THE LIBERAL PARTY.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIn,—May I be permitted to suggest to you that the Liberal papers are just now doing very poor service to their party? Although the present Government is admitted on all sides to be unsatisfactory, and a General Election is regarded as in- evitable before long, the Liberal organs are devoting them- selves solely to the very easy task of abusing the Government, its failures and its measures. Should they not rather be giving all their, attention to the consolidation of their own party; to the final selection of a leader, who is really to lead and to be followed; to the preparation of measures with which to come before the country, for as things are at present the Liberal party is wholly unidentified with any constructive measure believed to be for the public good ? Things seem now to be much as in 1850 when Mr. Gladstone wrote after the Government victory in the Don Pacifico episode : "The majority of the House of Commons I am convinced was with us [the Opposition] in heart and conviction ; but fear of the inconvenience attending the removal of a Ministry while there is no regularly organised opposi- tion ready to succeed, carried the day beyond an authorita- tive doubt against the merits of the particular question" (Morley's " Gladstone," Vol. I., p. 371). Just so to-day the Government will be able to pass anything, because the electorate sees that if the Liberal party does not sink its differences and put forward a definite programme it will again be defeated at the polls, or, what is far worse, it will come in with a small majority, to be expelled in a few months, as in 1886, or to hold office during the convenience of the Opposition, as in 1894. The political memoirs of the last century have taught us nothing if they have not taught us that the people of this country dislike short-lived Govern- ments on account of the expense and dislocation of trade which General Elections involve, and on that account it will cost the Liberals thousands of votes at the polls if they go into this next Election with a doubt as to the personality of their leader and of the loyalty of his principal followers, and backed by only a negative programme consisting of the repeal of lately enacted education, licensing, and immigration laws. —I am, Sir, &c., A VERY MODERATIVE CONSERVATIVE.
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