The licensed victuallers are citizens, like others, and have as
an shows in relation to the Liverpool election in another column, is But to leave the rather small persuaded that the Government are to be commended for in London has been more thoroughly polled than on any is that previous occasion, and that the result of that poll having brought us through these dangerous crises as, a couple the Conservative candidate months ago, they were disposed to regret that they had which they appealed. Each of them depended on the efforts of danger or of escape, they collapse or they hurrah. Just of his friends within the constituency, and though Mr. Clarke, now the sense of peril is over, and the sense of irritation a barrister with practice, turned out a first-rate speaker for against those who have urged the peril on them, and tried to the canvass, and Mr. Dunn a very poor one, if he could be Persuade them that they were risking much for a radically called a speaker at all, we doubt whether even that could have unjust and unrighteous attempt, has taken its place. And the turned the day. The result was that the nominee of the Tories vote of Southwark records the result. polled more votes than his two rivals received when added We are far, however, from taking the Southwark election as together. Southwark preferred a Tory because he was a Tory, typical of the feeling of u'rban constituencies in the country at and as far as we have any right to say, for no other reason large, still less as a sign of the coming events of a general whatever. election. Undoubtedly, the principles which govern a general No doubt the adherence of the Licensed Victuallers to the election and those which govern bye-elections appear to Tories is an important fact. But it is important, we suspect, be very different. The constituencies which at four bye- chiefly because it shows that the London tavern-keepers think elections gave a vote adverse to Mr. Gladstone in 1873, the public opinion out-of-doors is still rather Tory than Liberal. sent up Liberals at the general election of 1874. And It is all very well to speak of Mr. Bruce's restrictions on the besides this, the feeling of the North is very different liquor trade as the explanation of the feud between the Liberals from the feeling of the South, nor are there any urban consti- and the innkeepers. Doubtless it did explain the quarrel. But tueneies which are so little penetrated with the hardy Liberal- it cannot explain the continuance of the quarrel up to the ism of true principle, as the constituencies of the metropolis. present day. Innkeepers, like other people, have a shrewd For one reason, there is no place in England except London eye for their interests. And it is for their interest to support where the organisation of what is called " pleasure " is so corn- the party which has the more excitable and exciting plete, and where the influence of pleasure-seekers weighs not public opinion of the day on its side. In old times, the much less than, even if it does not weigh even more than, the Liberals always had a great majority of the votes at influence of those who are rather disposed to carry their most the hustings, and so the tavern-keepers and licensed vie- serious convictions into their pleasure, than to carry their im- tuallers leaned to the Liberals. It was the Liberal cause which pulses as pleasure-seekers into the world of their graver coa- led to the most explosive expression of public opinion. It was victions. It is unfortunate, but it is true, that the boroughs of the Liberal cause which gave birth to the largest number of the metropolis have less coherent political character of their toasts, to the most fervent eloquence, to the best vivacity, not own than any boroughs in the kingdom. Marylebone, for in- to say joviality ; and so the innkeepers threw up their hats stance, and the Tower Hamlets and Greenwich return each a for the Liberals. Now all that is changed. The party which Liberal and a Conservative, to cancel each other's influence ; calls itself the patriotic party, which certainly is the noisiest the City, Westminster, and Southwark return Liberals at one party, and notoriously expresses the most exciting feeling, election, and Conservatives at another. Nowhere do you find is the Tory party. The Tories have hoisted the Jingo flag, anything like the coherent political course of Birmingham, and the Jingoes, as they are in favour of the shedding of blood, or Liverpool, or Manchester, or Leeds, or Bristol. Indeed, are, of course, also in favour of wine and wassail. No wonder in the Metropolitan boroughs it is less a corporate opinion, that the tavern-keepers thank their stars that they broke in than a huge mass of unsifted private opinion, which we find. time with the party of "earnestness," and early allied them- And there is always something lower about these great aggre- selves by a happy chance with the modern equivalent for gates of private opinion, than about any opinion which has Cavaliers. They are not now likely to go back from been accustomed to ventilate itself under specific leaders, who the combination into which an almost accidental stroke of confront each other before the same political audience. Lon- policy forced them. They see that if they have a per- don, as it is, will never lead opinion in the United Kingdom. manent interest at all, their interest is to support the ideas of And this is the only legitimate consolation that we can offer in the Pall Mall Gazette. We do not mean of course, that the relation to the great Southwark defeat. That defeat is most licensed victuallers, as a class, would think, more than any discouraging for the general prospects of the Liberals, so far other class of respectable English tradesmen, of supporting the as it goes. But it does not go very far. It does not go "gunpowder-and-glory business," solely and expressly because nearly so far as the Liberal success in Sheffield, the successes it is so noisy and so thirsty. But when two great parties are in the municipal elections, or the magnificent demonstration in divided as to the merits of a half-understood policy, when there Scotland go in the other direction. It will be uphill work to THE FAILURE AT SOUTHWARK. is but little time and little opportunity for learning what the THERE is no denying the evil omen of the Southwark precise merits of the controversy are, and respectable reasons election. There, at least, it is iinpossible to assert that the can be quoted for either side of it, of course any great interest gravitates, almost without knowing it, disgust with the Home-rule cry had any evil effect on the elec- tion. So far as is known, the Home-rulers gave their votes for to