TOPICS OF THE DA Y.
THE OPTIMIST VIEW OF THE SITUATION. .
THE leading thought which ran through Lord Randolph Churchill's vigorous speech at Whitby, and made it an important one, was, we believe, as sound as it was encouraging ; and yet it may prove misleading. Rising distinctly above most of his rivals who have commented upon the last Session of Parliament, Lord Randolph considers its proceedings as a whole, regards them, in fact, as posterity will regard them, and finds them full of hope. The nation has gone right, according to him, at the parting of the ways. The first Parlia- ment really elected by the whole people, or, at least, by five millions of voters distributed in reasonably equal districts, the first Parliament in which no class has hada preponderance, and the first in which no taint of bribery or intimidation has been discerned by grave men, has, he says, displayed a marked resolution to maintain the first principles of government, order and law. It has emancipated itself from party in order to save the State, and in a democratic age, and with a demo- cratic constituency, it has displayed as great a love of order and law as any Parliament of aristocrats or plutocrats, together ".with an infinitely greater resolution and immeasurably greater capacity to maintain them." It has decided frankly and un- mistakably in favour of strong executive government, and against lawlessness and anarchy. It has passed a Bill resisted by the whole force of all the parties opposed to firm govern- ment, and it has at the same time beaten down obstruction under circumstances most favourable to it ; for the Parnellites and Radicals, who desired the paralysis of Parliament, were sheltered by the silence, if not by the approval, of a leader whose power with the people far transcends the influence of both. All the arts of all the obstructives, displayed on every possible occa- sion and in every possible way, have availed nothing against the steady resolve of the representatives of the people ; and Parliament, instead of being weaker, is stronger than ever before. Previous Parliaments had to march over roads ; this has laid and traversed a safe road through a deep morass. This is, we do not doubt, up to a certain point a correct view. Nothing can be more misguiding than the habit which most journalists and many statesmen have adopted of considering the incidents of a Session and ignoring its broad result ; of dwelling on every petty failure, and forgetting the victory at the end ; of recounting the fate of every English ship, and almost every English officer, while silent as to the broad fact that the French fleet surrendered. The historian of the future, to whom details will be invisible, or will seem trifling, will undoubtedly record of the Parliament of 1887, with a brevity more instructive than long disquisitions, that,' in spite of much factious opposition, it vested the Government with all the powers it asked, and in spite of unprecedented obstruction, succeeded in so using new methods of procedure as to perform all the tasks it seriously desired to get through.' That will be, as Lord Randolph Churchill implies, the ultimate view, when we can see the wood as well as the trees ; and it is not only the true one, but it needs to be pressed home. We all forget too much that the broad stream of English history rolls on little affected by the persons, and less by the incidents of the hour. It is the weakness of the day to watch everything too carefully and too timidly,—to fear for the sun, in fact, because of an eclipse. The sun shines on, never- theless; and the observer who makes us see that, does good service, for he renews the mental calm without which courage is but a flush of the blood. So dissatisfied are the thoughtful with the debates in Parliament, so cowed are they with the riot raised, so anxious are they for more speed, more quiet, more palpable success, that they forget that, for all the clatter, the machine did its work, that every obstacle gave way before the steady tramping of a leader with no genius at all, and that the most popular Executive which ever existed could not have been better protected by the representatives of the people. What would not Prince Bismarck give for one year of a Reichstag which supported him as the House of Commons of 1887 supported Mr. Smith?
While, however, we respect the courage and the insight which have enabled Lord Randolph Churchill—usually no favourite of ours—to state a forgotten and most important side of the general position, we cannot acknowledge that he has covered the whole ground. What he says is true ; but there are other truths, and posterity may not be as eulogistic as the orator who SO courageously anticipates, and himself tries to utter, its verdict. Our dread is that the historian of the- future, who will never have heard of much that the daily papers deem most important, will be compelled to add many qualifications to his short and accurate statement of the main result of the Session of 1887. Will he not write that in that Session first appeared among Englishmen glimpses of the spirit which afterwards produced such disastrous results, the spirit of sympathy with resistance to the law, whether- in Parliament or out of it. Obstruction was defeated,. but it had never been sheltered by Englishmen of such reputation. The law was sufficiently strengthened, but its- impotence had never before delighted statesmen who had wielded power. The Government was even rigidly protected by its majority ; but it had never before been so furiously- denounced for performing its plainest duty. The House was- a House of the orderly, bat the disorderly were not expelled ; lawlessness was put down, but amidst the regrets of a great historic party ; and resistance to Parliament was quelled, but only after obedience had been pronounced base by men of Cabinet. rank. It was, as events have proved, of evil omen that the worst offenders were not rebuked by their electors ; and that while Members were called on to resign for their private vices, for want of money, or for tergiversa- tions, no one was even threatened with dismissal for open treason to the State. The Government had gained. strength, but reverence for the nation had decayed. The- malady of political anarchism which afterwards produced such disasters throughout Europe, though it was repressed in this Session, began to be distinctly discernible ; and when the chiefs of the Opposition deserted the police yet remained chiefs of their great party, order, though apparently so well maintained, received a wound which through a generation enfeebled the whole body of the State.' Will not those melancholy sen- tences be added by the historian to the cheerful one whicll embodies Lord Randolph Churchill's encouraging idea ? We cannot answer the question, for the ballot keeps its secret well ; the applause which follows anarchist speeches may be the mere bellowing of the noisy and the vain ; and the People, always silent, may be preparing, when the hour comes round,. for a sentence which will end dispute and once more enthrone the Law. But some of the symptoms, we confess, inspire us. with an uneasy fear. At least, those who sympathise with- lawlessness feel no dismay, but week by week scream louder their incitements to revolt. ,The newspapers which approve the gospel of anarchy preach it as if it paid. The wire-pullers indicate an attack on law as the cue which, if taken, will attract popularity, and the multitude which listens to the attack does not hoot upon the spot.
To make the victory of the Session valid, the spirit which prompted it must be that of the body of the people, and most last for a generation ; and where, in the insufferable clamour all round us, is the evidence that it will spread or last? There is no evidence to be found in silence ; and if the sentence is ultimately what we hope,—and in spite of doubts, expect—it is from the silent that it must come, for those who roar are mostly on the other side. Pessimism about England. is always wrong, for England survives all things, oven her own aberrations and her own enfeebling tolerances; but observers can but study the facts, and the most patent fact of the day is- that while the representatives of the people strengthen the laws, the people themselves seem pleased with those whose doctrine is that the first virtue of freemen, without which all others are null, is disobedience. Well, appearances often deceive, and especially those appearances which are embodied as journals. Read the newspapers of Scotland, and who would dream that the Scotch are devout believers in orthodox Christianity $' Read the newspapers of Ireland, and you would never think that Ireland, of all countries in Europe, is farthest from insur- rectionary resolves. Read the newspapers of England, and who
believe that her people, voting freely by household suffrage, had just sent up a crushing Tory majority? The unquiet of the sea does not extend ten fathoms down, and the deep waters may yet drown the hundred prophets of anarchy and misrule.
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