TOPICS OF TILE DAY.
THE NEGATIVE AND THE POSITIVE.
TVE existing paralysis, the delusive quiet, which seems to favour those who have the present conduct of public affairs, seduces them to the indulgence of an enfeebling policy. There was a " Liberal" party : it has almost lost its distinc- tive character—quite lost anything resembling unity ; since such policy as it had has been so completely reduced to a negation, that the party is a mere heterogeneous assemblage of individuals or of cliques with little to engage them in common. This result is in some degree due to the very exertions of the Liberals, which annulled the policy by satisfying it in the estimation of the most moderate. In some degree it is the effect of external circum- stances: other parties have practically become " Liberal," and the old definition fails because it is extended. In some degree it is due to the fact that the Liberals are content to waive their own opinions in order to submit to the continued guidance of tradi- tional leaders taken from the Whig families and their adherents. The bulk of the English people has a surviving veneration for rank, and a growing worship for wealth : so that it likes to em- ploy those who are high-born and wealthy. If a lord were to open' a linendraper's shop, or a Rothschild were to set up as bittcher, he would distance all competitors. Lords don't do things of that sort, but they do seek place as public servants ; and the public prefers a lord with a modicum of ability to an un- titled man with any amount. The men of ability, too, truckle to this popular prejudice. They must have aristocratic " names" in the leaderships, as charity societies think it necessary to parade aristocratic patrons. It is part of the universal humbug. The aristocracy has• its merits, actual as well as historical ; but the public, and the subordinate public servants, rest much less upon merits than upon prejudice and blind usage. To obtain such ad- vantages, real Liberals, when they are called upon to act as a party, are content to pull down their own aspirations ; they vo- luntarily lay their larger limbs on the bed of a Whig Procrustes —abate their forces like the redundantly-endowed servants of Fertunio—and are willing for the time to appear as if they were no greater Liberals than Lord This or Lord That. Thus, as soon as it comes into official action, Liberalism is reduced to its mini- mum. As Sir John Tyrell says, when the Easterna in caravan wish to prevent their strongest travellers from going too fast, they put a jack-ass in front. But an unaccustomed paralysis, even for Liberals in office, hangs over the party. Why is that? It is, that the General Election approaches. Having, in office, adopted a negative po- licy, the Whigs of course are inclined to make the most of that policy, now that the season approaches when they must do their best in the way of propitiation. Their grand object seems to be, to offend nobody. They have to propound a scheme of educa- tion, but it must not offend, It must not offend the Church— the Catechism is the sop thrown to that Cerberns. The Wes- leyan* growl : Lord Ashley—kind friend!—leaps forward and negotiates explanations; the Ministers excavate a lucky old rule against using any but the "authorized" version of the Scrip- tures ; and it is tendered as a peace-offering to the rampant Pro- testantism of the quasi-Establishment. The Catholics are hurt : Lord John promises " consideration "; nobody saying anything fierce against the Catholics, Sir George Grey admits the " hard- ship "; ingenuous Lord Morpetla hears his cousin• of Arundel with "'emotion " : all is kind feeling towards the Catholics. Sir George Grey even "does the polite" to the Dissenters; Mr. Macaulay flatters Mr. Edward Baines with distinguished notice. These amenities have the happiest effects : Lord Arundel and Surrey is coaxed into acquiescence ; Sir Robert Inglis is posi- tively " thankful " ; Mr. Charles Hindley is soothed. Again, sanatory reform is on the to is, and all England is to be depurated. The City of London deprecates the process as peevishly as a charity boy whose face is to be washed : Lord John Russell, Member for the City, yields ; and London is ex- empted from the operation of the purifying measure. The electioneering people of the City destine a Rothschild to be colleague to Lord John : in order to that, Lord John must remove the impossible oath which bars the entrance of Jews into Parlia- ment—always excepting the Hebrew-Caucasians who are rene- gades to their native creed : but to concede something for the Jews might provoke the Protestantism aforesaid, so Lord John will not do it at present." Parliament was called on to deliberate upon the Short-time ques- tion ; and, to please all sides, Ministers furnished out of their own
body zealous advocates of all sides ; collectively making a stand•with none. Mr. Watson introduces his Roman Catholic Relief Bill—any bodymay introduce any bill with so polite a Cabinet; but Mr. Watson is not helped through with it—nobody is helped through with anything that may displease anybody. The Min- isters have so far succeeded that they will come before the country as a very inoffensive Cabinet.
Their chances of success—such success as is recorded in elec- tion-agents' books—are considerable. They will have the suffrage of many sides, The Times pets them—a "great fact" ; the Lead- ing Journal allows them to be. The Morning Chronicle has be- come the mourning chronicle, with grief at Whig backslidings : but it cannot give up its Whigs ; and at the election-time, if we do not mistake, it will duly record the " triumph " which it will share in the success of the party that it now condemns. The Standard is a decided advocate of Lord John, to "keep out the Peelites" : " to such base uses may we come at last, Horatio." The Whigs are in office ; possession of power being nine points to its renewal. There is no question to stir the public mind, very formidably, except this education scheme : even of that the opponents are in course of being bowed out of their rancours ; and although we scout the idea of Ministerial corruption by means of school-pensions, yet there can be no doubt that the poorer classes will look with some favour upon a Ministry that has thrown open a whole class of patronage to the humble. The Whig chances of success at the election, therefore, we reckon to be considerable. But it will be an Irish success—a success, we fear, more damaging to them as a party than any failure could be. This prospect we regret. No one wishes the Whigs out of office, Still less out of the field. Certainly we do not—yet. But the fact seems to be so. Present success as a re- sult of the negative policy which is sapping the internal strength of the Whigs, destroying all expectation of further use in their activity, begetting a notion that the Whig vitality is extinct, is only the facile descensus to irretrievable perdition. The Whip are ceasing to be disliked or feared, or looked at with awe or doubt, by any party or the holders of any policy. They are ceasing to look like an obstacle to any policy. If they succeed at the election, it will be on that showing. Such success would be sentence of "everlasting redemption" in the Dogberry sense. Supposing that Ministers had resolved on a positive policy on all the points within their sphere of action, their chance of pre- sent victory would be more precarious ; there would be more con- test. But would they lose in real strength, or in prospect of future victories ?
If you turn your regard from the immediate questions of the day, and survey the general character of Ministerial policies for' the last ten years, you will observe a remarkable alteration. The Whig Cabinet had attained the full maturity of its negative policy in 1841, and went out of office, not because it was then doing wrong, but because it had been doing nothing. Its policy had grown to be negative, self-neutralizing, passive. From 1841 to 1846 was a period of action, not violent nor rapid, but still action ; a period of positive policy. In 1846• there came a change, not of opinions, but of men : the official maxims remain nearly the same ; but the policy is again negative instead of positive. The Whigs are safe for the present, because there is nothing-- except in Ireland—that presses instantly to be done; and they have shown that they are suited for a period of such character. In establishing that conviction, they have established its converse. When great things are to be done, public opinion will look else- where. They succeed best in failure.
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