TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE WEAKNESS OF THE OPPOSITION.
ASTRONG Opposition, it has been said, makes in England a strong Government, and whether that paradox is true or not, its converse that a weak Government makes a very weak Opposition certainly is. Nothing can be weaker than the Government. The failure of its foreign policy in Central Europe has discredited it even among men who have no wish for war with Germany, while its internal strength seems to be simply nil. It is beaten about once a week in full Houses upon some detail implying confidence, quakes at a local "row" like that involved in the transfer of the assizes from York to Leeds, and cannot induce the House of Commons to postpone a legal reform for the time necessary to bring in a Bill identical in principle with one of which the House approves. The Attorney-General on Wednesday accepted Mr. C. Forster's proposal to abolish forfeiture upon conviction of felony, and promised to bring in a Bill of his own this session to carry it out, but so little did the House trust even Sir Roundel]. Palmer that it insisted on pushing the Bill then before it through its second reading. Whenever any Minister except Lord Palmerston proposes anything he is treated almost with contumely. Sir George Grey is almost howled at if he shows any tendency to be independent, while 'three subordinates have either elicited hostile votes, or avoided them by resigning. Anything on any day may, it is felt, upset the Administration, which has outside almost as little support as it finds within doors. Even the fear of dissolution, of encountering that vulgarized day of judgment, an election, is ceasing to exercise its wonted force, for the dissolution must come next year ; the Liberals think they had better dissolve while they can write "Palmerston" on their banners,— Palmerston, that civis .Romanus who, like his prototype, rules everything except Germany ;—while the Tories would rather test their adroit registration before their arrangements are disturbed by any new surge of Liberal feeling. There is not a prominent member of the Ministry except its chief who is not for the moment out of favour, Mr. Gladstone with the Tories for praising reform, and with the Whigs for clipping his praises, Sir George Grey with everybody in the House for his jelly-fish obstinacy which yields to a squeeze but rises against an impression, Lord Clarendon with everybody out of doors for not succeeding in his special work at the Tuileries, and Earl Russell with the whole nation for allowing its name to be smirched.
Nevertheless the Ministry stands, for the Opposition is weaker still. All through the week there have been rumours of coming disasters, and that dissonant gong the Herald has been struck to a jangling note of triumph, and in all clubs everybody with a promise of something to be given "whenever we come in" has been exultant and mysterious. Now the report is that a vote condemning Ministerial med- dling is to be proposed, then there is a word of a resolution distinctly in favour of Denmark, and anon Mr. Disraeli has an idea that the Napoleonic Congress was a magnificent thought. It has all come to nothing. Upon the great ques- tion of the hour, the defence of a little Power against dismem- berment by two great Powers, the Tory leaders have no policy to propose. They and their chief assert very boldly that all that has been done is merely "meddle and muddle," but they neither propose to leave off meddling, nor allow us any clear certainty that had they been in power the muddling would have been avoided. They know perfectly well that if Louis Napoleon will go forward so will the Whig Foreign Secretary, and as that is precisely their own idea they have nothing to say, except that the Emperor might with a little more tact have been kept in better temper. That assertion may be a sound political criticism, but it is not precisely a policy, and what more definite course has Lord Derby yet ventured to suggest ? Apart from this great question there is nothing afoot which can heal• the schism. permanently produced by the presence of Mr. Disraeli. If Lord Derby asks his followers to vote simply that they have no con- fidence in Lord Palmerston, fifty of them retort that they have less in the astute member for Bucks. Yet the Tory chief cannot, even if inclined, throw his lieutenant over, and without these fifty his majority is very far from assured. The old sore is unhealed as ever, and there is no healing it, and so the Ministry stumbles on, doing as little as possible, and the Opposition follows after, criticizing as much as is possible without incurring the risk of action, and the nation watches and begins to doubt whether principle is, after all, at the bottom of the struggle for office, as it has always been told. The Tories may come in any day by virtue of an accidental majority, a victory they could not decline, or a rumour they could not refuse to hear ; but for a planned and final assault the Opposition, numerically strong as it may be, allows itself still too weak.
Of course in such a condition of affairs the influence of England abroad is for the moment gone. Her Government is only strong when a distinct line of action meets with the ap- proval of Parliament, and at present the evil of the weakness of the Opposition is that neither approval nor disapproval can; be made manifest. The leaders are afraid to demand a distin4 verdict, and Parliament therefore remains conscious or nothing except an indistinct dislike to all that is going on, —to seeing Denmark dismembered, to hearing Herr von Bismark exult, to any line of conduct which might prevent either of those annoyances. The Ministry hunts for middle paths, suggests lines of partition just north of the Danne- werke, tries to believe in universal suffrage, or asks whether arbitration may not do, and the Opposition, liking none of those things, is still afraid directly to oppose any. A vote of want of confidence distinctly rejected would deprive their accidental _victories of all value, and they cannot risk the battle except on some point on which the schism in their own ranks will be unfelt. Consequently they wait on, and the . Ministry unopposed at home becomes more and more powerless abroad, till it seems almost certain that Conference will rise with nothing determined, and a campaign recommence which must either develop into a conquest or a European war ; but which will in either ease leave on us the stain of inability to protect an ally on whose behalf we had threatened the only Power bound by permanent interests to ourselves.
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