TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE PARTY MEETING.
THE faint disappointment among Radicals created by Mr. Gladstone's speech to the party meeting on Tuesday—a disappointment accurately reflected in the Pall Mall Gazette— will, we feel confident, disappear after more consideration. So great is the expectation which Mr. Gladstone always excites, that when it was known he was about to address his party, an impression spread abroad that he had some heroic, or unusual, or even navel course to suggest, whereby the delays of legisla- tion would be peremptorily suppressed. There was little reason, except impatience, for that supposition. The Premier, it should not be so often forgotten, is something more than a great orator, or even a great statesman and leader in reforms. He is the most experienced of living Parlia- mentary chiefs, he knows the interior history of the House of Commons during half a century, and he has in a very curious degree, considering his temperament with its perferviclum ingenium, confidence in that slow and cumbrous, but unresting machine, Parliamentary Government. He recognises, as he frankly admitted, that it is never safe to threaten the House of Commons ; that it is far better to put up with its occa- sional aberrations, and that more work can be got out of it by gentle, steady pressure, than by any heroic device. He therefore informed his followers that the Government had decided to reduce the work to clearly practicable dimensions, and then to ask their special help in carrying it forward. Of the three political Bills in hand—the Tenants' Bill, the Corrupt Practices Bill, and the Bill for the Government of London — they would abandon only the last, and press. forward the other two with their whole energy. The Tenants Bill interested the whole country, and the Corrupt Practices Bill was " indispensable," a phrase received by the meeting with enthusiasm. They would also press on all Bills referred to the Grand Committees which those Committees might send up, a phrase which, it is well understood, is in- tended to exclude the Criminal Code Bill, which will not escape in time, and reduces the list to the Bankruptcy Bill, the Patent Bill, and the Bill allowing criminal Appeals. Even these Bills, said Mr. Gladstone, would demand exertion, for it might be necessary that the House should " deal with " an attempt to rediscuss them or their details all over again.
This programme is not extensive and not exciting to the imagination, but it was received by all sections of the party, except the Extreme Left, with strong approval, and it has on the face of it two considerable advantages. It is practicable, and it is usual. The House, if it will only attend and moderate its desire for irregular discussion, can pass those five Bills, and can pass them without assenting to any novel or heroic device. This latter was, in truth, not feasible. A great many public meetings have proposed that Parliament should sit till Christmas, but the proposal, besides disgusting all Members who want to see the trees and the grass before winter, would have been utterly sterile. The Lords would have adjourned at their usual time, and the Government, after irritating the Cemmons, would have found itself with a sheaf of perfected Bills, but no laws, left upon its hands. The Lords could not be punished for a moderate adjournment, for half the country would consider the demand apon them unreasonable and imperious. Moreover, Ministers themselves are vertebrate animals, and continuous sittings through the entire year exhaust their strength too much. England chooses, not unwisely in quiet times, to be governed by old and middle-aged men, and her Ministers are worked already much more closely than is good either for them or for the public business. A Minister has to do all that the permanent Head of a Department has to do and all that the busiest Member of Parliament has to do, and to receive deputations, confer with colleagues, and keep himself informed as to the general movement of politics besides ; and to deprive him of his only. chance of a holiday and of quiet thought over his administrative work, is to destroy his usefulness, as well as endanger his health. That proposal was inadmissible, and so also for the time was the alternative one, to take away the Private Members' nights. Private Members sometimes waste their nights abominably, and are often counted out ; but they are jealous of their privilege, and will not surrender it willingly, except in the last resort. Mr. Gladstone, like any other Premier, wishes to conciliate, not to fret them ; and he accordingly proposed only to ask for morning sittings on Tuesdays and Fridays, and then, with those extra ten hours at his disposal, to press
forward the very moderate list of Bills mentioned above.. Heavier measures being out of the question, that was the judicious course, and as such we believe it will, on one condi- tion, be welcomed by the country. The condition is, of course, that, as the Session is to be one of light work, the work re- maining shall be actually done, that no further delays be per- mitted, and that no Bill of the list shall be left over to be considered again from the beginning.
This will be comparatively easy, for there is one advantage• to be derived from the great moderation of the course adopted' which hai hardly been sufficiently perceived. The Govern- ment stands in an excellent position towards Obstruction. It is by no means certain that the Tory leaders mean to permit any work whatever to be done this Session. They would be very glad to load the next with prearranged work, and they have discovered how to do it without appearing to resort to un-Parliamentary devices. They have only to hint to their followers, as Sir Stafford Northcote did on Tuesday, at the meeting of his own party, that the measures of this Govern- ment ought to be "criticised with jealousy," and they will take- care so to consume the time with " criticism " that nothing shall actually be accomplished. They can, as they do, debate on Supply to an unprecedented extent ; they can, as they do, with the help of their Irish allies, extend the right of in- terpellation till it becomes almost the only one remaining, and Parliament is compelled to listen to inquiries which a decent clerk in the Department could answer much more satisfactorily; and they can, and they do, foster every irregular debate raised, no matter upon what subject. Through these devices and " jealous criticism" they hope to wear out the Session, and then to accuse the Government of weakness in passing none of its Bills. Those tactics, however, have now to be very care- fully pursued. Had Mr. Gladstone threatened to sit tilt Christmas, the Obstructives might have said that there was- time for everything, even for their vapidities. Had he asked for Private Members' nights, they might have pleaded that all time being absorbed, they must take some of it for their grievances• and their " irregular but most important" discussions. Had he- pressed the London Bill, they might have argued that it was important enough of itself to occupy a whole Session, and was brought in too late. And had be insisted on the full programme, they might have defended themselves by pleading that the Government had overloaded the House, and had asked for so much, that the alternatives were a barren Session or the passing of a quantity of laws undiscussed. As it is, they must either pass or reject the Bills proposed, or stand confessed before the country as men who are unwilling that legislation should go on. They will be reluctant, with the shadow of a Dissolution slowly ascending the political horizon, to run that risk of displeasing their constituents, and the Government Bills may receive an unexpected amount of fair-play. Whether, even if they do, they will get through depends, of course, upon the action of the majority, which recently has been get- ting a little out of hand. Mr. Gladstone, however, has done his utmost to reduce them to discipline without tyranny, and the Constituencies, seeing that, are sure to second his efforts. The electors cannot prevent obstruction, especi- ally as the great obstructivea sit for trumpery villages, as in- capable of political foresight as of political interest, but they can make their representatives very sedulous in urging forward work. The election cannot be very far off, and for a year before an election the remonstrances of watchful local Com- mittees are received with considerable respect, even by Members who would not be sorry if legislation stopped.
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