TOPICS OF THE DAY.
WINDING-UP.
THE Session which is now at an end, has been chiefly occupied by the Government in the attempt to wind up its very much embarrassed affairs. It has concluded peace in Afghanistan, without obtaining the "scientific frontier" for which Anglo-Indians still fret, It has made a bold stroke for a pacific settlement in Zululand, in spite of the mild dis- pleasure of Sir Bartle Frere. It has patched up matters with Russia, so that Lord Beaconsfield talks quite benignantly of Russia as a friendly Power, in spite of not having succeeded in effectually overbidding Russia at Constantinople, and having completely failed in the design of the Anglo-Turkish Conven- tion. It has accepted a subordinate position to France in the Egyptian policy of the two countries, having consented to sup- port France in a policy not only not useful, but even injurious to us, simply from its fear that if France were to quarrel with us, our influence in Egypt would go to the wall. But besides all these efforts to clear away threatening misunderstandings at almost any cost, the Ministers have, in their old age, done the beat they could, consistently with costly living and popularity, to amend the faults of a wild and dissi-
pated youth. They have not, it is true, diminished the scale of their expenditure, but they have taken great credit for not increasing the means at their dis- posal by any more permanent expedient than signing bonds. They have loudly promised that if only a little time were afforded them, they would pay off all their outstanding debts, without even asking for a larger allowance, And to make sip for riot doing anything economical themselves, tley have made a most valiant fight at the last moment to put difficulties in the way of any sinful municipali- ties whose original sin might incline them to follow their example. Sir Stafford Northcote, when entreated by Mr. Chamberlain to put off till another Session this effort to inculcate on others a virtue which he had not practised himself, replied, with the one audacious sentence of his official life,—" I won't I" And what is more, he did not. He has carried, with some concessions, his Bill for restraining the ex- travagant propensities of local bodies, and so managed to pose, at the very end of the Session, as the virtuous financier who cannot endure to advance to municipal profligates the means wherewith they may ruin themselves, In rebuking Mr. Chamberlain and his other adversaries for their opposition to his proposals for reforming the system of loans to public bodies, Sir Stafford Northcote quoted the well-known lines
a very good world that we live in,
To lend, or to spend, or to give in,— But to beg, or to borrow, or come by one's own, It's the very worst world that ever was known."
And yet Sir Stafford Northcote hag not found it such a very bad world to borrow in,—whatever he may say of coming by his own. On the contrary, an easier world to borrow in than this has proved itself to the present Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, it is not very easy to conceive. Doubt- less, he wishes to make it a much worse world for local bodies to borrow in than it has lately been,—and no doubt in this his policy is wise, though it would be well if he would put some of the same difficultiei in his own path which he so skilfully devises for his local competitors. But for himself, he has borrowed freely, largely, and almost osten- tatiously, without difficulty, and has even taken credit for not borrowing permanently,—for professing an intention, in short, of repaying soon, as if that were the ne plus ultra of a Chancellor of the Exchequer's virtue. Indeed, as a financier, Sir Stafford Northcote has shown a very marked tendency to earn a good character by Pharisaic displays,— first, his display of magnanimous resolve not to fund the debt, but to retain it in the form in which it looks temporary ; and next, his severe and even heroic effort to hold back municipal financiers from the dangerous courses in which he had so freely embarked himself. However, there is no saying how a character for financial wisdom may not be acquired amongst the constituencies. Sir Stafford Northcote may,— though we do not think he will,—find that his last great pose as a virtuous financier, lecturing profligate Common Councils and Boards, through the few straggling repre- sentatives who sat on deserted benches to imbibe his elo- quence, and who offered vain excuses for the delinquents, will sink into the minds of the constituencies and inspire them with profound confidence in his economy, as well as in his didactic gift for infecting others with a spirit at least as economical as his own.
The attempt to make the best of a not very good business, to wind up with a certain amount of confidence for the future,. and a certain amount of half-apologetic defiance in relation to the ill-success of the past, is reflected not only in the closing doings of the leader of the House of Commons, but in the Speech from the Throne with which the House was pro- rogued. The Lord Chancellor read certain rather depressed sentences, in which the Sovereign seems to try to review cheerfully a series of inauspicious circumstances. She regards the new Governments established in Eastern Roumelia and Bulgaria, and still more the Russian evacuation, with meek satisfaction. She has not even that for the progress of Turkish reforms, which she admits to have been nil. She announces that the change in the Government of Egypt was effected "at the sug- gestion of my Government, in conjunction with that of France,' but this change is, of course, a somewhat desperate remedyr on the efficacy of which, at present, it is impossible to count. The Afghan Treaty is the only radiant point in the speech, and even there the radiance is wisely and modestly subdued,—un- less, indeed, the reference to the Army Discipline Act may be. called radiant, and certainly there is an air of something like self-congratulation in the manner in which that great achieve- ment in the face of difficulties is recounted. But on the whole, the review of the Session which the Queen has been advised to take in closing Parliament is more apologetic than confident. It is impossible to make much of a crippled Banking Act, of a purely permissive kind. It is impossible to. make much of the appointment of a Royal Commission to find out why agriculture is at so low an ebb. It is not easy to make much even of an Irish University Act which came as a sudden inspiration, after it had been decided to be impracti- able, and which assimilated to itself more than half its substance not only after passing the House of Lords, but in the interval between its second reading in the House of Commons and its passage through Committee. The speech from the Throne, in short, dwells modestly on the least re- pulsive features of this Parliament's unvenerable old age, and. makes it appear as creditable, or at least as little discreditable, to itself and to the Government, as may be.
In all this, of course, we see that the Government are sensible that their achievements will not recommend theni greatly to the country. They are conscious of shortcomings ; they are trying rather to wipe out the remembrance of what they once gloried in, than to recall to the country the history of the Parliament that has now so short a time to live. And the same characteristic is visible in the pro- mises for the future. Mr. Cross is holding out to London golden hopes of water-supply reforms. There is a groat desire. to fix the mind of the country on the advantages which the proposed Criminal Code would bring about. Sir Stafford Northcote, when he delivered his great homily on the vices of municipal finance, promised that the whole subject should be referred to a Select Committee in the next Session. Even Lord Salisbury told the Bank-holidaymakers at Hatfield the other day that the era of European excitement was passed, and that now we might begin to look forward to. a little domestic peace and improvement. Lord Cranbrook himself, instead of waving the flag, is talking Indian economy and preaching the suppression of museums. Though the general election must be near, and may be very near, the whole tone of the Government is business-like, not to say flat. Of course, this is due partly to anxiety, but it is also due to a distinct, consciousness that a change of tone is desirable, before the appeal to the country is made. The grandiose tone, even if it had its day, is for the present, they see, obsolete ; and the Ministers, therefore, put on a somewhat rueful air, like that of spendthrifts who have made up their minds to be frugat and virtuous for the future. And none of them does this sort of thing so well as Sir Stafford Northcote,—partly, perhaps, because he really does like the notion of re- turning sobriety, and is dimly conscious that he has been led into error by dissipated companions, rather than by any preference of his own. He has told us lately that Lord Beaconsfield's policy has raised the whole position of England.
But that confession of faith is almost de rigueur, and he always passes from it with some alacrity. For the Ministry, as a whole, however, the conversion is probably too late. The sick headache and the sober protestations for the future have come ; but they will hardly restore the popularity of a Ministry who gained their reputation by making small wars, threatening great ones, and rattling money-bags in the face of Europe.
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