THE LONDON ELECTIONS.
THE extreme annoyance manifested by the Radicals of London at their defeat in the election of Parish Councillors, is both natural and intelligible. They thought thoy were about to seize a new weapon, and it cut them in the seizing. They knew that London, as the Imperial city, was more or less Conservative ; but they thought that all the poorer citizens in London and everywhere else were on the whole Radical, and that if they could be tempted to seize the Parish Councils, and the Boards of Guardians, they might next year retain the control of the County Council, and thus create an impression that the sowing tide was with the Radicals, which would materially affect the Parliamentary elections. We do not suppose that either Moderates or Progressives cared much about the elections in themselves, or expected. that either party would do anything very wonderful or offensive in the way of municipal changes; but the latter wanted to create an impression that they had a majority. They failed to create it. Deceived, we imagine, by the result of the School Board election, in which the school- teachers, who know everybody, were very active, they were confident of victory ; and when the returns showed that they were totally defeated, they lost heart to a degree which we hardly remember in the history of the party. Their city cry, "Municipal Reform," had failed them as completely as their political cry, "Down with the House of Lords Nobody cared particularly for Pro- gressive promises, which were after all indefinite, or for Progressive candidates, who are naturally less known than their opponents ; and whenever the citizens are indifferent, Moderates are pretty sure to win. It is worth their while to fight for their property. they are vaguely alarmed as to the incidence of municipal taxation, which goes up, if not by leaps and bounds, at least with menacing steadiness, and they vote, and per- suade the best of the workmen to vote too. The latter dislike expenditure, they are not so fond of the unem- ployed as it is the fashion to believe, and they hold Socialists in an abhorrence dictated by their clear percep- tion that if that system of thought were to win, the good and industrious workmen would have to maintain the bad and the lazy ones. It is from the aristocracy of workmen and from the small tradesmen that the Moderates of London draw their regiments of voters, and till the true " mass" is a little excited, there is little chance that the Progressives will in parochial affairs be placed for any length of time in power. Of course, if a parish in which Progressives have won completely, should do anything not done before, which attracted favourable attention, that would greatly strengthen the party ; but it is difficult to think of anything which could be done without a large expenditure, and proposals for large ex- penditure naturally swell the Moderate voting strength. They are not anxious to be taxed, even if they approve the object of expenditure, and are quite willing to vote, if only that there may be Councillors to " check " a party to which, in the eyes of every Moderate, the grand objection ie its liability to be carried away. There can be no doubt, we fancy, that one parish does check another by its example, ;hough it would be better if the cheek were always administered within the Councils themselves. A Vestry full only of Moderates or Progres- sives, will not do executive work a bit better for its unanimity ; indeed, it may do it worse, owing to immunity from criticism; while for debating purposes it will be in a. worse position than the House of Lords. At least, dull- ness and inefficiency should be the result of a unanimous election, though we dare say in practice the "unanimous" Vestries or Boards of Guardians will split into rather fiercely contesting parties. Mr. Lowell thought that Jonah in the whale must necessarily have been unani- MOUS ; but if Jonah had been an Englishman he would have played mental Patience with himself, and fumed and fretted as his adversary won.
On the whole, then, we consider the eleations of Saturday and Monday tolerably satisfactory. We should have liked a heavier poll, and much greater definiteness as to the objects of each party ; but the viewy people have had a check from the electors, and the sensible people have gone up to the poll in numbers sufficient, at all events, to eompel their adversaries to consider themselves. The eounly Council will be alarmed, which is a good thing for its soberness ; and the Cabinet will be more doubtful whether great Municipal Bills will add to their popu- larity; while they will, it is admitted on all hands, be this year sadly in the way. To abolish the City, and equalise the rates of London, and change the method of electing Councils, is a string of proposals which would almost fill up a Session, and all these things are to come after a Resolution against the Lords, a Bill for Dis- establishing the Church in Wales, and a Registration Bill which is to add two millions to the list of voters. The vote of Saturday gets Government and the country out of that scrape, and so far as we can see will have only one ill consequence. It is sure to increase the readiness of Unionists when they come into power to split London into a dozen or so boroughs, united by a federal tie only for plans of intercommunication. Mr. Chamberlain has already proposed that, and he will now argue with great apparent force, that the electors of the Vestries choose better men on the whole than the electors of the County Council. We are unable to agree to that view, believing that the hope for the future good government of London consists in the visible importance of the task to be performed. All experi- ence shows that in England the best men will not engage in municipal work unless it is either very important, or is dignified by the long tradition of the borough, and except in the two cases of the City and Westminster, these con- ditions are in London wholly wanting. The eleven Munici- pal Councils will be at once large, rich, and invisible; and jobbing, we fear, might rise to a great height. The differ- ence in the wealth of the boroughs, moreover, will be so pre- posterous, that they will either hate one another, or the poor boroughs will insist that they shall be maintained out of alms extracted from their wealthier neighbours. We had much rather improve the present centralised system by making its executive officers more directly responsible, making them Cabinet Ministers in fact ; and the fear that the present victory of the Moderates may interrupt that plan or cause its abandonment, rather diminishes our satisfaction with the result of the election, which we should describe as a victory of the sensible, rather than of the Conservative class.
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