TOPICS OF THE DAY.
TORY WHIGS. THE immediate prospects of the Whigs are considerably brighter than they were' but their future prospects we fear are not quite so bright. Election agents calculate that what with Mr. Gladstone's budget, the upward tendency in the price of wheat, the victories gained in the last registration, some accidental changes in the counties, and the break-down of the alliance between the Irish Catholics and the Tories, the Government, if Lord Palmerston retains his health, will have a working majority. Tory expectants are either downcast or morbidly acrid in their criticisms, and so sensitive are their chiefs to the change in public feeling, that they are ready to declaim against the prerogative which enables the Ministry to dissolve just at the moment which the Opposition does not like. Their organs have even resorted to the vain device of representing the Premier as engaged in an elaborate trick, publicly using his prestige to obtain a majority at the hust- ings, while privately resolved to retire and bequeath the Ad- ministration to men who, Tory journals say, are only trusted because he moves among them as a restraining force. From all parts of the country we hear that the only Liberal difficulty is to prevent too many competent candidates from coming forward at once, to prevent the electors in their triumphant security from splitting too quickly into two or more rival camps. A plethora of men of mark, willing to risk their names and con- siderable sums of money on the Liberal side, is not exactly a proof of Conservative reaction, and all things point to the conclusion that languid as the nation may be, its languor is that of content with its existing rulers.
But though it is marching to victory, there is nevertheless one weak spot in the Liberal line, and it is much to their ad- vantage that it should be seen in time. We believe they are running the risk at no very distant date of a great defection, not indeed among the electors, but among the members whom those electors return. It is in the smaller borough constitu- encies that Conservatism has of late years made most converts, and they will in many instances be only retained by the election of men who call themselves moderates, but whose ideal of political progress is—to reverse Mr. Disraeli's famous saying—" Whig men and Tory measures." There is a con- siderable class of candidates who, Liberals by tradition and antecedents, have worked themselves up to a dislike of what they call "organic change" keener than that of Tories. They have none of the Tory antipathy to persons, rather prefer Earl Russell to Lord Malmesbury, and Mr. Gladstone to Mr. Disraeli, and are not greatly seduced even by the pros- pect of exchanging Sir Charles Wood for Lord Stanley. But they want their leaders, and more especially Mr. Gladstone, to exert their great talents in the work of administration alone, to improve the finances without improving the condition of the poor, to re-organize armaments without changing our foreign policy, to remove social barriers from the path of the workmen without asking them to assist in clearing their own road. They are willing to do a great deal—not everything— for the people, but dread their chiefs' audacity when they try whether the very same things cannot be done through the people themselves. Of such men Mr. Lowe is, alike in the vigour of his intellect and the courage with which he expresses his ideas, his administrative experience and the independence which belongs to the elected of Caine, one of the very foremost. He was the first to declare that he did not want restricted reform, but an end of all projects for enlarging the suffrage, to denounce any change in the franchise, and to assert that Great Britain was as well governed as in the nature of things it could be. His speech against Mr. Baines's Bill did more for the Tories than all the efforts of their own side and though still a Liberal by party ties, many a Tory borough would be only too glad to be asked to find him a seat. Let us look, then, at the address in which he explains his views to the electors of Caine. He tells them—and remember he has not to court them very assiduously—that the nation is "tranquil and con- tent," and that therefore he "sees no reason for great organic changes in institutions which, though partaking largely of the imperfection incident to all things human, and susceptible doubtless of great improvements as our experience widens and ripens, have combined order and liberty, stability and progress, in a greater degree than the institutions of any other nation." He will of course give a hearing to "any one who points out a practical evil in the working of our Constitution," but notoriously does not consider the exclusion of four-fifths of the workdoers from a share of power as any "practical evil,". and attaches too much importance "to the blessings we already enjoy to risk them in pursuit of ideal perfection, cir, even theoretical improvement." He will remedy every "proved abuse," give "his aid to peace, economy, and legal reform," and remove all invidious distinctions and disabilities- founded on religious belief. With the exception of the last clause this is all in the regular Tory style, a clear expressios of the "creed of distrust qualified only by fear." Mr. Lowe, as he admits, distrusts the people while they are "tranquil and content," but if they were otherwise, were distrustful and discontented, would see in that bad state of feeling reasons' for trusting them once more,—is in fact distrustful while not. afraid, and only trustful when he begins to fear. The pro- mises about proved abuses are, we fear, mere words. Tories are always willing to remove "proved abuses," only they never will- allow that any " abuse " is "proved" until it has been swept. away by efforts which they do their very best to impede, and their willingness in words only makes it easier for Mr.. Lowe and men of his opinions to give them a steady support.. It is almost certain that after a very short interval, during which Lord Palmerston must have his own way, the Liberal Ministry must introduce a Reform Bill of some kind, moderate- or immoderate, and as every Reform Bill involves " organia change," and seeks a "theoretical perfection," the member for Caine must, when it is produced, join the Tory ranks. He cannot content himself with simply voting down every Reform Bill, for on such crucial questions as this will be parties, cannot pardon desertion, and deserters must either seek safety in the opposite camp or, like rogue elephants, wander alone, menacing in the bitterness produced by solitude all other- living things. What is there, moreover, which Mr. Lowe promises that the Tories are not willing to perform ? Truer he has on many points no intellectual sympathy with them, sneers at their affection for disabling oaths and their tendency to religious distinctions, thinks their financial ideas contempt- ible' and is probably not attracted by their Colonial policy.. But he has probably just as much sympathy with them as Lord Stanley has, and Lord Stanley contrives with his special views- to keep a seat in the Cabinet of which his father is the chief. If there is much to divide Mr. Lowe from the Tories there is. nothing to separate him from Lord Stanley, and the converts. may take up just the position npon the Conservative flank that. the Radicals hold upon the flank of the Whig& This indeed. seems to us Mr. Lowe's inevitable post, and with Mr. Lowe may go some thirty or forty more all using the same excuse —the Radicalism which they profess to discover in Mr. Glad- stone's ideas. Should such a defection take place, and it is. difficult to conceive that men. like Sir Robert Peel, Sir Sohn- Ramsden, Mr. Horsman, and some twenty more, can remain. Liberals for ever, the Parliament summoned to support a Whig Ministry will be a Tory assembly, and Lord Derby,. with no motive to dissolve, may hold power till the Liberals,. re-invigorated by opposition, and availing themselves of the public dislike sooner or later sure to attach to a Government which can obtain no literary support, can once more devise a, measure which Tories must resist, but the nation will carry through. It rests, we believe, with the county towns to avoid this- interregnum which may be disastrous in two ways, first, by postponing kr. Gladstone's advent to power till his prime is' almost passed, and secondly, by compelling the Whigs to re- gain their ascendency by courting the popular voice with too subservient a zeal. The Liberals in those towns may be right. very often in choosing moderate men, and are certainly wrong when they select men of extreme opinions, but still they should be careful to see that their candidates' moderation is not at bottom tempered by hostility either to restricted reform or to Mr. Gladstone. Better to lose one or two seats for a time than to seat men who, like Mr. Lowe, while still within the Liberal ranks, refuse to utter a word which is not already contained in the Tory creed. "Anglicans" are excellent men, but when the battle to be fought is one between Protes- tants and Ultramontanes, it is not to Anglicans that theolo,- gians specially look.
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