, Lord Randolph Churchill, signified his assent in words so warm, and containing so cordial a recognition of Mr. Balfour's leadership, that if we could ever thoroughly trust him we might believe that he had ranged himself, and would henceforward strive with his great ability in expression and curious hold over many Conservative minds to show himself a statesman. There was really no divergence, not only in the speeches but in the inner feeling of the Party ; all allowed that the Bill must be fought to the uttermost and as a whole, as an irremediably bad Bill, as fatal to the future of the British Constitution as to that of Ireland.
This is, we are convinced, the right line to take, and the one which will be most acceptable to Liberal Unionists as well as to the anxious, dispirited, but furious Unionists of Ireland. The point of the former all along has been that they want a good Bill, supposing it in human wit to devise one—which it is not—just as little as they want a bad one. Any Bill which the Irish would accept must divide the United Kingdom, must destroy the Constitution as it is, must hand over to the Irish majority who send up the Members we see, complete legislative and executive control over Irish affairs and Irishmen. The Celtic and Catholic Irishmen must be a triumphant majority, and the British and Protestant Irishmen must be a betrayed and powerless minority. The Unionists therefore desire no Bill at all, but seek to keep the Constitution as it is, under which the people of the two islands, equally represented, assist each other and moderate each other, and enlighten each other in managing all affairs. It is Unity for which the Union- ists are struggling, not an acceptable form of disunion ; and any proposal whatever not based on that decision, would have crippled their energies and left them half-dis- posed to throw up the combat in despair. In their minds, any compromise would be equivalent to surrender, and being either Englishmen, or of English blood, they want their leaders to fight the battle out in the English way on the floor of the House of Commons ; and by votes not on this or that detail, but on the whole ruinous proposal. If they are beaten, they are beaten ; but they will have done their duty, will have kept faith with their constituents, and will have enabled the whole country to understand what it is that the Government is asking them to do ; what, in fact, a transfer of legislative and executive power to Irish Nationalists really means. The leaders, in announcing that they fight the Bill as a whole, have gratified their followers' strongest desire ; and we shall soon see. reawakened that energy in resistance which for some weeks past has been so unaccountably lacking, Nor do we believe that the decision is in any way unwise,. or a counsel of despair. The majority is no doubt more inclined to hold together than it was believed could be the case with such incongruous elements ; but there is. always in a majority some element of weakness, and always hope in fighting with a resolution to win. Members may be hard to convince by the most persuasive debating ; but their constituents are more receptive, and the action of constituents upon their representatives is now instant and overpowering. There may be a secession yet in unexpected quarters. Debate, it is said, has never changed a vote; but debate has rarely, or never, gone on under such circum- stances, with at least half the majority in a condition of mind in which, if the Bill disappeared into space, they would feel nothing but an exquisite sensation of relief. A section of the majority hesitates ; and any accident, a tele- gram from County Clare, a telegram from New York, a revelation of Irish intentions, a flash of light on the financial effects of the Bill, a change of opinion in a. Gladstonian leader, may in a moment deepen hesitation into a distrust before which party allegiance will give way. The minority, moreover, is one such as has rarely been seen in any country. Strong in its numbers—it is a, majority both in England and in Britain—it represents, by Mr. Gladstone's admission, most of the intelligence of the Kingdom, and contains at least three-fifths of its debating power. It is free as few minorities in England have ever been from what Carlyle called " halfness," the secret wish to compromise; and free, too, as few minorities are anywhere from jealousies or divisions of opinion among its leaders. It has nothing to fear from victory, except a Dissolution, which would make either itself or its cause triumphant, even Radicals refusing a third chance to a project so ruinous to themselves ; and nothing to hope from defeat, except a repetition of the struggle under worse because less inspiriting circumstances. It is impos- sible to be rid of Home-rule except by its defeat in the Commons or in the country. A minority so situated, and told, as it was told by Lord Salisbury, that the stake was a more than adequate one, nothing less than the continuity of British history, must always have a chance if it will but fight ; and the enthusiasm displayed on Wednesday shows that the whole party, for the Unionists are even more decided than the Conservatives, is eager for the fray. What they dreaded was not battle, but an uncertain stake.
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