One hundred years ago
Lord Salisbury made a speech at the annual dinner of the Constitutional Union on Wednesday at St James's Hall, which contained something more than the old criticisms on the parti- coloured character of the Liberalism of the century (in which, by the way, he forgets the still more remarkable pat- chwork of which the Conservatism of the century is made up). He announced it as a great law that you can never de- pend on the Conservatism of the ex- tremely rich — because they have so much, that they can afford to lose a good deal without missing it. You can only depend on the Conservatism of the moderately well-to-do, the people who would lose their all if the foundations of proprietary right were in any way unset- tled. It is to those who have no margin, those to whom revolution would mean a great inroad on their habits and com- forts, that Lord Salisbury trusts implicit- ly the safety of the Constitution. As for Lord Hartington, he is too rich to care. He might lose a great deal, and still find all he wanted well within his reach. That is a very neat theory of Lord Salisbury's, but, as we have elsewhere shown, it will hardly hold water.
Spectator, 30 June 1883
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