that side of the question which leads to the greater Mr. Shipton, the labour candidate, while the English Catholics, activity of its own energies. And no one can deny who are strong in Southwark, voted in a body with the Conserve- that the worship of the English Flag, the declamations tive, and not with the Liberal candidate. So, certainly, did the against the great adversary of England, the praise of our licensed victuallers ; but it is very childish and very futile troops, whatever they do and whatever they fail to do, and work "accounting" for defeats by explaining that this and that the rant against Mr. Gladstone and his policy as a new kind of political Puritanism, do promote toast-drinking and joviality influence was one of the elements which caused the defeat. a great deal more than any attempt to keep down the natural good a right as others to their own view. To show that their arrogance of British instincts within the bounds of common view is now Tory, where it used to be Liberal, as a correspondent sense and common justice. question as to the side taken by the Licensed Victuallers, it is clear enough that the policy no doubt something gained, as it is also something gained to which has got the nickname of the " Jingo policy " is adopted show that the Catholics vote for the Tory candidate, and the and orthodox Dissenters for the Liberal. All these facts throw a by a multitude which it is extremely. easy both to elate certain amount of light on the constituents of the newer public to depress. There can hardly be a doubt that if a general opinion, and its affinities with the various physical and moral election had been held just after the massacre of September, or influences of the day. But that is the only direction in which lust after the critical moment when General Roberts was in so these victorious demonstrations that it was " beer," or " the critical a position in December, the " gunpowder-and-glory-busi- Irish vote," or whatever it may have been, which carried the ness " would have been at a great discount. That business is election, are of any use. We know somewhat better where the dependent for its prosperity on the good-spirits of a rather weak point of the Liberal party is and where its strong point ignorant mass, who are as easily cowed as they are easily ex- is ; but the weak point is no weaker, and the strong point no cited. With the return of General Roberts's ascendancy in stronger, for that. It remains true that a constituency Afghanistan, and the success of Sir Garnet Wolseley in South which till quite recently was one of the most Radical Africa, they have taken heart again, and are now as much persuaded that the Government are to be commended for in London has been more thoroughly polled than on any previous occasion, and that the result of that poll having brought us through these dangerous crises as, a couple the Conservative candidate months ago, they were disposed to regret that they had te carried the day,—and would have th carried the day, even if the so-called Labour candidate had not ever encouraged enterprises from which nothing but disaster seemed to have been reaped. The whole policy of the made his futile effort at all. Neither Mr. Clarke nor Mr.
Dunn was a particularly distinguished candidate. Neither of Government is to them like the course of a melodrama, and according as for the moment they see the imminence them was known beyond the limits of the constituency k) which they appealed. Each of them depended on the efforts of danger or of escape, they collapse or they hurrah. Just of his friends within the constituency, and though Mr. Clarke, now the sense of peril is over, and the sense of irritation a barrister with practice, turned out a first-rate speaker for against those who have urged the peril on them, and tried to the canvass, and Mr. Dunn a very poor one, if he could be Persuade them that they were risking much for a radically called a speaker at all, we doubt whether even that could have unjust and unrighteous attempt, has taken its place. And the turned the day. The result was that the nominee of the Tories vote of Southwark records the result. polled more votes than his two rivals received when added We are far, however, from taking the Southwark election as together. Southwark preferred a Tory because he was a Tory, typical of the feeling of u'rban constituencies in the country at and as far as we have any right to say, for no other reason large, still less as a sign of the coming events of a general whatever. election. Undoubtedly, the principles which govern a general No doubt the adherence of the Licensed Victuallers to the election and those which govern bye-elections appear to Tories is an important fact. But it is important, we suspect, be very different. The constituencies which at four bye- chiefly because it shows that the London tavern-keepers think elections gave a vote adverse to Mr. Gladstone in 1873, the public opinion out-of-doors is still rather Tory than Liberal. sent up Liberals at the general election of 1874. And It is all very well to speak of Mr. Bruce's restrictions on the besides this, the feeling of the North is very different liquor trade as the explanation of the feud between the Liberals from the feeling of the South, nor are there any urban consti- and the innkeepers. Doubtless it did explain the quarrel. But tueneies which are so little penetrated with the hardy Liberal- it cannot explain the continuance of the quarrel up to the ism of true principle, as the constituencies of the metropolis. present day. Innkeepers, like other people, have a shrewd For one reason, there is no place in England except London eye for their interests. And it is for their interest to support where the organisation of what is called " pleasure " is so corn- the party which has the more excitable and exciting plete, and where the influence of pleasure-seekers weighs not public opinion of the day on its side. In old times, the much less than, even if it does not weigh even more than, the Liberals always had a great majority of the votes at influence of those who are rather disposed to carry their most the hustings, and so the tavern-keepers and licensed vie- serious convictions into their pleasure, than to carry their im- tuallers leaned to the Liberals. It was the Liberal cause which pulses as pleasure-seekers into the world of their graver coa- led to the most explosive expression of public opinion. It was victions. It is unfortunate, but it is true, that the boroughs of exorcise the Jingo demon, but it is still within our power, and a work more than ever incumbent on us to prosecute as strenuously as we may.
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