TOPICS OF THE DAY.
MR. MORLEY AT CAMBRIDGE.
MR. MORLEY has been the first Liberal of Cabinet rank to break the silence of the Recess, and his speech will have been read by thousands eager to discern in it a cue for the coming political campaign. They want something to talk about to which electors will respond. They will, we fear, be greatly disappointed. Mr. Morley always speaks well, though in his oratory he condescends sometimes to "purple patches," which do not deface the pellucid style of his best writings ; and he spoke well at Cambridge, but the substance of his address was very thin. It consisted of a rather interesting criticism, some vague promises to the country voters, and a statement that no promises could be kept until the Irish difficulty had been moved out of the way by the concession of Home- rule. The criticism refers to Lord Salisbury's foreign policy. That policy, Mr. Morley says, is assumed to be good—it was pronounced good by no less a person than Mr. Gladstone himself—but it is really bad, for two serious reasons. Lord Salisbury has remained in Egypt, thereby making England " vulnerable ;" and Lord Salisbury has swayed towards the Triple Alliance, thereby evoking counter alliances which will in the end endanger the peace not only of the world, but of Great Britain. That is perfectly justifiable criticism, but it will not, we think, be regarded in this country as persuasive. To say the occupation of Egypt makes England vulnerable, is only to say that the occupation is a great undertaking, for every great undertaking increases vulnerability. If England had no great possessions or occupations or duties to perform, but were living within herself upon her accumulated resources, England would be no doubt almost invulnerable, or might readily be so made ; but then, that is not the part which Providence or history or the national instinct will permit her to play. She is always for non-intervention until she wants to inter- vene, and then she always intervenes. The argument from increased responsibility is no proof that this par- ticular undertaking is unwise ; and still less that Lord Salisbury is unwise, for he is only carrying on a policy devised and commenced by the Liberal Cabinet. It was not he, but Mr. Gladstone, who occupied Egypt ; and it is a little hard that, because he persists in believing Mr. Gladstone's policy well inspired, Mr. Gladstone's lieu- tenants should taunt him with making England vulnerable. The public will see that quite as well as we do, and will say that, wise or unwise, the occupation of Egypt was sanctioned by the nation, and not by either of its political parties. The second charge is, in a way, as reasonable as the first, and far graver. It is quite an arguable point that the Triple Alliance, by throttling France, drives France into alliances dangerous to Europe and dangerous to Great Britain ; but then, Lord Salisbury did not make the Triple Alliance, and it is not arguable that, when it was once made, if he had swayed to the side of France, or had shown fear of France by prematurely evacuating Egypt, France would have kept the peace. France, so encouraged, would have gone to war, knowing perfectly well that the war once begun, the Russian Emperor would have been forced by Russian opinion to seize his opportunity, and that with Russia assisting and England friendly, her chance had at last arrived. It is peace which is the interest of this country, and peace which is Lord Salisbury's object ; and the condition of peace is that France shall remain quiet, which she will only do so long as she sees that the next war will be a war with unlimited liability. It is not a depressed Power with which we are dealing, but a Power exhilarated almost to the point of seeking mad adventures ; and to encourage her by our friendship is to make war a certainty in the immediate future. Mr. Morley's criticism on foreign policy will not catch the people, and though his vague promises may have more effect, they ought to excite no enthusiasm. They are all resolvable into one. He does not give a hint of what his Party will do in regard to the general Labour question, unless it is to be found in the statement that much discussion will dissipate many of the workmen's glowing dreams, especially with regard to the Eight Hours' Bill, to which he himself is frankly hostile, calling it a "ramrod thrust into the delicate machinery of British industry;" but he does more or less clearly promise small country municipalities. Those, be wake, if they manage the charities and allotments and common lands, and can ex- propriate land for public objects, " will render village life less dull, less dreary," and " kindle some kind of public interest," as has been done in the towns. All that may be- very true, though continental country life, with Communes everywhere, is still very " dull " and "dreary," in Mr. Morley's sense, and the life of the American township, with its perfected municipality, is so dreary as to impress on the American people patience as a physical characteristic ; but then, who is resisting these municipalities ? Tories may dis- like them, as unfavourable to government by the gentry; and Unionists may doubt them, as likely to prove unrealities; but both admit them to be logical consequences of the democratic idea, and are ready to establish them to-morrow. All they want is the time and a Session like the last, in which Irish- men ceased to trouble and Parnell was at rest. Is it. perhaps in Mr. Balfour, who is risking popularity with his party in order to set up country municipalities in Ireland before Irishmen are ready for them, that Mr. Morley dis- covers their great opponent ? He is promising nothing but a change which is certain to be adopted, and which,. therefore, like Free Education, cannot be made an effective party cry, except by promising that it shall involve great transfers of property ; and this Mr. Morley is too sensible, as well as, probably, too honest, to do. There is nothing in District Councils to set the prairie on fire, or even to furnish that kind of cry which party managers like, because everybody can understand and feel that, if he supports it he is distinctively a Liberal.
There is little attraction in such promises, even if they were to be carried out after a successful elec- tion ; and Mr. Morley distinctly intimates that this will not be the case. The glowing vision of the people controlling charities, and dividing allotments, and talking in council without stint, is not to be realised, says the speaker, until the Irish problem has been finally resolved. He repudiates with energy the libel that Home-rule is. to be relegated to a subordinate position in the Glad- stonian programme. " It is idle for us to start forth on our voyage of social reform in Great Britain so long as the deck of the ship of State is cumbered and loaded with the Irish Question." That must be settled, if the Glad- stonians come into power, before so much as a vestry can. be established, or a charity remodelled, or a field parcelled out into parochial allotments. We have no intention of questioning that this dreary statement is correct, for Mr. Gladstone is still possessed by his Home-rule idea, and his party, if it refused to follow his lead, would be dissipated into sand ; but what kind of a prospect is it to attract electors? They are to return a new Government in order that they may wait for all the things they want. Even Mr. Morley does not affirm that they are desirous of Home- rule for its own sake, or that they will be happier when they have it, or that they care for it so much as to care to hear what kind of Home-rule it is to be. He only pleads that it is in the way, and that they can have nothing till it- is out of the way. That is to say, they can have nothing- for seven years. The kind of Home-rule which would clear Parliament of Irish debates—and that Mr. Morley puts forward as his ideal of Home-rule—will take at least two- Parliaments to pass, even if the House of Lords has not to be abolished as an episode in the debate. And it is only after- that interval that social questions can be so much as fully discussed, far leas reduced to the form of experimental Bills. The English people must be very much changed, if they are content with such a prospect, or if they will for such a promise hastily throw aside a Government which has, at all events, shown in the matter of Free Education that the- Irish Question does not prevent it from carrying measures. really desired by the people in a large and even an imperious way. If the Gladstonians cannot do better than this, they will have to wait for some new incident before they recover from the depression into which the events of the Session have thrown them, and which is not to be fully removed even by by-elections. No human being, not even Mr. Gladstone himself, can awaken enthusiasm by showing a picture of Ireland as a mud-cart blocking up the road.
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